So, What’s Free, then?
Meek Mill ain’t wrong…
“Free is when nobody else can tell you what to be.”
He ain’t wrong…he just defined something he, himself, doesn’t have. If he were to decide to be something that white power doesn’t approve of, he would either remake himself in their image, or be cancelled like Ye.
Can he afford to be cancelled?
Can any of us?
Can you afford to take a stance that might cost you your job and ALL prospects of employment in the future?
If you cannot render to Caesar what Caesar requires, without the need for employment/contracts from white power, then you ain’t free.
If you must stomach the daily dose of indignity dolled out to Black people in American society, then you ain’t free.
Free is being able to “not give a shit” if white power decides to put out a “do not hire this nigger” directive on you.
Are you free?
Or do you still need to be able to stand on the auction block, hoping to be picked by a “good master?”
And worse…have you fooled yourself into thinking that you aren’t on an auction block every time you look for work?
In my journey, I’ve come to an important realization about freedom. There is a difference between “freedom from” and “freedom within.”
Many of us have “freedom within” white society. Freedom within white society means you have more control over your body and movement than other niggers. We can go places the other niggers cannot go. We can do things the other niggers can’t do. We can afford the things white folk have determined to be luxuries.
Like the slave whose master trusted him to drive the wagon to the store, negroes possessing “freedom within” are able to feel good about themselves because they can look down on all the other niggers who can’t do like they do. And those negroes will do all in their power to keep their privilege…to keep white power happy and appeased.
But, such a negro only has freedom within white society. And that freedom only goes as far as white power will allow it. Your mind and spirit remain colonized, and then your mind and spirit condition your body to accept degrees of “negro subordination.” That is not the same as “freedom from.”
“Freedom from” white society means being beyond the control of white power. When you are free from white power, you no longer must present yourself to the auction block to be chosen by a “good master.” When you are free from white society, you have the ability to pay whatever taxes Caesar requires and engage with the larger white society if and when you want to engage.
Freedom from white society means no longer looking to white society for guidance on living a “good life.” It means knowing white society has no answers for a truly good life. It means rejecting their religion and education. Not just going to a “Black church” or an “HBCU,” both of which are rooted in whiteness and condition us to enjoy freedom within white society, but complete rejection of Western ways of intellectual and spiritual knowing. Freedom from white power means wholistic freedom: body, mind and spirit.
So, how do you “get free?” How do you move beyond “freedom within” white society? What has to happen in order for you to gain your freedom from white power?
That’s where we go next.