The State of Africa America Remix: The Excess of (Always Seeking) Redress

By Heru Ammen

Currently there is much hype and media attention focused upon African Americans and the issues that we face. In doing our part to bring attention to the aforementioned issues, the authors of the Urban Village Blog & Commentary will re-post the series we authored in 2006 entitled "The State of Africa America." In this current media frenzy regarding "Black issues" we want to participate not only in the discussion of these issues, we believe it is important to discuss tangible solutions. All too often all that we hear are the same voices discussing the same issues and offering nothing but the same tired rhetoric. It is our hope that by re-posting this series, we can move the discussion forward and focus on what we can do to actually change the dynamics affecting the culture and socio-economics of African American communities.

"If you have, as leader, to decide on the conduct of a great number of people (emphasis: mine), seek the most perfect manner of doing so that your own conduct may be without reproach. Justice is great, invariable, and assured; it has not been disturbed since the age of God. To throw obstacles in the way of the laws is to open the way before violence. Shall that which is below gain the upper hand, if the unjust does not attain to the place of justice? Even he who says: I take for myself, of my own free-will; but says not: I take by virtue of my authority. The limitations of justice are invariable; such is the instruction which every man should (emphasis:mine) receive from his father.

Ptah-Hotep

What is preventing us (African Americans) from rising and transforming? I’ve often asked that question and I’ve concluded that part of the answer to that question is that we fail to utilize the intellectual, spiritual, and political resources that we have to formulate strategies or solutions that will cause us to rise and transform. Instead, our energy has primarily been focused on what I term the excess of redress

The excess of redress is a phenomenon of propping up and fronting a platform that incorporates the art of complaining about discriminatory practices and past or current injustices. It has often been said that power concedes nothing without a demand. Let me add that power does not even concede a place at the table of public discourse and debate for milquetoast rhetoric.

The excess of redress has spawned its own industry of African American pundits, politicians, religious based orators, and other nefarious front men. These African American men and women earn millions of dollars doing nothing more than appearing on television, radio, or in the pulpit complaining about a particular injustice.They use their exceptional communication skills to discuss and complain about the latest injustice, get paid for it and then move on to the next studio, stage, march or pulpit and complain about another issue. This is nothing more than the illusion of substance in action and the reality of overt inaction. Because after the show is over, the amens have subsided, and the audience has moved on, the issue still exist and nothing has been fomented, negotiated, or implemented to deal with the immediate and long term consequences of the aforementioned issue.

It is conceivable that one day after all of the pontification, punditry, confabs, seminars, sermons, marches, books, written white papers, and speeches on the redress of past atrocities we, the African American progeny of a great and resilient people will finally solve the issues that affect our communities. I wouldn’t fade that bet though.

The State of Africa America Remix: Defining The Status Quo

By Heru Ammen

Currently there is much hype and media attention focused upon African Americans and the issues that we face. In doing our part to bring attention to the aforementioned issues, the authors of the Urban Village Blog & Commentary will re-post the series we authored in 2006 entitled "The State of Africa America." In this current media frenzy regarding "Black issues" we want to participate not only in the discussion of these issues, we believe it is important to discuss tangible solutions. All too often all that we hear are the same voices discussing the same issues and offering nothing but the same tired rhetoric. It is our hope that by re-posting this series, we can move the discussion forward and focus on what we can do to actually change the dynamics affecting the culture and socio-economics of African American communities.


"Inspire not men with fear, else The Creator will fight against you in the same manner. If any one asserts that he lives by such means, the Creator will take away the bread from his mouth; if any one asserts that he enriches himself thereby, The Creator says: I may take those riches to myself. If any one asserts that he beats others, the Creator will end by reducing him to impotence. Let no one inspire men with fear; this is the will of God. Let one provide sustenance for them in the lap of peace; it will then be that they will freely give what has been torn from them by terror."

-Ptah-Hotep-

Racism, bigotry, and discrimination will probably be a part of the American culture forever. Unfortunately the African American community has been and continues to be stymied by the above whereas other communities in this country thrive despite it. The above has affected us to the point that we're now experiencing an African American cultural and socio-economic implosion.

Effectively dealing with the effects of racism, bigotry, and discrimination requires the development and implementation of a socio-economic system within an infrastructure that will act as a buffer against future discriminatory incursions. Without the above, any solution proffered to counteract the cultural insurgency prevalent within our communities will fail.

The success of other ethnic groups in this country has been remarkable considering that they too are subjected to the same impediments to life, liberty, and freedom that we face. The Asian, Latino, and Afro-Caribbean communities thrive in this country. All of these cultures are victims of the same type of European aggression, assimilation and/or colonialism that devastated the African continent. Yet they succeed despite the everyday reality of racism and discrimination. A question one must ask is why do African American communities fail when other communities succeed? Let's discuss a few of the issue that I believe to impede our progress as a people.

A. Embracing Victim-hood and/or Victim Worship

I define victim worship as the inability to move beyond the pain, suffering and trauma that was perpetuated against an individual or group. As such, victim-hood becomes a de-facto religious experience complete with its own dogma and tradition of suffering, self-hatred and self-imposed limitations. We should never forget our past. However our past did not begin in America. It began at the dawn of great African civilizations in Kemet (misnomered Egypt) Nubia, Sumer, Ethiopia, and Indus Kush and continues even to this day throughout the African Diaspora.

