Comments on: The Manifesto of Ascendancy for the Modern American Negro http://lastchocolatecity.com/2006/11/13/the-manifesto-of-ascendancy-for-the-modern-american-negro/ Black Love Since 1978 Sat, 19 May 2012 06:47:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: Nadir http://lastchocolatecity.com/2006/11/13/the-manifesto-of-ascendancy-for-the-modern-american-negro/#comment-109 Nadir Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:37:46 +0000 http://lastchocolatecity.com/2006/11/13/the-manifesto-of-ascendancy-for-the-modern-american-negro/#comment-109 This is a thought-provoking post in light of the passage of Prop 2. I don't have a problem with Ridley's use of the word "nigger". It's a non-issue. Many young blacks have embraced the word and whites have picked up on the nonsense because of hip hop. It is a perjorative, but if niggas are silly enough to use it constantly, then they can't be upset when other ethnic groups - who always appropriate African and Afro-American slang - begin to use the word as well. That is a bed we have made, and without wholesale bannishment of its usage among blacks, we will be forced to lie among the dawgs and fleas. I do have a problem with Ridley's Manifesto for the Ascension of the Modern American Nigger, however. He has lost his "Undercover Brother" scripting negro mind. Ridley's rant and his assertion that the Hanna incident is the pinnacle of Black Power in America brings to mind Malcolm X's characterization of the house negro and the field nigger for more than his quote of Harry Belafonte. His attitude is part of the reason many of our ancestors were enslaved in the first place. Some ascended African leaders sold their own subjects to the slavers. Some Blacks in America held slaves themselves. Very often the house negro held the field nigger in contempt ignoring the fact that they were sometimes one burned meal or one broken dish away from the fields themselves. It ignores the fact that the field niggers were the engine that kept the plantation running. That among the lower class in the fields was a middle class of artisans and skilled laborers who were even more valuable to massa because they could be hired out to other whites. This is not to say that negroes and niggers alike are not responsible for their plight or for their own ascension. We each bear personal responsibility for our fate or our reaction to it. But to compare the ascension of two house negroes like Colin and Condi to the huddled masses in Over-The-Rhine is to ignore reality. At the time of the Cincy riots household median income in Over-the-Rhine was $8,600 compared to $26,774 in the city as a whole and $54,800 for the 13 counties of Ohio and neighboring northern Kentucky and southwestern Indiana that make up the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. A family of four with an income below $17,029 is living in poverty, according to the US government. The question of poverty and unemployment is an important one in Black America. Colin Powell, Condi Rice and John Ridley did not grow up poor and were not raised in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Their achievements can't be ignored, but their education and upbringing were important factors in their development. Poverty and racism are obstacles that can be overcome, but the tools of ascension - a good education, a strong work ethic - are often lost in areas where schools are failing and no work is available for parents. Many of our people are not being taught how to ascend. Carter G. Woodson said 70 years ago, Blacks are not being taught how to make and earn a living. This hasn't changed. Ridley's Manifesto ignores this fact. Certainly we are all responsible for our lives, but that knowledge itself is the key to liberation. It was house educated field nigger Nat Turner who did more to free his people than any of the ascended house negroes before or after. It was escaped slave Frederick Douglass who pulled himself up to become the single greatest orator of his day and the most ardent and effective abolitionist of the movement. It was self-educated and self-described field nigger Malcolm X who helped the Black man free his mind and spirit. All three were inspired by knowledge and education and the understanding that life could be better, not just for them as individuals, but for all of us. If the "ascended negro" chooses to abandon the rest of us as many of our politicians and business leaders have, the poor will sink deeper into poverty. Without the tools of ascension, they will toil in despair and more Over-the-Rhines will burn. My comments to Ridley and Cosby: stop preaching and do something about it. If you aren't going to do something about it, then get out of the way, sit down and shut up. There is too much work to be done. Those niggers that you choose to ignore today may just rob your house or jack your Lexus tomorrow. It isn't necessarily our responsibility to pull each other up, but it is the African, the Christian, the moral and the right thing to do. This is a thought-provoking post in light of the passage of Prop 2.

I don’t have a problem with Ridley’s use of the word “nigger”. It’s a non-issue. Many young blacks have embraced the word and whites have picked up on the nonsense because of hip hop. It is a perjorative, but if niggas are silly enough to use it constantly, then they can’t be upset when other ethnic groups - who always appropriate African and Afro-American slang - begin to use the word as well. That is a bed we have made, and without wholesale bannishment of its usage among blacks, we will be forced to lie among the dawgs and fleas.

I do have a problem with Ridley’s Manifesto for the Ascension of the Modern American Nigger, however. He has lost his “Undercover Brother” scripting negro mind.

Ridley’s rant and his assertion that the Hanna incident is the pinnacle of Black Power in America brings to mind Malcolm X’s characterization of the house negro and the field nigger for more than his quote of Harry Belafonte. His attitude is part of the reason many of our ancestors were enslaved in the first place.

Some ascended African leaders sold their own subjects to the slavers. Some Blacks in America held slaves themselves. Very often the house negro held the field nigger in contempt ignoring the fact that they were sometimes one burned meal or one broken dish away from the fields themselves.

It ignores the fact that the field niggers were the engine that kept the plantation running. That among the lower class in the fields was a middle class of artisans and skilled laborers who were even more valuable to massa because they could be hired out to other whites.

This is not to say that negroes and niggers alike are not responsible for their plight or for their own ascension. We each bear personal responsibility for our fate or our reaction to it. But to compare the ascension of two house negroes like Colin and Condi to the huddled masses in Over-The-Rhine is to ignore reality.

At the time of the Cincy riots household median income in Over-the-Rhine was $8,600 compared to $26,774 in the city as a whole and $54,800 for the 13 counties of Ohio and neighboring northern Kentucky and southwestern Indiana that make up the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. A family of four with an income below $17,029 is living in poverty, according to the US government. The question of poverty and unemployment is an important one in Black America. Colin Powell, Condi Rice and John Ridley did not grow up poor and were not raised in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Their achievements can’t be ignored, but their education and upbringing were important factors in their development.

Poverty and racism are obstacles that can be overcome, but the tools of ascension - a good education, a strong work ethic - are often lost in areas where schools are failing and no work is available for parents. Many of our people are not being taught how to ascend. Carter G. Woodson said 70 years ago, Blacks are not being taught how to make and earn a living. This hasn’t changed.

Ridley’s Manifesto ignores this fact. Certainly we are all responsible for our lives, but that knowledge itself is the key to liberation.

It was house educated field nigger Nat Turner who did more to free his people than any of the ascended house negroes before or after. It was escaped slave Frederick Douglass who pulled himself up to become the single greatest orator of his day and the most ardent and effective abolitionist of the movement. It was self-educated and self-described field nigger Malcolm X who helped the Black man free his mind and spirit. All three were inspired by knowledge and education and the understanding that life could be better, not just for them as individuals, but for all of us.

If the “ascended negro” chooses to abandon the rest of us as many of our politicians and business leaders have, the poor will sink deeper into poverty. Without the tools of ascension, they will toil in despair and more Over-the-Rhines will burn.

My comments to Ridley and Cosby: stop preaching and do something about it. If you aren’t going to do something about it, then get out of the way, sit down and shut up. There is too much work to be done. Those niggers that you choose to ignore today may just rob your house or jack your Lexus tomorrow. It isn’t necessarily our responsibility to pull each other up, but it is the African, the Christian, the moral and the right thing to do.

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