The Native African American Cultural Development Guide

The first page of every chapter is to you, my children. You four will undoubtedly recognize Mom’s teaching style. Two things will happen to you children from these teachings. First you will receive the first teaching this guide offers because if I can’t teach you, then I have nothing for anyone to learn. I believe I should practice what I teach. Second, non-blacks will have an opportunity to see how at least one functional Native African American family share lessons in an effort to make our siblings citizen strong and culturally rich. There is no way I can share everything we have taught you guys in one book but it occurred to me that others might want to share the important lessons we have taught our family about our culture. Always remember our love, Mom. From the Author Some people might believe this book is about black people against white people or vise-versa. It is not either of these. There are many books, articles, teachers, and speakers able to talk about, write about, or inform about Black people in America. With all this information: · Schools wonder why Black students trail whites and other races in test scores and academic challenges. · Legislatures wonder why Blacks are so passive toward civic, local, and national policies and politics. · Corporate America maps the consumer habits of Black Americans and base economic indicators on the billions of dollars spent on other than the Black culture products. These facts are the tip of the iceberg. Although they are simple attention getters, the core of the problem is real. Since the emancipation of the Slaves in 1863 and the abolishment of slavery in 1865, no efforts have been made to restore the damage to Blacks caused by slavery. Segregation created a state of existence through survival. Black ancestors had no time to develop as a people or as a culture. The civil rights fighters ushered in citizenship rights bringing about cultural change that left no time to develop as a culture, let alone to improve as a people. Today, elders of the civil rights era are dying. A lack of cultural development is prevalent in black men, women, children and multi-racial families. Cultural deficits are too often felt in education, employment and communities. This book was written to help begin repairing the spiritual, physical, mental, and educational damages to Colonial-America’s African Slave descendants. It can be used by teachers, preachers, leaders, and losers. It is written by an African Slave descendant for the benefit of Black men, women, and children. We are who we are for a reason! It took over 500-years of pain, misery, and grief to make our culture the distraught people we have become. As an adult leader of these people, I choose not to see slavery’s damage as an invisible event. Millions of Black people still suffer daily. I am willing to give Black people as long as it takes to repair the engines within us that have been running on empty a long time. The verbage will be in the vernacular of traditional black speaking integrated with modern voice. New terms and words will be introduced and used for the benefit of black leaders. In other words, the tone might sound "black" or it might sound "white". This book will speak to the souls of "black" folks and the minds of every body else. Repairing slavery’s damage while developing the Black culture will manifest itself in families, communities, educational institutions, corporate environments, and economically. It’s been a long time in coming but the change our cultures need to heal from the atrocities of slavery is coming. We have made it a long way but the journey is not over yet. I believe our people will develop our culture. We have survived centuries of hatred because of the color of our skin. We have fought for and acquired freedom from physical and mental slavery. Ironically, there are two sides to the Black people’s healing needs because of the institution of slavery. Slavery was a successful corporate enterprise because slave owners created corporate dollars’ wealth bases through slavery’s self-perpetuating system. If there were no monies made, slavery would have ended over five-hundred years ago. Sometimes it seems as though slavery has a revolving door for descendants of African Slaves. There has been very little civil progress made by Black people over the last four decades since our last emergence from slavery. We have had a lack of progress because Black people never leveled the playing field for our chance at citizenship. Blacks have to come to an understanding of freedom that is greater than or equal to their understanding of slavery. Everyone must understand that the abolishment of slavery did not change only the Black race. As we progress, Black people must remember that non-Black Americans have got to get use to free Black people. The word "slavery" will never have the same meaning to a slave as it has to a slave owner. For Black people, abolishment of slavery created a state of freedom contingent on the conditions that we heal ourselves. Somehow, as we heal, we have got to keep in mind that non-Blacks need an education about our healing and an opportunity for descendants of slave owners to heal along with us. Like I said, there were slaves, there were slave owners, and today this country has citizens from both ancestors. Many say, "My ancestors were immigrants and did not own slaves". That might be true but ancestors of all non-Black colonial immigrants still benefited from being a un-Black citizen and most did little to nothing to change the state of life for slaves because they were not willing to bring negative change to themselves or their families. This allowed the hunger for slaves to thrive in past years and survive today. Words in America have never meant the same to a white person as it mean to a Black. Take for example the word "slavery". This word meant profit for whites and poverty for Blacks. Other words in America relating to Black people still carry a different meaning when it relates to Black people than it has for non-Black people. It is kind of like adding a fraction with different denominators. Before addition of the fractions can take place, you must find a common denominator. Free Black people are an addition problem for America. Until the fractions slavery created between Black and White citizens have a common denominator, the mixed fractions of Black citizens can never be added to America’ history. The fraction of which I speak is our present Black culture, not our past Black history. Black culture does not mean like "white people", it means like Black people, shades of black skin like Black people, textures of natural hair like Black people, honor to our elders and un-ashamed of being black people. All of America has got to get use to free Black people from the cradle to the grave. Blacks will struggle for acceptance and acknowledgment by the majority until America have adapted to the newest cultural addition of the Black race as a people. The majority of White people are accustom to dealing with Blacks on every level from scholastic to consumerism from a white perspective. Like Blacks, most people only retain what they can use; likewise, I be