"What's the Next Step?"

"What's the Next Step?"

The Nubian Message, North Carolina State University's African American student newspaper, was first published on November 30, 1992. In this September 22, 1994 editorial, "What's the Next Step?", staff columnist Danny Byers scathingly criticized contemporary African American leaders and organizations for their failure to change African Americans' poverty and inequality. He cited multiple examples of how racism still affected African Americans in the 1990s, thirty years after the civil rights movements of the 1960s, and he concluded based on that evidence that African Americans' "lost" the fight for racial equality. He went on to argue that African American leaders still mistakenly sought to fit into white American society, a mindset that he attributed to the legacy of slavery. Instead, he wrote, leaders should push African Americans to reject white cultural norms, particularly religious beliefs and denominations that emerged from white society. Leaders should also unite and have real discussions about how African Americans can help themselves, rather than pursue personal wealth and status in white society.

This editorial, filling an entire page of the newspaper and spilling into the next, is representative of the larger stance that the paper took in the mid-1990s towards African American issues. Many editorials from this time period criticized African American leadership, on campus and off, for being too passive and too acquiescent to white Americans. The editorials also called for African Americans to be proud of their culture, ideas, and experiences, and to turn that pride into political and social activism on behalf of their entire community.

Danny Byers, Staff Columnist

Danny Byers, "What's the Next Step?", The Nubian Message 3, no. 2 (September 22, 1994): 10-11. Digitized by the Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.

1994-09-22

Rose Buchanan

document

What's the Next Step?

By Danny Byers

The Minister Louis Farrakhan has told us a million times about who the cursed seed of Canaanite is and what they have/are doing to us and we have listened. We have listened to the doctrine of the Black Israelites and they have informed us that we are now the original Israelites that were spoken about in the Scriptures. Everybody has already told us all about their ideologies and doctrines which, of course, includes what the white man did, has done or is doing to us.

We overstand [sic] what the "Evil" one did to us: we see our condition and how bad off we are. We saw:
the South African situation, the Howard Beach situation, the Rodney King situation, the LA riots, the Ethiopian situation, the Florida riots, the Somalia situation and our situation in America everyday. We see our own people of Africa on television, frequently reflecting the grisly horrors of poverty and hunger. We saw Jobo Kinayata being assassinated by his own people in Ghana where the "Evil" one wanted to overthrow him. Yet, we remained in this condition.

We had our leadership who reminded us of the awful state that we were in: the Marcus Garvey's, the Leroy Jones, the Haile Selassie's, the Noble Drew Ali's, the Stokley Charmichael's [sic], the Black Panthers. We saw the Dr. Martin Luther King's and the Malcolm X's and yet we still remain in this condition.

Everyone saw the coming in of X the movie. We saw all of the good, old Nubian movies of the 60's and 70's like Shaft, Superfly and Cooley High to name a few. Now we are into the Spike Lee joints and the John Singleton dramas. We overstand [sic] the Black Thang and we got into the Nubian movies and the Black Revolutionary thing, but what has it really done for us? Better yet, what is it doing for us now? Was it just to open our eyes? Now that our eyes are opened, what do we do about our situation? We still have people setting up lectures and preaching; and they aren't saying anything we don't already know. We have all these Nubian organizations who aren't doing anything for the Black Thang, either. There is the Black Madonna Organization in Georgia, the NAACP, PUSH, SCC and CORE. We even have Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson out their [sic] preaching for us. Now that we have this total package what do we do with it? Have a revolution like some Nubian organizations propose that we do? We had a revolution in the 1960's and lost. We attempted another revolution after they beat up Rodney King and made a spectacle of it, yet we lost again. We can't go back to Africa because they made it desolate. So let down the Red, Black and Green flag and forget about "going back to Africa." Not only is the land desolate, but it is saturated with more AIDS than any other place on the planet. So we have no place to go. What now?

Sitting around in churches and mosques has not worked. We are in the same condition that allowed them to beat the crap out of Rodney King. They still win. You're still a slave and you're still being abused. They continue to drug us up; and now they are infecting us and giving our youth guns. They're still killing us - a mass genocide. Yet you remain worshipping [sic] their spook God, that doesn't even look like you. Our world is getting worse. We are in the lowest economic level and our music, culture and family life is being destroyed.

