Quote Of The Day

"All our lauded technological progress- our very civilization- is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal." -Albert Einstein

[SIDEBAR: Let's use technology for good!]

Quote Of The Day

"Always do right- this will gratify some and astonish the rest." -Mark Twain

Riddle Me This: The Suggestible Mind Edition

"Imagine that I'm a professor, and I've asked you to come and see me in my office. You walk down a long corridor, come through the doorway, and sit down at a table. In front of you is a sheet of paper with a list of five-word sets. I want you to make a grammatical four-word sentence as quickly as possible out of each set. It's a scrambled-sentence test. Ready?

1) him was worried she always
2) from are Florida oranges temperature
3) ball the throw toss silently
4) shoes give replace old the
5) he observes occasionally people watches
6) be will sweat lonely they
7) sky the seamless gray is
8) should now withdraw forgetful we
9) us bingo sing play let
10) sunlight makes temperature wrinkle raisins

That seemed straightforward, right? Actually it wasn't. After you finished that test- believe it or not- you would have walked out of my office and back down the hall more slowly than you walked in. With that test, I affected the way you behaved. How? Well, look back at the list. Scattered throughout it are certain words, such as 'worried,' 'Florida,' 'old,' 'lonely,' 'gray,' 'bingo,' and 'wrinkle.' You thought that I was just making you take a language test. But, in fact, what I was doing was making the big computer in your brain- your adaptive unconscious- think about the state of being old. It didn't inform the rest of your brain about its sudden obsession. But it took all this talk of old age so seriously that by the time you finished and walked down the corridor, you acted old. You walked slowly.

The test was devised by a very clever psychologist named John Bargh. It's an exampke of what is called a priming experiment, and Bargh and others have done numerous even more fascinating variations of it, all of which show just how much goes on behind that locked door of or unconscious." -From, "Blink" By: Malcolm Gladwell

After reading the above book excerpt, I must ask: How suggestible is the human mind? How is the suggestibility of our minds manipulated?

Book Excerpt Of The Week: "The Bond" By: The Three Doctors

"Helping to raise my sister taught me that parenting isn't easy. No matter what you tell kids and how much love you give them, they will still make mistakes. But I also learned that no matter how many mistakes they make, as long as you keep loving them and telling them the right thing, they will find their way back to the right path." -From, "The Bond" By: The Three Doctors

TODAY IS...

PLEASE PASS THIS ON! (EACH ONE TEACH ONE OR TWO!) THIS IS PHASE ONE ON HOW WE CAN HELP TO STRENGTHEN & EMPOWER OUR COMMUNITY:The 2008 not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case evoked outrage, emotion, and debate. It is not an anomaly that the police officers involved in the Sean Bell slaying were acquitted of all charges on all counts in State Supreme Court. I could run out of ink printing the names of people who have been victimized by the inaptly named justice system.

The American justice system has been especially terroristic towards the African American community. Many community members can cite historic and personal accounts to prove this. Therefore, it would be foolhardy (at the least) to turn to a system that has methodically oppressed us, and request that they free us. We can only free ourselves through extreme discipline and intelligent planning.

As a community we have been too compliant with leaders who organize ineffective, delayed reactions. The only strategy that can save us in this last hour is one that calls for a collective code of conduct that will be conducive to improving the conditions of our community, and shifting the paradigm of how we are treated by outside entities. The first step of this code of conduct should be based on economics.

The old adage of “money talks,” still reigns true in the new millennium. Any political scientist worth his or her library card will tell you that: “Economic powerlessness equals political powerlessness,” and conversely “economic power equals political power.” This means that if we continue to allow our wealth to be extracted from our community, we will remain impotent.

The power of the collective “Black Dollar” is often discussed. However, that power has been left unchanneled. Today is the day to change that. A one-time boycott is not going to bring long-term change and respect to our community. Our community has launched boycotts before. Our success and ascension will be based on what we consistently do. For this reason, we should initiate “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS.”

