In 1982 comedian Richard Pryor explained why he was dropping the word “Nigger” from his act. It was due to an out of body experience he had while visiting Africa. He said that while in a hotel lobby and watching the scene of black Africans going about their routines he heard a voice ask, “Richard, do you see any Niggers?”
Pryor responded in his head, “No.”
The voice responded “Because there aren’t any.”
He went on to explain that he only saw beautiful people created in the image of their Maker (my interpretation of his words in the bold).
Years later a pallid Puerto Rican/Cuban man named Joseph Cartegena aka Fat Joe made millions by calling black people Niggers and calling it art. This month he hosted an awards show on Black Entertainment Television. He said he had been “waiting for a moment like this” for his entire life (I bet). He was routinely cheered by the American blacks (or Niggers in Joe’s telling) present in the ballroom.
In 1982 Stevie Wonder released a song titled, That Girl. It was not one of his monster hits but it made the Billboard Top 50.
That girl thinks that she’s so bad
She’ll change my tears to joy from sad
She says she keeps the upper hand
‘Cause she can please her man
She doesn’t use love to make him weak
She uses love to keep him strong
And inside me there’s no room for doubt
That it won’t be too long
Before I tell her that I love her
In 2022 a homosexual rapper named Lil Nas X released a music video in which he was sodomized by Satan. I’ll leave the lyrics for you to find. No way will they darken my digitized pages.
What I’ve illustrated in those two juxtaposed examples is just one facet (entertainment) of a peoples’ forty year wandering from the Promised Land to the wilderness. American blacks entered an integrated society and found we were not culturally competent enough to maintain our collective integrity.
We lost our minds. Not all of us (certainly not yours truly) but enough of us did for it be extremely conspicuous.
What happened? Well, that is a long, long story that I would have to begin sometime in 1865 - if not before - but no one has time for that. I’ll give you the quickest and broadest version I can before moving on to how to rebuild a culturally competent people from the ruins of our public nervous breakdown.
THE ROSETTA STONE OF AMERICAN RACE RELATIONS
There is one necessary thing you need to know about American blacks. It is primary because it is the key fact that explains everything about us. I’m excited to share it with you but I’m nervous as well. That is why I am hesitating behind this meaningless sentence.
Are you ready? Here it is:
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