To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

And in that spirit of Nia; I’d like to share this important article written by Dr. Adam Clark.

CHRISTIANITY AND KWANZAA
By Dr. Adam Clark
(originally posted on The Huffington Post)

It’s strange that the day after Christians celebrate the birth of child who was to become a liberator that they fail to see the liberating possibilities in the week long celebration of Kwanzaa (Dec. 26-Jan. 1.) The infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke portray Jesus as the bearer of concrete longings of a people for freedom from Roman rule. Kwanzaa was created out of the liberation narrative of the 1960s. The longing of African American people for freedom, selfhood and beauty grounds and shapes the vision, values and practices of Kwanzaa. It is derived from African first-fruits harvest celebrations and encourages it’s observers to be thankful for good and beauty of Creation and act for the well-being and wholeness of the world.

Despite its ecumenical character, Kwanzaa remains controversial in black churches. Many popular websites professing to explore the relationship between Christianity and Kwanzaa encourage Christians not to practice Kwanzaa. These websites question the relevance of Kwanzaa to the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Some regard Kwanzaa as a rival “pagan holiday,” “cultic celebration” or as idol worship. Others question the motives of the creator of Kwanzaa, Maulana Karenga, who is cast as an anti-Christian thinker, hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These religious detractors position themselves as defenders of the faith and see their attacks on Kwanzaa as a way of preserving biblical faith against the unbiblical principles of Kwanzaa.

What’s ironic is that the people who denounce Kwanzaa do not have the same suspicion toward the celebration of Christmas. There is a sharp distinction between the biblical portrayal of Christmas and its contemporary emphases. Christmas Day originated when the church used the stories of the birth of Jesus to place a thin Christian veneer over the Roman holiday celebrating the Winter solstice. The American celebration of Christmas that features Santa Claus as its chief icon, lighted trees, shopping rituals, massive food grabs and spectacular gift giving resemble the festivals of Imperial Rome that honored the might of Caesar more than the humble story of a couple that gave birth to a Christ-child in a manger.

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I was already a bit on the fence about my primary bank which was Wachovia. Though I had been with the bank for some years, I began to give Wachovia the side eye when I learned about 8 years ago that it had history wrapped up in the enslavement and sale of my Ancestors. I would not have learned this if it had not been for former Chicago Alderman Dorothy Tillman who introduced the Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance in 2002.

But Wachovia went from being on the fence to getting kicked to the curb when Wells Fargo acquired the bank earlier this year. Wachovia fully transitioned into Wells Fargo in Baltimore this past October.

That pretty much did it for me. Wells Fargo’s lending practices have been particularly predatory as it relates to the American African community. Consider these findings from a 2009 National People’s Action Report entitled, The Truth About Wells Fargo: Racial Disparities in Lending Practices.

• Over 37% of all loans made by Wells Fargo to African American borrowers were high cost loans; compared to 12% of loans received by White borrowers.

• 45% of all refinance loans received by African American borrowers were high cost, compared to 19% for White borrowers.

• For low- and moderate-income borrowers, 48% of all Wells Fargo loans to African Americans were high cost loans as compared to 20% of the loans for equivalent White borrowers.

• For middle and upper income African American borrowers, 34% of Wells Fargo loans were high cost loans as compared to 11% for equivalent White borrowers.

• African Americans were charged higher interest rates on high cost loans than other borrowers.

• African Americans paid an estimated $137 million more than Whites for their high cost Wells Fargo loans.

How could I continue allowing this bank to have my business considering its role in helping to manufacture the hardship that so many people are facing!

As if that wasn’t enough, I learned that Wells Fargo has 3 1/2 million shares in the private prison industry valued around $90 Million dollars. Wells Fargo is helping to prop up the Prison Industrial Complex – that same system that preys disproportionately upon Black and Brown people in the so-called United States.

I cannot in good conscience continue to do business with Wells Fargo.

In her book, Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of our Daily Choices, Julie Clawson helped me to think about my everyday actions as either helping to foster social justice or helping to maintain systems of oppression. Down to where I buy food, what clothes I purchase, what gas station I buy from, and in this case – where I bank. It’s not always that cut and dry, but in this case where I bank is a moral decision.

