When Black Consciousness Was Not A Fad Or A Hustle
When black consciousness was not a fad or a hustle?
Part One.
In 1988 The lyrics from the iconic group Public enemy screamed; "Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain"
And then Flava Flav came with that classic line; " Mother fuck him and John Wayne."
Public Enemy was strategically trying to expose the conception that white America is white and it planned to stay that way . All that we thought was about to change.
When Chuck D of Public Enemy said; "Most of my heroes don't live on a stamp." He was speaking for a community of Afrocentric black conscious disciples. A community that was trying to keep alive the spirit of blackness. A community that was echoing James Brown saying; "I'm black and I'm proud. Public Enemy was keeping it real. The song would become the anthem for Spike Lee’s classic movie “Do the right thing.” We were witnessing black consciousness at its best and the movement was only going forward, so I thought? Just look at what came to the surface.
Public Enemy, KRS-One and the whole Stop The violence movement, Poor Righteous Teachers, The X Clan, Dead Prez, “The Coup.” a group that was off the radar at the time And never forget NWA got the nerve to say; “FUCK THE POLICE.”
Yeah black conscious was on the rise.
The scholar, Dorscine Spigner-Littles, an elder from Oklahoma who lived through the civil rights era, defined black consciousness as “being aware of the history of your people and understanding your place within it; maintaining the same level of commitment that your ancestors brought but realizing also that you are not blazing new trails but are simply carrying on a tradition with a long past.”
Four years later Spike Lee would release the movie Malcolm X, another classic. I still remember the black conscious temperature at the time was ten thousand degrees. Young brothers and sisters were walking around with leather sewn black X medallions. T shirts of the Malcom X image were on every corner. “By any means necessary.” was a coded password for inner city entry. Hell I even fully converted to Islam and changed my name to Daawud Naseer El-Amin. Looking back now I actually thought we were on the verge of Gil Scott’s untelevised revolution. I actually thought it was going to be live.
Three years later I would attend the historic Million Man March in 1995. I still remember the day leaving for Washington and kissing my family goodbye. I wanted so badly to take my first born son with me, he was seven at the time. Yet I feared for his life. I honestly was leaving my family and not knowing if I was coming back. I packed my old duffle bag that day not knowing how the United States government would respond, nor did I know how we would respond. So I packed for war just in case. See the pulse of Black Nationalism was alive, and I was prepared for the revolution to be live. So we went “On to Washington!”
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