IMAGINE THE RAGE

The Transformational Agenda Magazine 26th Edition

IMAGINE THE RAGE

Can you imagine how much rage a slave had stuffed inside? You couldn’t even scowl at the source of your rage if it were a white person. Imagine walking around all day trying not to make white people mad, while fearing that a loved one might be pulled from your arms and be abused or mutilated before your very ears and eyes. This was the situation all day, every day. 

Can you put yourself there today and feel that hot emotion, just ready to boil over? Then someone ignites the fire inside you by “stepping on your blue suede shoes,” so to speak. (Those lyrics might be your “Black Men’s Nike LeBron Soldier 15 Basketball Shoes” today.) In any event, the attack is on. That killer rage has to be released at some point, does it not? You can’t release it on who’s causing you the rage, but you can on someone who looks like you. During slavery, master probably found it entertaining as long as you didn’t seriously maim or kill your fellow slave.

I remember when rage, set loose in the African American community, meant you got beat up bad. I remember when rings were introduced that would cut your brother or sister every time you delivered a blow. Yes, sisters did this, too, sometimes after taking out their earrings, greasing their face, and kicking off their shoes. I remember when weaponry was upgraded to razors and switchblades. Today, you just get shot, maybe in a crossfire that has nothing to do with you. 

From way back in our past, there has always been a good probability you could get away with brutalizing someone just like you, but just not a white person, not any white person. So, almost always, we’ve released our rage only to brutalize each other.

I need to pause and say, of course, I realize all our people don’t suffer from all this stuff; so, don’t you dare choose to allow these realities to embarrass you. We just need to help each other heal from the “hell on earth” called slavery.

I think of us as one people, and sometimes I love us all so much that I think of us as one person—that whatever negatively affects one negatively affects us all—that whatever heals one helps to heal us all. After all, we were all put into the position of harm called slavery together, so why can’t we all love one another while we rise from it—together?

The Transformational Agenda Magazine 26th Edition

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