BUY BLACK FRIDAYS is a small step towards our community acquiring power via controlling our economics. Every Friday, people who acknowledge the injustice and oppression that the African American community has been consistently subjected to should do one of the following:

Option #1: Spend $0 on Friday
Option #2: Spend no more than $10 on Friday
Option #3: Only Shop at Black Businesses on Friday
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE OPTIONS CAN & SHOULD BE EXERCISED ON A DAILY BASIS. However, we can all at the very least focus on Fridays. This way we can take a collective stand and build our collective discipline. Please remember that this is only Phase 1!].

To the people who are tempted to label “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS” as racist, I say this: In the big scheme of things, this is about right & wrong, justice & injustice. The African American community is a strong, proud community that has endured the brunt of America’s iron fist. We must stop the pounding. I feel that any fair-minded individual will concur, and join in.

ANY business that is privileged to enjoy the support of the African American community MUST return that support.

I thank you in advance for your effort and dedication.

-Elsie Law AKA Starface

Quote Of The Day

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." -George Bernard Shaw

Quote Of The Day

"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful." -Mark Victor Hansen

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Word Pic Of The Week: Black Mannequins In New York Part 2

Fulton Street Retailer Store Window. Brooklyn, New York.

Quote Of The Day

"When I dare to be powerful- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." -Audre Lorde

Quote Of The Day

"Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of." -Jonathan Swift

Quote Of The Day

"Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your promotion." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote Of The Day

"It�s a very funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." -William Somerset Maugham

Quote Of The Day

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." -Bruce Lee

Book Excerpt Of The Week: Part 2- “Secret Societies of America’s Elite” By: Steven Sora

“The universities and museums determined how the history books would be written. They could color the past to suit themselves or others. The opium clippers were referred to as ‘tea clippers.’ The slave trade became the ‘sugar and molasses trade.’ Wartime profiteering and price gouging were simply not discussed. Slave traders who were now bank presidents were ‘prominent businessmen.’ And many people whose fortunes were built on opium and slave trading became those prominent businessmen.” -From, “Secret Societies of America’s Elite” By: Steven Sora

Book Excerpt Of The Week: Part 1- “Secret Societies of America’s Elite” By: Steven Sora

“The country was gripped by a fear of anyone who was foreign- Chinese, African, Italian, or Eastern European. The Eugenics records Office (ERO) was created and funded by the wealthiest people of the day to reduce the population of the poor. The ERO, which was funded by John D. Rockefeller, the Carnegie Institution, George Eastman, and the widow of E. H. Harriman, singled out specific undesirable traits, from alcoholism to an inordinate love of the sea, and then sought to sterilize those who exhibited such traits. The movement grew in America and was adopted by Nazi Germany, which then showed the world the ultimate expression of these beliefs.” -From, “Secret Societies of America’s Elite” By: Steven Sora

TODAY IS...

PLEASE PASS THIS ON! (EACH ONE TEACH ONE OR TWO!) THIS IS PHASE ONE ON HOW WE CAN HELP TO STRENGTHEN & EMPOWER OUR COMMUNITY:The 2008 not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case evoked outrage, emotion, and debate. It is not an anomaly that the police officers involved in the Sean Bell slaying were acquitted of all charges on all counts in State Supreme Court. I could run out of ink printing the names of people who have been victimized by the inaptly named justice system.

The American justice system has been especially terroristic towards the African American community. Many community members can cite historic and personal accounts to prove this. Therefore, it would be foolhardy (at the least) to turn to a system that has methodically oppressed us, and request that they free us. We can only free ourselves through extreme discipline and intelligent planning.

As a community we have been too compliant with leaders who organize ineffective, delayed reactions. The only strategy that can save us in this last hour is one that calls for a collective code of conduct that will be conducive to improving the conditions of our community, and shifting the paradigm of how we are treated by outside entities. The first step of this code of conduct should be based on economics.

The old adage of “money talks,” still reigns true in the new millennium. Any political scientist worth his or her library card will tell you that: “Economic powerlessness equals political powerlessness,” and conversely “economic power equals political power.” This means that if we continue to allow our wealth to be extracted from our community, we will remain impotent.

The power of the collective “Black Dollar” is often discussed. However, that power has been left unchanneled. Today is the day to change that. A one-time boycott is not going to bring long-term change and respect to our community. Our community has launched boycotts before. Our success and ascension will be based on what we consistently do. For this reason, we should initiate “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS.”