In fact, the perpetuation of victim-hood is a direct proponent of self-hatred, which leads to violence, abusive behavior, and general mayhem. Once we begin the process of knowing who we are in terms of our history prior to the Euro-Arab hegemony, and how that hegemony affected us, we will then be able heal those wounds and move forward as a culture. Real solutions require strategies designed and implemented outside of the box that are contra-posed to the status quo of indifference and self-hatred that we now embrace.


B. What is The Status Quo?

Part of the African experience in America was our forced introduction to what I term Euro-Christianity. From an European perspective, Euro-Christianity was used specifically as a tool of European aggression, colonialism and assimilation. Initially Africans were compelled to become Christians. Many of our Ancestors complied and accepted the Euro-Christian religion as a means of survival. Those who did not were beaten, tortured or murdered as an example of "Gods will."


As the generations passed and our ancestors forgot the old ways, Euro-Christianity became the only religion that the African in America knew. Unfortunately what was offered to the slave as Christianity was designed and taught to the slave to keep him/her in bondage. We know this to be true because a people that will beat you, rape you, kill you, assimilate and enslave you are not a people that will teach you how to become free. Especially when the condition of slavery served as the primary engine that propelled economic growth in the southern states.


Those conditions still exist today. Even when the slave was freed, he/she continued to embraced and perpetuate the Euro-Christian religion and dogma that was taught to them as a slave. The main thesis of many African American churches today is still focused upon instilling fear through the worship of Satan as the enemy of God and the reward set aside in the eternal fires of hell for those that do not comply with the will of the Euro-Christian God. I believe it is time for African Americans to define Christianity (and Islam as well) from an African-Historical perspective and define it through our our thoughts, our culture and our vision of what God would have us to do for humanity. Continuing to teach the theology of a religion that is based upon fear, punishment and religious servitude will only perpetuate the slave mentality that exist within many of our people today.

The State of Africa America Remix: Cooperative Economics

By Heru Ammen

Currently there is much hype and media attention focused upon African Americans and the issues that we face. In doing our part to bring attention to the aforementioned issues, the authors of the Urban Village Blog & Commentary will re-post the series we authored in 2006 entitled "The State of Africa America." In this current media frenzy regarding "Black issues" we want to participate not only in the discussion of these issues, we believe it is important to discuss tangible solutions. All too often all that we hear are the same voices discussing the same issues and offering nothing but the same tired rhetoric. It is our hope that by re-posting this series, we can move the discussion forward and focus on what we can do to actually change the dynamics affecting the culture and socio-economics of African American communities.

"Let your countenance be cheerful during the time of your existence. When we see one departing from the storehouse who has entered in order to bring his share of provision, with his face contracted, it shows that his stomach is empty and that authority is offensive to him."

-Ptah Hotep-

Other cultures thrive economically in this country despite racism and discrimination. Yet Americans of African ascent have consistently lagged behind in terms of economic growth and achievement. There are several reasons for the above. However the primary reason is that we have failed to create and/or support an economic system that keeps and circulates our dollars within our respective communities.

Statistics show that a dollar earned by African Americans travels less than one time in our community before it leaves. What is even more tragic is that the money we do spend in our communities is spent with retailers and vendors that have businesses in our communities; many of whom do not invest dollars in or support the infrastructure of the communities that they do business in. Other ethnic communities do not embrace that same economic dynamic. In essence, African American communities are being economically pimped by the businesses that exist in them.

In contrast to the aforementioned, other ethnic communities are economically and culturally sound. For instance, Asian communities in America have established mechanisms in place to keep dollars in their respective communities indefinitely. Each dollar spent in these communities will circulate up to 30 times or more before it leaves. This creates a residual economic engine that is far reaching in its effect impacting all facets of the Asian community. These communities engage in what I term “cooperative economics.” The foundation of cooperative economics is built upon capital investments in commercial and residential development, banking, business development, retail/wholesale, trade, and communication (media; print, internet based, radio and television). This foundation supports, facilitates, and augments the cultural glue that binds these communities together so that they continue to grow and maintain their viability generation after generation. This same effect can be seen in all other ethnic communities in American with the exception of the African American community.

The breakdown in African-American communities resulted primarily from our failure to engage and embrace the components that have made other communities successful. We do not invest in our communities in terms of housing, businesses and communication and trade. As such, we’ve created an economic vacuum that has literally sucked all of the money out of our communities; and like a once proud lion that has succumbed to the infirmities associated with old age and has fallen dead upon the lush plains of the African Serengeti, the vultures (payday lenders, rent-to-own, easy credit/high interest retailers, pawn shops, liquor stores, etc…) are picking our bones clean.

If one were to offer a proverbial synopses of our condition one could write that our condition is not unlike the dry bones of Ezekiel fame. We are at the point now where African-Americans are beginning to realize that our condition is not terminal. In essence new voices are “making noises” and there is a “shaking” as we come together one mind to another for the purpose of our collective illumination and edification.

When we begin to create the conditions to engage and embrace a cooperative economic paradigm we will then be in a position to bring life to the place that worships death. We can bring peace where now there is violence. We can bring knowledge where ignorance now reigns and we can bring wealth where overt poverty runs rampant. These are Ezekiel’s “four winds” which are sent to bring life where there once was death. And once those winds blow upon us, we shall then rise and transform and stand upon our feet; an exceedingly great army!