And today, I have decided to join countless others on November 5, 2011 in withdrawing my money and business from Wells Fargo. It’s been a long time coming, but I will no longer cooperate with a bank that fosters injustice and disharmony the world over. I will no longer support a bank that preys on my people and the impoverished of the world.

I will be formerly closing my Wells Fargo bank account on Saturday, November 5, 2011 and designating my credit union account at MECU as my primary account. Instead of making stock holders and investors first like corporate banks; credit unions serve their members and support the communities in which they are located in a myriad of ways.

Will I miss having my bank’s ATM on every corner or flying to any city in America and seeing my bank there – sure. That convenience will be missed, but now I’ll feel much better while banking because I’ll know that I won’t be actively participating financially in the exploitation and subjugation of others. Instead my money will be helping to support small business start ups, assisting families in purchasing their first home at reasonable rates, and will support community projects that help empower the place where I live.

For those who wish to learn more about this effort or to find a credit union or community-oriented bank in your community, you can visit the Move Your Money Project website among many other sites.

I spent the afternoon on a therapist’s couch yesterday exploring the hurts and the prospects of healing between Continental and Diasporan Africans. The meeting was called to begin preliminary discussions on how we might be able to work together on an event (or series of events) that would bring the two groups together in order to share our stories, foster understanding, and nurture unity on shared interests. Given that most of her clients are new African immigrants and most of my church is made up of Blacks born here; we see the potential to work together as – what one of my professors, Dr. Jacqueline Lewis, might call – “border people” to invite the groups to share space in sanctuary.

What started as a planning meeting seemed to evolve into a personal therapy session for me. Without external prompting, I began to share my stories and my pain as it relates to wrestling with identity. I spoke of going to study in Ghana for a brief period and while packing my suitcases, I filled one up with food and when asked why, I said, “I don’t know what those people eat over there.” It was just another outward manifestation of the stigmas related to Africa and Africans that I had internalized. “Those people,” as backward as they are – had to eat some crazy food and I wasn’t down for it.

I remember being in high school with my boys and us “cracking on” one another – the “sport” of humorously putting each other down. And if you really wanted to get a good joke in, you’d call somebody an “African booty scratcher” or throw their “blackness” at them in insult – “you’re so black you’re blurple!”

This didn’t come out of no where. At a young age, I was trained to think of Africa as backward and Africans as people I didn’t want to be. I remember watching movies like “The Air Up There” and listening to comedians like Godfrey [Warning: link has explicit language] paint mental portraits of Africa/Africans that I wanted nothing to do with.

But it wasn’t just about what I saw or heard, it was also about what I wasn’t exposed to. Africa and Africans were absent from my k-12 educational journey…even during “Black History Month.” I wasn’t tested on Africa, quizzed on contemporary African issues, encouraged to read African authors, or instructed on slavery and colonialism’s impact on the African world – so it must not be important to know. (And if something was slid into the curriculum it did not tend to shed a favorable light on Africa/Africans.)

And the stigmatization goes the other way as well. Before Africans even immigrate here, they are fed prejudicial information, stereotypes, and mental pictures that paint African Americans as lazy and irresponsible leaches in American society. Then they get here and are fed a fuller diet of information that props up those pictures which support the racist justifications related to the plight of African Americans. (soley internal reasons with no examination of external factors)

So both groups – Diasporan Africans and Continental Africans – internalize damning depictions of the other and then because we don’t often share safe space, we never afford each other the opportunity to re-calibrate and unlearn what we’ve learned so that we might be healed and grow personally and collectively. This dynamic plays out from corporate American, to the streets, to the college campuses.

Which is why I’m thankful for the work of Kobina Aidoo, a local filmmaker and policy analyst who created the documentary, The Neo African Americans. His efforts, which are highlighted in a thought-provoking article entitled “Black Like Us” by Kenneth Cooper [SOURCE: SPRING 2011 edition of The Crisis Magazine]; uncover the many layers that help build the chasm that exists between Africa-descended groups and highlights the similarities that are far too often overlooked.