BUY BLACK FRIDAYS is a small step towards our community acquiring power via controlling our economics. Every Friday, people who acknowledge the injustice and oppression that the African American community has been consistently subjected to should do one of the following:

Option #1: Spend $0 on Friday
Option #2: Spend no more than $10 on Friday
Option #3: Only Shop at Black Businesses on Friday
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE OPTIONS CAN & SHOULD BE EXERCISED ON A DAILY BASIS. However, we can all at the very least focus on Fridays. This way we can take a collective stand and build our collective discipline. Please remember that this is only Phase 1!].

To the people who are tempted to label “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS” as racist, I say this: In the big scheme of things, this is about right & wrong, justice & injustice. The African American community is a strong, proud community that has endured the brunt of America’s iron fist. We must stop the pounding. I feel that any fair-minded individual will concur, and join in.

ANY business that is privileged to enjoy the support of the African American community MUST return that support.

I thank you in advance for your effort and dedication.

-Elsie Law AKA Starface

Quote Of The Day

"When you want to destroy a community; when you want to destroy a people; you destroy the nature of their romantic love- destroy their ability to love another in a healthy way...The love that we have for one another is the greatest threat to the people who rule over us." -Amos N. Wilson

Video Of The Week

[SIDEBAR: I'm still searching for any Black-owned hair supply stores, fruit & vegetable stands, laundromats, and art supply stores in the NYC area (as well as nationwide).]

How Some Of America's Institutions Were Founded...

“For the Browns, wealth led to greater power, and John Brown became a congressman representing Rhode Island; fellow slave trader James De Wolf represented the state as a senator. Profit from the trade brought the trappings of wealth. When former President John Quincy Adams visited the Browns’ home he called it ‘the most magnificent and elegant mansion that I have ever seen on this continent.’ Today the house still stands at Fifty-Two Power Street in Providence, where it is operated by the Rhode Island Historical Society, which would like the family’s slave trading mentioned as little as possible.

The fact that the Brown family fortune was made in the slave trade is a matter of historical record. In August 1797 John Brown became the first American to be tried in federal court for violating the Slave Trade Act. Brown’s legal maneuvers and favors from cohorts did not save him from reaching the court, as his brother Moses was the person pressing charges. Moses had seen firsthand the horrors of the slave ship and subsequently quit the family business and became its greatest opponent. His efforts stopped the importation of slaves into Rhode Island, and he helped enact a federal law against it. A bill freeing children of slaves and completely banning the trade would have succeeded, but William Bradford of Bristol removed the clause on the ban. His rum business depended on the slave trade. The business of his son-in-law, James De Wolf, depended on in more. John Brown died in 1803, before the trade was banned forever.

The profits from the slave trade helped the Brown family reach immortality. Near the Power Street hose stands Brown University. Because the Browns were such great benefactors, the school originally known as Rhode Island College showed the family the ultimate gratitude by changing its name to Brown University. Although Brown University is the great monument to the profits of the Browns’ slave trade, a lesser known monument to John Brown is the Fleet Financial Group of New England. Brown was one of the founders in 1791 when it was called the Providence Bank. It merged with Samuel Colt’s creation, the Industrial Trust, and underwent a name change to Industrial National Bank. In 1982, the Rhode Island bank changed its name again to Fleet Financial. Finally it merged with the Bank of Boston to become the seventh largest financial holding company in the United States.” -From, “Secret Societies of America’s Elite” By: Steven Sora

Quote Of The Day

"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, a heart of grace and a soul generated by love." -Coretta Scott King

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words Pic Of The Week

Huey Newton and the youth.

Quote Of The Day

"I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people." -Huey Newton

[SIDEBAR: Happy Birthday to Huey Newton.]

Quote Of The Day

"Treat the earth well, It was not given to you by your parents, It was loaned to you by your children." -Native American Proverb

Quote Of The Day

"I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness." -Mother Teresa

Quote Of The Day

"The only way that love can triumph is in the absence of fear. Love cannot dwell in a heart possessed by fear. You have to cast that out because that's where faith lies." -Dr. Joy Degruy

[SIDEBAR: Happy 2nd Anniversary to The Legal Eagles Community Newsletter Blog!]

