Kweku’s Korner
By Dr. Kweku Akyirefi Amoasi
Kweku Akyirefi Amoasi, formerly known as Ramel Smith
Some say it was 1710, but history records it as the Manumission Act of 1782. In May 1782, the General Assembly in Virginia understood how to legislate a schism within the enslaved. Bacon’s Rebellion taught the enslavers that if the masses united, their demise would be imminent and swift. They understood that to maintain the status quo, a Willie Lynch-like division among all those enslaved had to be created and maintained.
Meritorious Manumission was one of those solutions. Merit means earning something through extraordinary actions and behaviors. Manumission means to be released, specifically from slavery. With this law, it created an illusion that the enslavers could free those enslaved at any time. And with a variable interval schedule to release individuals, it became an effective carrot to dangle among the masses. The way these “release papers” were distributed reveals the Machiavellian origins of this law.
Some historians will assert there were some “good slave masters” who released their slaves upon their death. I assert it was only because they did not like their heirs and wanted to stick it to them. Second, they knew those individuals would be released and recaptured. Thirdly, they would be put into a debt drowning system of sharecropping, which would keep them in an alternative form of captivity with continued earnings to pass down to their posterity.
However, the vast majority of enslavers wanted slavery to remain and would only reward those enslaved individuals who believed in the ideology of White Supremacy. This axis of evil let it be known that meritorious manumission could be received if 1) They saved their “masters” life; 2) They saved their “master’s” property; 3) They earned their “master” significant money through patented inventions or other talents that yielded significant gains; or 4) They warned their “master” of future insurrections or those planning to run away. Those who sought manumission through this method were the “good niggers.” This is because the evil enslavers understood even when free, their enslaved mind was so thoroughly indoctrinated they posed no significant risk once freed.
This is where the Black Card became needed. Was this brother a brother? Or was s/he an agent for those kidnappers, rapists, and murderers just as intent on maintaining the status quo. So, when the question of the Black Card is questioned today, it is not to say Black people are a monolithic group, but it lets us know that regardless of shade, geographic location, SES, or educational status- at the end of the day you still cheer and root for Team Black, like Issa Raye.
Why was the Black community so hurt, confused, and mad at Chrisette, Nelly, Snoop, Ross, Soulja Boy, and Mississippi Valley State Marching band for performing at Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration party? Because in that moment of personal monetary and status gain, they put themselves as individuals over the collective, which made them suspect. If you could do this, what else could you do?
The culture was on alert because so many “Black” people, from yesterday and today, have succumbed to applying for modern day manumission papers. Many have betrayed the community. We must understand like the African proverb; the tree can’t keep voting for the axe because the handle looks like us. Only a mind colonized by savages who relish living in a dog-eatdog world would choose individual gains over collective success. Our DNA screams for the philosophy of Ubuntu. Beloved, to go against this nature is to go against our ancestors. History has taught us, and we OVERSTAND that all skinfolk ain’t your kinfolk. And that is why only those with the Ubuntu spirit, which is the real BLACK CARD, will receive an invitation to the cookout.