BITS 'N PIECES
by Sista Shiriki Unganisha
Greetings, Sistas & Brothas,
As we continue to work with our children in these stupid factories (schools),
we are more and more convinced that we must educate our children ourselves.
The majority of our children are caught up in the material world, and we
must admit, these children were not born with Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Dooney
and Burke and all these other white folk our children feel they must display
on their head, feet and ass.
I see babies (9 months) with name-brand sneakers that cost at least $30,
while draped in all the white name brand designers you can think of, and
within the next month or so, they will not be able to wear these items.
Where did our children get the thirst for these irrelevant items?
If we are honest, this is being instilled in our children at home by us!
We are truly in a battle for the minds of our children, and we are losing
this battle. The influence of the idiot box (TV) is powerful, to say the
least. If the TV didn't say it, it did not happen as far as our children
are concerned.
Conversating with young people, I find they always refer to a movie--not
to something they read, but something your enemy has put together to enterTRAIN
you. This is not unique to young people; there are too many old knee-grows
that refer to movies instead of factual documentation.
In a class discussion about selling drugs in our community, too many students
felt it was okay to sell drugs. When asked why, they gave statements of
"We need clothes" and "Yo mama be fussin' about da bills
and you want to help her."
The students were asked, "Why not get a job at Mickey D or somewhere?
It's much safer than selling drugs, and most important, you won't be participating
in destroying your community!"
Brotha Sauti compared the danger of selling drugs to working at Mickey D.
He explained that it is much safer, first of all, and how you can take a
little money and make it work for you.
My grandmotha always told me, "A little money is better than no money"!
When you mess up somebody's burgers, a drive-by don't occur; however, when
you mess up the dope man's money you can expect some drama.
When the Mickey D cash register is short, workers are not killed; however,
when the money is short selling drugs, your life is in danger.
These are chances our children are too willing to take. As I stated earlier,
we must begin to reach and teach our children at the earliest ages possible.
The ideal time and place is to teach the child while it's in the womb. However,
the sistas' minds must be in such order to understand the importance of
teaching from the womb.
These young people do not want to hear anything about their afrikanness.
They look at sistas/brothas from the mothaland as "them" and "us."
This is no more than self-hatred that is passed down from generation to
generation, regardless of whether we are unaware that that is what we are
doing!
Our children feel no responsibility to the community; they feel that the
drug user is using drugs 'cause he/she wants to; therefore, they will be
the supplier for them.
Sharing these experiences, we hope the saying "Each One Teach One"
is beginning to take root in our respective communities.
We have begun to network and build the institutions that are needed to liberate
the afrikan nations.
Feel free to call Sista Shiriki at (819) 333-9814, or write me at P.O. Box
320441, Kansas City, MO 64132 or shiriki@gvi.net