I thought it fitting to begin the New Year with some clarification. When I initially started this blog it was more my intent to talk about some of the misconceptions we have with people who lead alternative lifestyles. My time partying with my girls in Atlanta was the most fun and enlightening experience in my life. Of course the birth of children and marriages… in my case a divorce rank way up there in life's highlights… But the celebration of my birth into a new reality is just as important to me as the day I hooked up with someone else. In fact I believe that when women can celebrate who they are regardless of what man may be in their lives the make much better partners. It was my experience in Atlanta exploring the "drug" culture that I had my epiphany… Some find theirs in church; some find theirs in marriage, children and a whole variety of things. Only those who reach enlightenment in themselves will have lasting enlightenment. I'm not going to talk about church or the followers of Jesus on my Fun Fridays because well quite frankly they can be very scary. They don't lean much toward fun and enjoyment and after growing up with the church and Christianity forced upon me I must leave that series to another day. Now lets get some facts before we begin to judge.
It is very hard to begin explaining looking at the world from a different lens especially when looking at a portion of the drug culture. For those who are Christians I admonish you to look to your Bible there is at least one scripture that states, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
Let's carry on… Cocaine is a derivative of the coca leaf. The ancient Mayan cultures of the Andes mountains used it as a part of their lives and religious practices for eons. When they were invaded by the Spanish and enslaved the Spaniards noticed that the natives wanted little else than coca leaf during their captivity. As a result of being oppressed, they began to rely more heavily on the coca-leaf. There is no record that the invaders came upon a society which was in all out warfare or engaging in countless acts of immorality due to their use of the coca-leaf. If I sound like I am being repetitive or simple it is because we have so long been brainwashed to think anything unlike Western culture is somehow a lesser culture. In fact in order to hold a certain standard or way of life all of our reading material and media presentations paint one way of being and living as good and anything unlike it is bad. That's why we have God and an opposite power… the Devil so that anyone not abiding by western standards have a way to be singled out and divided… Classic Willie Lynch, classic Carl Rove divide and conquer.
In the 1800's African slaves were given coca leaf to increase productivity. Yes, using the coca plant to increase the profit margin was perfectly ok. There were no reports of increased immoral or criminal behavior. In fact, the first the first time the deadly dangers of any drugs were in the late 1800's in San Francisco. However: no one was jumping up and down yelling that smoking opium was dangerous. The main argument of banning opium smoking in the opium dens of San Francisco was that white women may find themselves being taken advantage of by the then dreaded "Chinese" men. Locking up people for buying and selling drugs has never been for the health safety and welfare of Americans. It has been to control the market on drug sales and provide a way to continue keeping people of color from mixing with whites. Think back to Harper Lee's, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Lee describes the aging aunt in the story as a dear old ailing aunt. Not the morphine addict, not as an embarrassment to the family. The dear old aunt was never described as the morally barren fiend that followed in the descriptions of addicts during the era post emancipation proclamation. The attitudes about drug use changed with the enactment of the Harrison Drug act of 1914 which dealt with the use of cocaine. Further, the Harrison Drug Act of 1914 did not make cocaine illegal but, regulated it's use to those who could afford healthcare. It had to be prescribed by a physician. Of course the method of treating drug addiction during this era was to place the addict in a sanitarium and give them decreasing dosages of the drug until they were eventually able to cope without it.
Such was not the case with blacks. The same cocaine that was given to slaves to improve productivity was to be kept from the hands of the Negro because… Well lets guess… Because cocaine was dangerous? Because it may have harmful effects? No because the Negro fiend was harder to kill! The Harrison Act was passed in part of propaganda blaming blacks protests about horrible post slavery conditions as some sort of craze caused by drug abuse. Now why would there be a need to kill a black addict and not a white addict? According to Michael Cohen who wrote, "Jim Crow's War on Drugs," the drug abuse of white women soared out of control during this period. They were not deemed menaces and vessels of barren immorality. Check out http://www.drugpolicy.org to check the facts. The war on drugs started as a way to bring the North and South back together post Civil War against a common threat the negro addict whose morality and gainful employment was not being affected by occasional drug use but by racism and prejudice to shut them out. This common theme has been used effectively throughout U.S. history to divide and detain people of color.
Sadly the result has been African-Americans living and suffering these racist policies in silence while 1 in 9 black men has been imprisoned. I grew up in church, I know the grievous looks of a sister whose son has been locked up once again. I have seen the pain of failure in her face and heard it in her voice. Western culture has done such a number on us that people blame themselves because their children got caught in a trap laid for them rather than looking at the trapper to stop trapping my baby! This system has created criminals… Why can Bernard Madoff cheat people out of BILLIONS, but my brothers and sisters get swept up in raids never to be seen again for holding a couple of keys of cocaine. Look Fun Fridays are supposed to be fun. However, it would be an extreme disservice if I recall these events without bringing to people's attention the plight of brothers and sisters who are deemed in need of salvation rather than advocacy. Oh how many times have I heard prison ministries bringing "Jesus" to inmates. But I dare to say many of them were saved and did believe in Jesus and are no more in need of salvation then the diabetic who over medicates with food to the point of having to have limbs amputated. Many of these brothers know exactly who Jesus is… exactly who Allah is well before the iron gates close. They have merely been caught up in a deadly game played by narrow thinkers who use fear and divisiveness to save themselves.
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Fun Friday's were not always fun I would be remiss if I did not admit to this. People got hurt people lost property and dignity. These losses were not indicative of immorality or a need to find something or someone outside of them. The casualties occurred because people needed to find them. Because, America, Americans, Christians, Muslims and whoever has stake in this planet to denounce oppression and oppressive systems. The ugly things that happened on Fun Fridays happened because, oppressed people found solace in oppressive behaviors. The immorality that occurred, happened because there was not enough money, employers beat them down, a whole gamut of things outside of themselves. Of course the American way is to pull yourself up by your own boot straps. You can't blame others for your failures even if you see them crouched with fingers wrapped around the edges of carpet on which you stand. We see where that line of thinking has gotten us. Oppression has been the culprit more so than addiction. Of course one may argue that healing comes from within. I challenge you if you stub your toe in the night, the next morning you remove the offending object if it can be moved.. Don't you? Can't oppression be moved?
Follow the Fun Fridays series @ http://abenadiva.blogspot.com Make sure to subscribe… This posting in its entirety belongs to Abenadiva and may not be republished without express permission from the Women's Institute of Economic Empowerment LLC.
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