Quote Of The Day

"Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real." -Tupac Shakur

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Word Pic Of The Week: Black Mannequins In New York Part 1

[NOTE: THE ABOVE IMAGE WAS SPOTTED BY VERSE*ALL. SPECIAL THANKS TO HIM.]

This was the store window of a "popular high-end" New York City department store at the start of Black History Month. What is the message that the retailer is trying to send? A store front window with Black mannequins, multiple plates of cornbread and a picture of Abraham Lincoln on the wall.

[SIDEBAR: The regular visitors to this blog have probably noticed that the blog postings aren't as structured as they use to be. For a period of time I had daily postings regarding law and commerce. However, I am now posting my entries in a less structured format.

Doing my postings this way, is going with my natural flow of things right now. I never want my writings or artistic creations to be forced. I am currently in a mode of sharing what I am studying and what I come across as it comes. I hope that you are still inspired, informed, and provoked to think by the entries that I post here.

Thanks for your support.

Lots of Love Always,

Elsie Law The Rap Starlet aka Starface]

TODAY IS...

PLEASE PASS THIS ON! (EACH ONE TEACH ONE OR TWO!) THIS IS PHASE ONE ON HOW WE CAN HELP TO STRENGTHEN & EMPOWER OUR COMMUNITY:The 2008 not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case evoked outrage, emotion, and debate. It is not an anomaly that the police officers involved in the Sean Bell slaying were acquitted of all charges on all counts in State Supreme Court. I could run out of ink printing the names of people who have been victimized by the inaptly named justice system.

The American justice system has been especially terroristic towards the African American community. Many community members can cite historic and personal accounts to prove this. Therefore, it would be foolhardy (at the least) to turn to a system that has methodically oppressed us, and request that they free us. We can only free ourselves through extreme discipline and intelligent planning.

As a community we have been too compliant with leaders who organize ineffective, delayed reactions. The only strategy that can save us in this last hour is one that calls for a collective code of conduct that will be conducive to improving the conditions of our community, and shifting the paradigm of how we are treated by outside entities. The first step of this code of conduct should be based on economics.

The old adage of “money talks,” still reigns true in the new millennium. Any political scientist worth his or her library card will tell you that: “Economic powerlessness equals political powerlessness,” and conversely “economic power equals political power.” This means that if we continue to allow our wealth to be extracted from our community, we will remain impotent.

The power of the collective “Black Dollar” is often discussed. However, that power has been left unchanneled. Today is the day to change that. A one-time boycott is not going to bring long-term change and respect to our community. Our community has launched boycotts before. Our success and ascension will be based on what we consistently do. For this reason, we should initiate “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS.”

BUY BLACK FRIDAYS is a small step towards our community acquiring power via controlling our economics. Every Friday, people who acknowledge the injustice and oppression that the African American community has been consistently subjected to should do one of the following:

Option #1: Spend $0 on Friday
Option #2: Spend no more than $10 on Friday
Option #3: Only Shop at Black Businesses on Friday
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE OPTIONS CAN & SHOULD BE EXERCISED ON A DAILY BASIS. However, we can all at the very least focus on Fridays. This way we can take a collective stand and build our collective discipline. Please remember that this is only Phase 1!].

To the people who are tempted to label “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS” as racist, I say this: In the big scheme of things, this is about right & wrong, justice & injustice. The African American community is a strong, proud community that has endured the brunt of America’s iron fist. We must stop the pounding. I feel that any fair-minded individual will concur, and join in.

ANY business that is privileged to enjoy the support of the African American community MUST return that support.

I thank you in advance for your effort and dedication.

-Elsie Law AKA Starface

Quote Of The Day

"Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two; and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before." -Jacob A. Riis

Black History Fact Of The Day

Reginald Lewis was the first African American to build a billion dollar company.