If you go to any Nubian neighborhood in America, there is at least three bad things that I can almost guarantee that you'll find: liquor stores, gun shops and a number of different churches. The problem with our people is that we have this mentality that we have to fit in or belong to something. Too many people out there telling you who you are and not enough trying to find out. Too many groups out there keeping us from the right knowledge of ourselves and heritage. How long shall we wait for the blond haired, blue eyed God to come from out the [sic] skies to ease our suffering? How long will we sit around with something that has not worked? Isn't about time to try something new?

This is what we must do. The first thing we must do is eliminate. It's not about a revolution with guns because they create all of the weapons. It isn't an economic war because they manufacture all of the money. It definitely isn't about a territorial war because they control the Untied Nations and the world including Africa and Israel. Forget about any underground genocide because we have no control over medical facilities. We spend too much time thinking that we are going to do something; but what are we really doing? Nothing. We are now approaching the time where he have to become effective. We must eliminate leadership both political and religious, that's not qualified. Our political leaders must quit crying foul when something bad has happened to us and get out there and prevent any wrongdoing before they may happen. Our religious leaders have got to understand the original languages of the doctrines that they teach us so that they may read the scriptures themselves and not rely on the other man's mistranslations. You say you're a Hebrew Israelite, fine. Let us hear fluent Aramaic. You claim to be a Muslim, great, let's hear the fluent Syriac (Arabic). We must eliminate all religious organizations that are not founded by our own people. Give them back to the slave master which means: so-long Episcopalians, adios Lutherans, good-bye Seventh Day Adventists. The Lutheran sect branched off and is a product from the Anglican Church of England. Martin Luther broke off and formed the Lutheran sect which was protesting against the Catholic Church or the Anglican Church which produced the Protestants. The Protestants produced the Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal. Then the Pentecostal tied into South America with the African religion called Yoruba which created what is called Santeria which is nothing but an African Yoruba religion with Christianity combined in it. You can have it back. You can have back your Christianity in its full spectrum because it has done nothing for us as a people.

Islam isn't much better, just another form of Christianity. The Nation of Islam is still worshipping [sic] the white image on a cross, only this time he's called "Master" W.D. Muhammad and there is no cross. So here we are near the end of 1994, having been in slavery since the 1600's and not one of these organizations: Black Moslems, African Moslems, Hebrews, Israelites, Panthers, 5%, etc. has found an [sic] solution to our problem.

We have to approach it from another point because we have a Egyptologists [sic] saying this, and Muslims over there saying that and Christians saying this while the Israelites are saying that. They are all confusing us as a nation. We are in a very bad way basically because of this confusion. Where's the right knowledge?

We are in a situation where we don't look up and see ourselves in leadership. We don't look up and see ourselves as teachers. We don't consult ourselves as physicians, pediatricians and surgeons. We are not looking at ourselves when we have a legal situation where we present ourselves through lawyers or legal aids. Everything we are looking at is the slave master. Stop looking for the slave master to get you out of this slump that you are in because you are always blaming him for your problems. Quit reaching out to people who don't reach out for you. Start reaching from amongst ourselves. Demand that our leadership form counsel or get with other leadership to determine who is most qualified to be our political leaders and religious leaders. Muslims grab your Qur'aans, Christians grab your Bibles. Doesn't it say that your Gods help those that help themselves? The problem is we have been looking for Allah or God or Jehovah or whatever [page 11] name you use, to change our condition without us first changing ourselves. While in bondage, we have developed some bad habits as a people. We're very negative people, we don't cooperate with each other, we don't respect each other, we don't even get along with each other. Even the Blackest (naturalist mind frame, not skin color) of us all are aspiring to get out of the Nubian neighborhoods into a rich White one. All of our successful brothers and sisters immediately move up into the "upper" white class and forget about the "lower" class. We need to put demands on all of our Nubian brothers and sisters that get rich off of us buying their music and watching their movies. Have the Michael Jackson's and the Oprah's and the Babyface's get together and form opportunities for us; or just refuse to support them. Have them build schools for our children that might aspire one day to become entertainers like them. It could all happen with simple meetings. It's about all of our doctors getting together and all of our entrepreneurs gathering in joint effort to give back to their families. Our first project is to go against people of our race. Stop punching the White man and calling him names, hit the sellout Nubian Entertainers and call them names. Demand that they help their own. We got to help ourselves and the time is now.

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