The need to build bridges that were intentionally burned between Continental and Diasporan Africans has long been understood, however, it is encouraging to see my generational peers like Bro. Kobina, building and advancing the issue. I now understand that before we can engage the important issues of a Pan African cause (economic, political, etc.); we must deal with the question of identity and the issue of community first. The prospects of our achieving great things in partnership are slim if we don’t see ourselves in each other.

I’ll be sharing insight related to what has been a focal point of my activism for the past year – state plans to build a new youth jail in Baltimore. At this season in my “activist life”; I’ve made the decision to focus my limited energy on a small handful of issues as opposed to my former approach of jumping on any and every item of interest that came across my desk. There are a lot of important issues out there – many of which I hope to hear about on Thursday evening – however, there is something to be said about strategically focusing on two to three issues for the long haul and relentlessly working for change in those areas. I’m excited to be one of the presenters for the Ignite Baltimore event and I hope to see some of you there.

For more information click here

Photo Courtesy: Adam Jackson (Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle)

So on that faithful Saturday – at that forum – I finally had to promote the exploration of a new path for my people. Instead of the usual song and lyrics, I offered up for the consideration of the crowd possibilities that are enveloped in practical philosophies that are less popular in this city. I prodded the crowd toward Black Nationalism and Pan Africanism. We’ve been promoting other paths for our people for so long with so few results for the masses that it’s about time that we found the courage to at the very least begin exploring other avenues for communal empowerment.

Let’s not denounce or dismiss Black Nationalism and Pan Africanism from the table of options before we even give it a try. Let’s not disregard these two philosophies because it makes other people uncomfortable. What about the depressing conditions that make our people more than uncomfortable, but uneducated, unemployed, uninsured, and uninvited?

We talk about diversity, but how diverse are the Black voices that we commonly hear speaking about our condition as a people. Even when they appear to be arguing different positions – like the much discussed “debate” between Dr. Cornel West and Rev. Al Sharpton – closer analysis will reveal that they in large measure are arguing nuances of the same position.

As I said “Black Nationalism” and “Pan Africanism” on the LBS panel that day, I sensed an uneasiness with the audience. White people were in the audience and it’s been my experience that Black people get nervous when you start talking Black Pride around White people. – as if cultural pride and love of self are inexcusable offenses. But the uneasiness just might have had to do more with my poor job of explaining what I meant by those loaded terms. Black Nationalism/Pan Africanism isn’t taught in schools, talked about in churches, or examined on television so one must not assume general understanding.

I wish I would have been able to succinctly define Black Nationalism as Bro. Malcolm X does in this clip.

Can any conscious American African person genuinely disagree with what is advocated with the philosophy of Black Nationalism based on that understanding? As one listens to Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) speak on Pan Africanism can the oppressed African masses truly discard its potential power so quickly?

We don’t need a juvenile Black Nationalism which beats its chests to proclaim it’s hatred for White people. Black Nationalism in its most powerful expression revolves around LOVE for African people not hatred of another people. And we don’t need this rhetorical revolutionary Black Nationalism/Pan Africanism which touts the long listing of books on revolution that have been read. With that, as Amos Wilson said, you’ll just die Black and Proud and your obituary will read, “Here lies a Black Revolutionary who read a lot of books, but left no enduring legacy.”

American Africans need to explore and embrace a Black Nationalism and Pan Africanism which holds as its most important action love of self. Only deep and abiding love of self can provide the sustainable energy necessary to re-orient, re-educate, and release African people around these two powerful concepts. Furthermore, a Pan Africanism fueled by love can appropriately re-connect African people in places where the African Holocaust (or MAAFA) fractured and disconnected us.

Think about it – one of the mandatory goals of the MAAFA involved the DISCONNECTION of African people from their names, their language, their land, their history, their cultural ways, their communities, their families, etc. Disconnection prompted discombobulation and we are largely still confused because we’ve lost our unique orientation to the world. Pan Africanism promotes a RECONNECTION to our ancestral identity which has the potential to bring about the communal healing that we so stand in need of. There’s no doubt about it – if African people don’t embrace love of self and its expression in tangible ways in every area of our activity and thinking then we are likely to remain in bondage.

