It has been more than 500 years since Black people hit the shores of what is now called the USA. During these years black people have been exploited, humiliated and killed. All of this adversity has been placed upon the necks of black people. Lo and behold, in 2023 black people are still surviving in the USA. The question is, “How are black people still surviving in the USA?”
The modern day African American is an derivative of black people. The persecution African Americans have faced from whites is unheard of in the annals of history. Yet, to the chagrin of many non-melanated people, African Americans are still living and breathing. How can this be with the different forms of genocide white society has implemented over the years? More importantly, why are African Americans still living after such persecution? The latter question is one that African Americans need to figure out.
I won’t go back to the days of slavery as an example of the extreme measures white people have taken to exploit and humiliate African Americans. Let’s start in the 20th century. Let’s talk about the influx of drugs in the African American community. We’ll start off with the deadliest drug of all, heroin.
If you watch, The Godfather, there is a scene where the mob bosses decide to traffic drugs. It was decided in this scene to traffic the drugs to the colored people. Many will say that this is a movie. Yet, when you look at the drugs that hit African American areas in the past 75 years the scene makes sense. How could a black person in the 1940’s or 50’s hop on a plane to Asia and pick up a load of poppy? Where would this black person process the poppy into opium and eventually heroin? Keep in mind this is the USA. During this time frame black people couldn’t ride in the front of a bus in the South. The North was just as racist, except differing tactics were used. It is clear the heroin that flooded areas of African American communities was shipped in by tools of the white system. African Americans still survived the heroin blitz. Why?
Fast forward to the early 1980’s. African American were shaking off the effects of the heroin and powder cocaine assault that white society forced on them. The system of oppression then hit the African American community with another potential knock-out blow. Crack cocaine hit the streets in all major areas where African Americans resided. Crack cocaine was a lethal blow that tortured an entire generation of African Americans. The shattering of families via drug use and prison terms set African Americans back 100 years. Crack selling in the inner city was glorified and created a basis for the self-genocidal music genre, Gangster Rap. There was the same question again. How did the cocaine get into the African American community? What African American person had a fleet of jet planes to swoop down to Columbia or Bolivia to pick up a few tons of cocaine? African Americans took the Mike Tyson uppercut thrown by white society. A few decades later and African Americans are still living in the USA.
Why are African Americans still living and breathing in the USA after such genocidal tactics? We didn’t even mention the self-hate enabling educational system, the blatant racism that permeated the African American psyche to the point where they destroy themselves. The medical field gets rich off African American obesity and high blood pressure. How can a race of people who have everything in the USA against them still survive? Better yet, what are these people who can survive such blatant assassination attempts? I know, but I won’t say it. The answer to these questions are ones that each individual African American must answer. Time is running out. African Americans need to find the answer fast.
Frank James IV © 2022
beingfrankwithfrank@gmail.com
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the writer and not of the Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper or HT Group, LLC, its staff or management. “Being Frank” is a bi-weekly column exclusive to the Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper.