What do you mean, “We ain’t free?”

I know, I know…a lot of folk feel free. I mean, we live in the “land of the free.” So, what do I mean: “we ain’t free?”

Everyone except the descendants of the enslaved, made a free and conscious choice to embrace the West – even if misguided. They may have come here and later realized they fucked up. Yet, like Prince Akeem spinning the globe to find his queen, everyone else decided to leave where they were and be about “Coming to America.” They all scrounged up what money they could find in order to pay their fare for the journey.

We never made that decision. We were given no gold, neither were we given land. We had no tangible asset that would enable us to “pay our fare” out of New Babylon. They made us accept their currency instead, then made us put it in a (Freedman’s) bank, which allowed them to steal the wealth we were able to build. Even those Africans brought here illegally by white law, on the Baracoon, were denied passage back to the homes they knew existed.

We had no choice but accept (second-class) US Citizenship, and then feign gratefulness for it. We had no choice but submit to a “rule of law” that was established with our dehumanization and subjugation as a founding feature. There was no new Constitutional Convention, to include the the Delegates chosen by the free will and democratic vote of the newly Freedmen and Freedwomen. Neither on the Federal level, nor on the State level, were the newly Freedmen and Freedwomen allowed to have a say in the governments that would “re-form” the Union. The State Constitutions that were done during Reconstruction, were ultimately thrown out and re-written when Reconstruction was abruptly ended.

We had no choice but to agree that the system of government they devised…the system of government which had sanctioned our bondage, was the best system by which to secure our freedom. We remained subjects of the Republic and of the States that make up the Republic. We were made to pledge allegiance to a Republic that we had no free agency in forging. Yet again, we were forced to appease the guilty white conscience and make them feel like “good people” who “freed us,” and allowed us to have a (subordinate) seat at their table. To this day, you can see many Negroes traveling around the world selling the Colored Peoples of the World on the virtues of America and American Democracy.

The descendants of the enslaved didn’t come together and sort through a menu of options for “what will happen to us now,” in the wake of the Civil War. The best the several “Freedman’s Conventions” could do was try to bring about better relations between Black and white. We had no ability to “go home.” We didn’t even have a “home” to which we could return. And we had not the means by which to establish a home.

Our personal sovereignty was stolen and it has yet to be restored. Again, “the negro (still) has no rights which the white man (is) bound to respect.” 

Niggas, we ain’t free…

Look at what happened to Kyrie Irving for sharing a movie in the public domain. He can’t have thoughts that don’t conform to what white power determines to be acceptable. He can’t even consume knowledge that doesn’t appease white sensibilities. If he does, he will be buck broken like Denzel in Glory, for all of us to see and take note – reminding us of the limits of our so-called “freedom.”

Is this what you call “free?” Can you really ever be free if you rely upon a system where your rights depend upon having the right white man/woman in power who might respect your rights more than the other? (You realize that’s all we do in voting, right?)

If this amounts to freedom in your mind, then cool…enjoy your freedom. If not, then maybe you’ll take another step with me on this journey.