Kweku’s Korner
By Dr. Kweku Akyirefi Amoasi
Kweku Akyirefi Amoasi, formerly known as Ramel Smith
What does it mean to be Black in America? There is no one way to be “Black” because this group of people, which is defined as “Black,” is not monolithic. The beauty and vast differences in the “Black” race are just as diverse as the beautiful spectrum of colors from Halle Berry Redbone to Shaka Zulu Chocolate. We often joke about this Black Card, which validates your true membership into the club and ensures your invitation to the family cookout. This fictitious card really symbolizes if you understand the smiles and the struggle of the culture.
In times of antiquity, regardless of your station or class, sadly all Black people were subject to the same horrors and torments. For example, your education, fame, income, or military status didn’t shield you from the mob who were determined to assault, rape, or lynch you at any given time. There was equal opportunity for all negroes and Blacks. Except for the Sambos and Stephens of the world.
This is really the origin of the Black Card. The Black card helped the community determine was you one of US or were you with them. The reason this information is not widely known is because it is not widely taught in the school system. American history classes have a way of eliminating, ignoring or whitewashing history. Most history classes will glance over the periods of slavery and Jim Crow or neglect to discuss it in its truest and ugliest forms.
These systems want to remove Critical Race Theory (CRT) from the curriculum because they have been deceived to believe it is a study that promulgates hate, rather than a discipline that is taught during law school to discuss the historical evidence of centuries of systemic racism. For example, in graduate school, I was taught that children of the diaspora were involuntary immigrants. I thought, how convenient they change the term slaves to involuntary immigrants. Then later I snickered in bewilderment, at how they have been whitewashing terms for years, decades, and centuries.
If we were true to today’s terminology that outlines the horrific scourge of human trafficking, the school textbooks would truly identify slave masters as human traffickers; slaves as hostages; plantations as internment camps; and the middle passage or maafa as genocide. The individuals and families who amassed great wealth would be vilified as pirates who steal booty from the sea. Those who committed the atrocities of beatings, murders, and rapes would be viewed and tried as criminals. All the so-called slave owners, overseers, and those subsidiary companies who benefited from this criminal enterprise would be indicted on RICO charges.
I digress, back to that Black Card. The way the negroes were separated was not House and Field Negroes. They were separated as Good or Troublesome Niggers. See, the good negroes bought into the concept and ideology of the enslavers and wanted to get others to accept the condition as normal. Then you had the troublesome nigger, who was always resisting and looking for his freedom and independence. What confused the human traffickers was the sophisticated Nigger who posed as a good nigger, but all the time was plotting and scheming for freedom and independence.
The lawmakers in Virginia came up with a way to help incentive the good nigger, change the mind of the plotting nigger, and thwart the plans of the troublesome nigger. We will explore this in Part II next week.