An Exposition on Identity

The San Joaquin Valley has been known for having some of the hottest summers on record in California, and I remember clearly during one of those summers I was working away on a patio.    The sweat was literally pouring off my face.  I could even feel it drip from my chin as each droplet  splattered on to the bricks and on to my hand.  It was a stifling heat wave that summer afternoon, but for some reason I was unusually chipper that day because it was the first time I had ever worked side by side with a black person.

 

There he  was a spry middle aged black man at the height of his professional career was working beside me.   Both of our hammers were striking in unison upon the bricks and in between each strike we both struggled for our own breathes which was mainly due to the stifling summer heat that day.   I clearly remember him wiping his eyes repeatedly for some reason.  And then after careful inspection it was because his blue contact lenses had dried up from the excessive salt from his sweatiness.   Then his perm gave way and lost its luster and began to become frizzy only to reveal the face of his naked blackness.  But again, like I said, I was chipper that day and loving every minute of it.

 

I looked up and there was a caucasian man sitting  near where we were working - the boss - with his tall glass of ice cold lemonade, beads of water running down the side of the glass, and that straw hat.  The smile of satisfaction smitten across his chubby face.  He had the face of a much older America on him. 

 

The idea of equality is an experiment and has been for a little over sixty years now.  We now have the first hybrid President of America, son of an African and a White.  A man who has no historical connection with the African American experience whatsoever.  Many African Americans weren't even aware that Hawaii was part of America back when I was growing up, but our now Commander and Chief did.   He was/is more in tune with other cultures than his darker half.

 

Again, I was working side by side with a black man for the first time on that hot summer afternoon and I was happy.  We weren't competing that day - we were equals.  We had absolutely nothing to prove that day - we were equals.  We had no guns in our hands because we were applying ourselves towards a common goal - we were equals.  We weren't being envious of each other and stabbing each other in the back - we were equals that day.  No skullduggery!

 

Human nature defies equality.  It teaches us to do just the opposite.  We are supposed to out do each other, even if it means to deveive each other if necessary.  Human nature defies equality.  What do you think lead to the undoing of Communism?   We say that all men are created equal.  We now know that this is not entirely true since equality is merely an opinion aggrandized over and over again by the upper crust of society and by those who live far beyond the bread line.  

 

America is a good guiding point.  If Capitalism fails like Democracy is slowly failing, then so will the notion of equality.   If Capitalism thrives then we assume it's because we have a diverse society and that  because of this diversity we can meet the challenges of the future better because of the various talents of an ethnically diverse people.

 

The Equality of Slavery title is directed exclusively towards African Americans.   Are you a better people because of the notion of freedom and equality?   Or, are you worse off in terms of what human dignity means for the entire black race as a whole ?  You still sit back and allow others to feed, clothe, and educate your people in North America and abroad.   Is it Brad Pitts, Madonna, and Jolie's responsibility to adopt little black babies?  And then feed and clothe so many thousands more in Africa?   Are AA a better people than you were during slavery days?   You achieved more as a race when you were fighting for equality than after achieving it.  You do less, and then demand more for less at the same time because some of you have achieved your own financial goals while the rest of your people struggle to find your way up the cold  worn bricks of the white corporate power structure.

 

Are Blacks in the Americas and in the diasporas more or less equal than you were before Civil Rights?  Have you achieved equal ship with your Anglo and Latino counterparts...?   Time will tell....tell it will.

 

All I remember was that it was a beautiful experience working alongside a black man that day.   We were brothers it seemed.  The only memories I have prior to that experience was when they were busy destroying each other.