Riddle Me This: The Name Game Edition

I came across a book excerpt (included below), that states that the "Wheel of Fortune" was once the name of a slave ship. I wonder if the creators of the long-running game show of the same name are aware of this. The book excerpt is as follows:

"Needing funds for his business, Nicholas Brown fitted out the first Guineaman- a name given to mean a slave ship trading with Africa- the 'Mary,' for the slave trade. In 1736 his son Obadiah Brown signed on as the supercargo, or head trader, on what would become Providence's first venture into the slave-trading business. Obadiah soon came into his own and fitted out another ship, the 'Wheel of Fortune,' to join in the trade. The young man then bought the entire family into the business and developed a colony-wide reputation." -From, "Secret Societies of America's Elite" By: Steven Sora

Quote Of The Day

"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression." -Malcolm X

Quote Of The Day

"It's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving." -Mother Teresa

Quote Of The Day

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression." -Robert Kennedy

Video Of The Week

Listen to the words of Amos Wilson as he discusses the education system, and the family structure.

The Importance Of Knowing Your History: Part 6

“When we get into social amnesia- into forgetting our history- we also forget or misinterpret the history and motives of others as well as our own motives. The way to know other people is to know one’s self. The way to learn of our own creation, how we came to be what we are, is getting to know ourselves. It is through getting to know the self intimately that we get to know the forces that shape us as a self. Therefore, knowing the self becomes a knowledge of the world. A deep study of Black History is the most profound way to learn about the psychology of Europeans and to understand the psychology that flows from their history.

If we don’t know ourselves, not only are we a puzzle to ourselves; other people are also a puzzle to us as well. We assume the wrong identity and identify ourselves with our enemies. If we don’t know who we are then we are whomever somebody tells us we are.” -From, "The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness" By: Amos N. Wilson

Quote Of The Day

"Our mentality has been reversed and our behavior made backwards because we take the lie for the truth, and the truth for the lie. A small minority in the world can only rule by making backwards the mentality of the large majority. It makes mentally backwards the large majority by reversing the truth, creating lies and getting the majority to believe the lies that it creates." -Amos Wilson

Quote Of The Day

"Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings." -Victor Hugo

Black History Fact Of The Day

According to Wikipedia, on this day in 1820: "The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia."

Quote Of The Day

"In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure." -Malcolm X

TODAY IS...

PLEASE PASS THIS ON! (EACH ONE TEACH ONE OR TWO!) THIS IS PHASE ONE ON HOW WE CAN HELP TO STRENGTHEN & EMPOWER OUR COMMUNITY:The 2008 not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case evoked outrage, emotion, and debate. It is not an anomaly that the police officers involved in the Sean Bell slaying were acquitted of all charges on all counts in State Supreme Court. I could run out of ink printing the names of people who have been victimized by the inaptly named justice system.

The American justice system has been especially terroristic towards the African American community. Many community members can cite historic and personal accounts to prove this. Therefore, it would be foolhardy (at the least) to turn to a system that has methodically oppressed us, and request that they free us. We can only free ourselves through extreme discipline and intelligent planning.

As a community we have been too compliant with leaders who organize ineffective, delayed reactions. The only strategy that can save us in this last hour is one that calls for a collective code of conduct that will be conducive to improving the conditions of our community, and shifting the paradigm of how we are treated by outside entities. The first step of this code of conduct should be based on economics.

The old adage of “money talks,” still reigns true in the new millennium. Any political scientist worth his or her library card will tell you that: “Economic powerlessness equals political powerlessness,” and conversely “economic power equals political power.” This means that if we continue to allow our wealth to be extracted from our community, we will remain impotent.

The power of the collective “Black Dollar” is often discussed. However, that power has been left unchanneled. Today is the day to change that. A one-time boycott is not going to bring long-term change and respect to our community. Our community has launched boycotts before. Our success and ascension will be based on what we consistently do. For this reason, we should initiate “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS.”

BUY BLACK FRIDAYS is a small step towards our community acquiring power via controlling our economics. Every Friday, people who acknowledge the injustice and oppression that the African American community has been consistently subjected to should do one of the following:

Option #1: Spend $0 on Friday
Option #2: Spend no more than $10 on Friday
Option #3: Only Shop at Black Businesses on Friday
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE OPTIONS CAN & SHOULD BE EXERCISED ON A DAILY BASIS. However, we can all at the very least focus on Fridays. This way we can take a collective stand and build our collective discipline. Please remember that this is only Phase 1!].

