For a long time, we as a people have been marginalized, misrepresented and taken advantage of. With all that has happened from the perils of slavery to the struggles to be free, to the systematic degradation of the contributions and sacrifices of African Americans, it seems we still have a fight on our hands.

Unfortunately, in the past we faced a blatant effort to block African Americans from being able to achieve or move forward. This effort attempted to block platforms that were instituted to level the field and open doors that had been permanently shut. While these efforts helped, the real truth is that the playing field was never level and the door was only opened a sliver. Also, only a few were allowed to take advantage of the opportunities and it required hard work, dedication, energy, moral fortitude and smarts.

This was the price of admission in order for us to thrive among people seeking for any reason to remove us and reclose the door. However, that was the past and in spite of all the difficulties, we have paved the way for generations to follow.

I am happy to say we are a strong, proud, brilliant, creative group of people in spite of all the efforts to keep us down. Anyone that has an open mind can see the work, progress and contributions of African Americans. It is easy to find an invention, enhancement or contribution from the African diaspora that has improved this country and allowed it to thrive beyond the dreams of the founding fathers. African Americans have been a productive segment of this nation despite all the hoops, hurdles and closed doors they had to go through. We have had to fight for every crumb we were given, all the while having to endure the denial of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a decent education, opportunities to start businesses, and receiving loans with higher rates based solely on the color of our skin.

This is our history, but unfortunately what we have happening now are the efforts of groups and individuals that wish to prove we were not up to the task and didn’t deserve the opportunity. In the past few years we have seen a concerted effort to dismantle the systems that were put in place to allow us to catch up after 400 years of servitude. For centuries there are those who have profited from us and our contributions, but have refused to acknowledge us. We have been denied the ability to contribute and when we do it’s not on our merit. It’s blamed on DEI and affirmative action. The very fact we needed these programs speaks to the systematic agenda to deny us our constitutional right to exist and contribute. It is enough to make you angry.

However, while getting angry is easy, it is also counterproductive. As a community we need to get connected as we were before desegregation. We need to stop looking outside for confirmation and build our community to the point we can stand on our own. We need to not seek approval but also respect because with respect comes acknowledgement. For those of us who still believe anger is the path forward, channel that anger to raise stronger, educated children and young adults. We should funnel our monies to businesses, corporations and organizations that value our community. We should be the example of what community building should look like while ensuring the education of who we are, where we come from and our unified direction for our future. Value your vote, your money and your strength as items that should only be given to persons and groups that value us.

Only then we can effectively fight that underbelly of our nation that seeks to use us with one hand, yet destroy us with the other. At the end of the day we should never allow the nation to forget what was done to us. Slavery was our holocaust and forgetting can ultimately open the door to us being mistreated again. The handwriting is on the wall where our history is being systematically removed from schools, institutions of history and the minds of our children. As a community we should be vigilant and proactive to ensure we never again allow ourselves to be marginalized or erased from our own history. We should speak of our history, write it and shout it from the mountain tops because we can’t allow ourselves to forget. We can’t allow our children to forget and we can’t allow the nation to forget. We are all ultimately responsible for what happens next and we all should be paying attention. I know I am.

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