Furthermore, with this reorientation to love-of-self, we must also commit ourselves to the construction of conscious anchor institutions – schools, banks, businesses, cultural centers, spiritual centers, etc. Especially in these cities where the population is predominantly African, we need to start building enclaves which champion our cultural values, orients our children to the world based on our ancestral understanding, and promotes an active unity and interdependence within the community.

It’s an enormous task that is possible by taking measured steps. For instance on the way to organizing an Afrikan-centered Public School System that is independent of the government funded public school systems; we can start a Saturday academy or after school programs in partnership with kindred spirits. Don’t just try to jump up and build a whole school system! Start one quality program and learn how to run it well before trying to organize a system. On the way to food sovereignty for our community – where we return to eating only what we grow ourselves; start a community garden or assume responsibility for a vacant plot of land. Grow there and supplement your diet with what you grow with your own hands. Learn how to grow and manage a garden well before you jump out there to run a farm! In the way of economic empowerment, perhaps a first step is to organize a Giving Circle before you begin talking about starting a credit union or bank.

These steps can present building blocks toward greater manifestations of what is needed. The American African community must embrace self-determination, self-government, and most important of all – SELF LOVE.

The question now is can we love ourselves enough to even consider different modes of understanding that will give rise to different communal behaviors that can potentially lift African people exponentially?

Photo Courtesy of: Adam Jackson (Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle)

I was asked to serve as a panelist at the first Freedom Forum hosted by the think tank focused on policy analysis and community change. The theme of the event was Baltimore’s Youth Movement: Are They Ready To Lead? And it’s funny because I remember when I was squarely included in the crowd of city youth leaders, but more and more I’m being informed that my license has expired!

I couldn’t help, but sit there though and think about the days when folks like Bro. Farajii Muhammad, Hassan Giordano, C.D. Witherspoon, Ezekiel Jackson and I would run the same type of events. Gatherings focused on serious discussion about our generation and our city. We would link up with the Elders who weren’t threatened by us and examine the many ideas that sprung forth from our minds – pretending to be new ideas.

It was a very reflective moment for me to sit on the LBS panel at yet another forum and just think about all the ideas and all the perspectives that I’ve heard over the few years that I’ve been grinding for social justice in Baltimore. I just couldn’t sit there and regurgitate the same responses that I’ve been giving and hearing for all these years. I feel like I’ve been chasing after a family of rabbits in a field…feeling a sense of accomplishment by catching up to one of them only to have another one of them run across my path and entice me to chase it. In a very fragmented and compartmentalized way, I’ve been running after the rabbit of “better economic opportunities for Blacks in Baltimore” then chasing down “youth mentoring for young Black men” then being lured to leap after the prison industrial complex then better schools then gentrification then street gangs then youth jobs then then Then THEN!

No doubt, some gains have been made, but the masses of my people are still in bondage on so many levels. Surely, chasing after all these different rabbits was doing more to keep me preoccupied and assured of my self worth than it was providing holistic systemic change for my community.

I sat on that LBS panel unwilling to once again serve up a fractured picture of the plight of my beloved and beleaguered community in Baltimore. We need fresh insight. New ideas. New understanding. And a holistic framework which not only pinpoints the cause of our collective pain, but also provides a path to our communal wholeness. I just couldn’t sit there and pretend as if all we need is one more Black person on the corporate board, one more Black politician in office, one more Black Student doing better on the MSA’s, one more Black firefighter or police officer, one more Black church or preacher and then all would be right with the Black world. This incremental approach to community empowerment has not worked for the masses of African people.

Think about it.

How many quarters would you put in a vending machine that didn’t provide you with the snack you selected? At most you’d put 2 quarters in the machine and if by chance you did put a third one in and it still didn’t work, you’d start kicking or rocking that machine trying to get your honey glazed donut. Some of you would even call that 1 (800) number on the sticker not so much because you wanted your quarter back, but because the machine did not provide you with what you know you deserved and you felt cheated.

In that same way, African people in cities across the country have been investing in strategies and systems that have not yielded the desired results for the masses. We’ve been promoting and preaching incrementalism…just go along and we’ll get along-ism…just wait on the benevolence of White folks-ism.