To the people who are tempted to label “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS” as racist, I say this: In the big scheme of things, this is about right & wrong, justice & injustice. The African American community is a strong, proud community that has endured the brunt of America’s iron fist. We must stop the pounding. I feel that any fair-minded individual will concur, and join in.

ANY business that is privileged to enjoy the support of the African American community MUST return that support.

I thank you in advance for your effort and dedication.

-Elsie Law AKA Starface

Quote Of The Day

"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing." -Mother Teresa

The Importance Of Knowing Your History: Part 5

“As Russell Jacoby says in his book, ‘Social Amnesia’: “Exactly because the past is forgotten, it rues unchallenged. To be transcended it first must be remembered. Social amnesia is society’s repression of remembrance.’

Simply because we choose to forget a traumatic event, simply because we choose not to learn of a traumatic history and a history that may make us feel ashamed, does not mean that that history is not controlling our behavior. Simply because we don’t know our history, and may not have heard of it, does not mean that the history does not control our behavior.

One of the most profound things that we’ve learned in psychology is that the most powerful forces that shape human behavior are those factors that are consciously not remembered by human beings, that are unknown by the person, are those experiences the individual can swear he’s never had. That is one of the paradoxes of human behavior, that the very things that shape us and make us behave the way we do, see the world the way we see it and relate to people the way we relate to them, are those things that occurred in our lives at points we cannot remember or recall.

The personality is in part shaped in the womb itself; shaped by the genes, shaped in part by the birth process itself; shaped in the very first two year of life. Yet very few, if any of us, can remember in detail those first two years of life. Yet it is those very first two years that determine our behavior from ‘8 to 80.’ And so the idea that we don’t know, that we’re not aware of certain early experiences, doe not mean that we have escaped their effects. In fact it puts us more profoundly under the influence of these unknown forces...

Those people and parents who have escaped their own history as a result of trying to escape anxiety, fear, shame and so forth, may pass escapism onto their children as history. That history of escapism then becomes a part of their personality and they become vulnerable to addictions and all other kinds of terrible habits and orientations in the world. Why do we think we were robbed of our history if it was not to serve this purpose?

The individual who has amnesia suffers distortion of and blindness to reality. The individual who cuts himself off from his history is self-alienated. There’s a whole part of himself that’s completely shut off from his use. It’s as if there were two parts. One part is unknown, yet because it is unknown doesn’t mean that it is not effective. We have to devote energy to unknowing. We have to direct perception to unknowing. We have to say: ‘Let me turn my face so I cannot see; let me not think about it.’ So the struggle to not know itself becomes a creator of behavior and personality structure. So the idea that not knowing one’s history somehow permits one to escape it is a lie. In fact, it brings one under the domination of the more pernicious effects of that history and opens the personality up for self-alienation, self-destruction.

A person who is suffering from amnesia lives a life based on negation, not on affirmation, not on growth and development, but lives life in such a way as to deny life and reality and to deny parts of his own personality and himself. Life then becomes a negation and is used to maintain a negation instead of life as it should be lived- as affirmation, as growth, enhancement and development. And people who live their lives as a negation live the lives that we see ourselves living today- going deeper and deeper into hell and going deeper into self destruction as a people.

History is real; it brings real, tangible results. When we wish to negate it and not integrate it, when we wish to negate it and not affirm it, then it negates us in the end. The negation wins out. The Afrikan person who lives in social amnesia brought on by the projection of mythological Eurocentric history, lives a life that is unintegrated and misunderstood." -From, "The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness" By: Amos N. Wilson

Quote Of The Day

"For even when our history shows us where we have been weak, it is also showing us how, through our own efforts, we can become strong again." -Chancellor Williams

The Importance Of Knowing Your History: Part 4

“If we don’t know our history, or if we’ve made our history unconscious and therefore placed it out of awareness, that unconscious history becomes a source of unconscious motivation, then why we behave the way we do becomes a puzzle. We’re confused by our own behavior. If we want to know why we behave the way we do then we must know our history: the unconscious must be made conscious.” -From, “The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness” By: Amos N. Wilson