I’m reminded of that quote by the Great Ancestor Amos Wilson who said, “One reason for the condition we’re in today is a leadership that has not yet decided it will determine a new reality and develop an Afrocentric reality, one that is suitable to the advancement and development of Afrikan people.” It’s a statement that rings truer and truer to my ears.

TO BE CONTINUED…

I stress first-hand because the propaganda that comes by way of American media, many popular preachers, and most corporate politicians, presents a certain narrative that dehumanizes Palestinians, proclaims a theology that sanctions segregation and discrimination, and consistently frames Israeli society as being vulnerable and under attack despite the fact that the Israeli Military is the most advanced in the region largely because of the $3 Billion dollars of Foreign Military Financing provided by American taxpayers.

I don’t know when, but at some point I began to become conscious of and question that narrative. I’m glad that I did because my doubts about what was being force-fed to me ultimately propelled me to sign up for a delegation with Interfaith Peace Builders last year.

With support from Sabeel, the church I serve, and family/friends, I landed at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel in May 2010 as a part of a delegation of about 30 people from around the U.S. From the minute we arrived my eyes began to open to the reality and complexity of the situation. During the orientation before the trip, I had been warned that people of color are viewed and treated with suspicion by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and the warning came to fruition during the first 10 minutes of my being in the country. In a delegation of about 30 people making our way through the airport after a 14-some hour flight; I was singled out by Israeli soldiers with high-powered guns (now I’m wondering if they were made in the U.S.) and interrogated extensively. The two soldiers seemed determined to grill me and send me a message that I wasn’t welcome there. They only relented when one of the delegation leaders, Anna Baltzer, came to inquire about what was going on. Despite the warning that I was given prior to the trip, I walked away from that experience not only upset that I had been accosted clearly because of the color of my skin, but also because it took the color of my group leader’s skin (White) to “free me.”

After a few more experiences like that during the following days, my soul was in need of nourishment. Being the only African person in the group, it took a lot of emotional and spiritual energy for me to withstand the overt venom of that oppressive society. And while I enjoyed the company and kindness of my group-mates, I experienced an unnatural high when I finally saw somebody in Israel that looked like me.

First off, I never even imagined that there were African people in Israel. It’s not a part of the narrative that’s projected in the U.S. so I had no expectation to see “me” there. But there she was at the so-called Wailing Wall. She was an attendant there whose job was to help preserve the sanctity of the site by asking female tourists to cover themselves if it was deemed that they were revealing too much skin. She must have thought I was crazy when I practically bumrushed her with a big country smile. Showing all my teeth and gums I introduced myself and then ran my finger along my brown arm unsure if she would understand my english. I had to send her a message about the joy I was feeling related to our obvious connection.

It turned out that she did speak some english and I learned that she, like many Africans in Israel, was from Ethiopia and came to Israel because of religious reasons. She embraces Judaism and considered Israel her “Promised Land”. However, shortly after being attracted and relocating to Israel, she learned that the land was not so promising to its darker citizens. She shared with me some of the challenges that she and other African people face in Israel and said that as soon as she can earn enough money from her low-wage job that she was heading to Canada because she heard that there was no discrimination there. I inquired about the whereabouts of other African people in Israel and she provided some insight. As the trip progressed, I met and engaged many other African people as well – even African IOF soldiers. It really was an unexpected treat to my trip.

Which is why I’m so excited that Interfaith Peace Builders has now organized an African Heritage Delegation to Palestine/Israel. During my trip I realized that as foreign as the “Middle East” conflict feels (again because of the accepted narrative); American Africans who travel there will find it deeply familiar. The African Heritage Delegation, comprised of just African (Black) people, will explore the parallels between the struggles of Africans in the U.S. and Palestinians and their allies in Israel. The cross-context learning and sharing that will take place with strengthen all involved.

This very important delegation is in need of your support. Many of the persons hoping to join this trip are in need of financial scholarships in order to go. Your financial contribution to Interfaith Peace Builders will go directly to somebody’s delegation costs – not to salaries or overhead obligations. Because of the amazing financial support that I received last year, I have committed myself to helping fund one of the delegates trips this year. Will you help me to help somebody else?

Visit Interfaith Peace Builders’ website and find out more about how you can support the African Heritage Delegation and a just peace in Palestine/Israel.