The Importance Of Knowing Your History: Part 3

“Historiography may function as propaganda- propaganda being an effort to persuade people to a point of view on an issue. History can be used to intimidate. European achievements are inflated and the next thing we know, we are asking ourselves ‘How can we fight this great people?’ We’ve been frightened! They talk about the great discoveries they’ve made and we say to ourselves, ‘Hey, we’d better hang in with these people because if we lose them we’re going back to the Dark Ages.’ We think this way because they’ve destroyed our confidence, our capacity to think for ourselves and to believe that we are capable of creating a world as great or greater than the Eurocentric one that presently exists. In this way European historiography functions to maintain a social system, to ‘psychologize’ and create a personality orientation in its readers or hearers.” -From, “The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness” By: Amos N. Wilson

Quote Of The Day

"Never become so busy that you don't listen to the birds, enjoy the warmth of the sun, walk along the water, and appreciate the gifts of God." -Jawanza Kunjufu

The Importance Of Knowing Your History: Part 2

“We have an issue here that I call the projection and image of history. History has been down-played in this society. History has a poor reputation; often it is looked upon by too many people as essentially a set of dates and events. People ask: ‘Why should I study these events; what does it have to do with today?’ It is as if they say, ‘OK, it may be used to explain how some things came about in today’s world, but probably we could live without it.’ Often history- among even many of our people- even so-called Black History itself, has been looked upon as irrelevant and unprofitable. The idea is, ‘Why study Black History; it’s not going to make me any money? It’s not going to get me a job; what can you do with it? You should get yourself a degree in computer science; get yourself a trade. I’m not interested in Black Power; I’m interested in Green Power.’ These statements express foolish concepts. When we hear them we recognize that the individual has not seen the connection between history, power and money. There is a direct connection between history and economics.

I often say in this regard that if there were not a direct relationship between history and money, a direct relationship between history and power, history and rulership, history and domination, then why is it that the European rewrote history? Why is it that the European wants to rewrite our history and distort it? Why is it that he doesn’t want to present it at all? Apparently the rewriting, the distortion and the stealing of our history must serve vital economic, political and social functions for the European, or else he would not bother and try so hard to keep our history away from us, and to distort it in our own minds. Let us meditate on these issues and I think we’ll come to realize that there is a direct relationship between history and economics, political and social development.

History is projected in this culture as being irrelevant, I don’t think by accident. Again, if it is made to look irrelevant, if it is made to look unprofitable, then making it appear so must serve some profitable purpose. When courses in college or university are apparently presented ‘non-politically,’ ‘objectively,’ ‘neutrally,’ they are actually presented in the most political way. We must understand that it is in the nature of this racist culture to hide its political agenda. Therefore, it presents so-called facts and information as if they have no political connections or implications.” -From, “The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness” By: Amos N. Wilson

Quote Of The Day

"There is no such thing as a lack of faith. We all have plenty of faith, it's just that we have faith in the wrong things. We have faith in what can't be done rather than what can be done. We have faith in lack rather than abundance but there is no lack of faith. Faith is a law." -Eric Butterworth

The Importance Of Knowing Your History: Part 1

“The study of history cannot be a mere celebration of those who struggled on our behalf. We must be instructed by history and should transform history into concrete reality, into planning and development, into the construction of power and the ability to ensure our survival as a people. If not, Black History Month becomes an exercise in the inflation of egos; it becomes an exercise that cuts us further off from reality. Ironically, we now even see other people who are not our friends joining us in this celebration, which means that they must see in it some means of protecting their own interests, and see in it something that works for them, and possibly even against us. If they can celebrate our history and see it as something positive, then it means that we are not using it in a revolutionary sense. They do not see our study of it as a threat to their power. If we are not studying it in a way that it is a threat to their power then we are studying it incorrectly, and our celebration of it is helping to maintain us in a state of deception. So let us make sure that we look at and study history in a light such that it advances out interests, not inflates our egos and blinds us to reality.” -From, “The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness” By: Amos N. Wilson

Quote Of The Day

"If you want peace, work for justice." -Henry Louis Mencken