IDENTITY CRISIS

A CONVERSATION WE NEED TO HAVE

Identity crises exist as society’s trademark whether we want to admit it or not. People from different ethnicities are shaped by their environmentally guided habits that are not easily susceptible to conformity and which very often result into comparison conflict from fitting in and or acceptance of the “Other”

Thus the theme of this subject “Identity Crisis.”

There is an instinctive tribal scream that echoes, B-e-l-o-n-g-i-n-g! that embraces even the more sophisticated and disciplined among us. It begins at conception where dependency and bonding is tied to survival, and at birth the evidence of its principle is obvious as the newborn continues its adherence to the tribal connection that began in the womb with the one who birthed them. As the womb/birthing principle extends to nations the same likelihood applies, the tribal affiliation is just as pronounced. Like attracts Like.

Throughout our world’s history ethnicity has been the building block of the character of a people, it is what they represent, having developed their own unique characteristics molded by environment, practices and habits and/ or circumstances which shape and support their culture; and if an outsider chooses to live within their culture he would be bombarded by its influence and eventually automatically conform to its whims; But further if that outsider finds that within that culture there is a settlement of kindred affiliates to his cultural kind he most likely would gravitate to them. That parent group originally bonded through belonging to the same origin and continued to live the same lifestyle that they arrived with because the convenience to maintain their habits was within their grasp.

There are numerous historical references that could be tapped throughout our world to support this occurrence. What has been proven to be the obvious conclusion in the offset is if all amenities are being evenly distributed and there is no equation of inequality, the differences in culture and as such the division in the social order would determine voluntary segregation.

That primordial instinctive behavioral inclination potent and naked in character would insist on its drive for expression. “Birds of a feather flock together”. Cosmopolitanism caused by an exodus, the uprooting of different cultures from their habitat because of wars and other relocating factors that cause the experimental melting pot of different ethnicities as a forced concept, does not seem to encourage bonding, because tribal truths prevail, me; my family; my tribe. The stranger in the midst remains a stranger, always an alien, the guest in waiting. Bonding grows more so from sharing of geography and relative historical roots, the taste buds of shared customs born from similar life experiences so entwined like a common existing bloodline.

I daresay we all at sometime must have experienced that inborn radar we as human beings have where in unfamiliar territory our radar kicks in to zoom in on a kindred soul from similar terrain to be in concert with, that silent tribal scream reaching for cohesion, commonality and trust.

Trust is born out of familiarity and sameness, the stranger to a culture has numerous hoops to hurdle before he can get to the front door of a foreign culture and that foreign culture usually has a door-lock policy that says “guests by invitation only”, and inside the door the stranger would be further subjected to immense scrutiny. Why? Protection of the tribe?

Oceans have existed as dividing lines of separation of history and cultures, language the cultivated form of communication up until recently was different beyond the seas and so were the people, their habits, their lifestyle, but there is a patriotism born into and from identity and its differences that has a pronounced definition, that punctuation is the gap that separates ethnicity and where customs and norms differ.

The American experiment of “from many one nation” is a perfect example of the disharmony that festers in a society because of cultural differences first, followed by segregation, inequalities and then the designations of the Other. Familiarity creates trust and then bonding. People gravitate to familiarity in environment, culture, language, foods and a host of amenities that would have shaped their lives over time, the unfamiliar invites too much adjustment that they would prefer to avoid, to adjust takes them out of their comfort zone; It takes too much unnecessary effort they seem to think; or more likely they harbor an instinctive, protective, repulsive expression of disharmony with “the Other”.

One could imagine if different ethnicities through migration occupied a large expanse of land space that although ethnically diverse and where bonding would be difficult, they could possibly occupy different areas in this vast expansion of space living according to their respective norms under one common governmental principle; separate but equal. But somehow that historically runs into inequalities. The “Other,” very often being a minority seems to fall victim to monopoly and exploitation. The big-fish syndrome takes root and overwhelms the “Other” through manipulation, fermenting inadequacies by systematically stifling their achievements and making them dependent on an adverse system.

Nations of our world such as : Germany, China, India, the Middle East region, South America, South Africa all have histories of the plague of racism and accompanying inequalities. Then this begs the question about human tendency and the “Why”

Why does subjugation seem to rise to the top when affluence flourishes in abundance in a prosperous society, why should inequalities prosper when there is enough to share equally, why does greed make master and servant of us, wherein, wherefore lies the glory that is humanity?

There seems to be a part of our nature that is still primordial, the selfish infantile cry “Mine! Mine!”; not willing to share. But however though, humanity seem to challenge itself all throughout the ages, if we could use biblical scribbling as a yardstick to legitimatize history we find that oppression existed then as much as it does now. Even going further back beyond the biblical era there is discovered evidence of normally accepted degrading principles namely Master and Slave. But even though the oppressed has been challenging the oppressor, sometimes the status changes hands, the oppressed becomes the oppressor and so on and so on. Is this the way of the world? Or are we at liberty to say now: A Change is coming! Because…..

TURNING THE CORNER…. It seems as though overnight the world has entered a new frontier, while we were asleep it appears as though the axis moved and we awoke to a new day, challenging the complacency that existed yesterday; challenges to the status quo; while we were asleep a new reality blossomed in the universal mind of the masses; the world became smaller; distance no longer a barrier; our thoughts and expressions transitioned around the globe with unfathomable speed and accuracy, we are connected, and we are bonded like never before, tribal affiliative bonding have extended its borders to welcome a just and humane principle to all who believe in equality of humanity. Maybe this world of ours is on the move to a day in some future form, melted into a oneness of humanity, not because of forced instituted laws, but because of the voice of “We the People,” a bonding grown out of the even exchanges and mixing of cultures born from a common interactive consciousness.

As We Bear Witness: The march is on from Moscow to China to Germany to Europe to Africa, and Yes! to America.

Slavery and its product Racism were the building block of America’s prosperity, the inhumanity of Man to Man was a way of life for a people who considered themselves civilized and God- fearing then, those who professed to be civilized and God-fearing committed horrendous inhumane acts of slavery, murder, rape and pilferage of a people in a foreign land, kidnapped them by the thousands, bound and chained and shipped them as cargo to foreign land plantations, broken into submission to slave for white prosperity. This inhumane condition they maintained for hundreds of years, they became wealthy on the backs of free slave labor from a people in bondage, a people they bought and sold like livestock.

Now here we stand after years of struggling to break those chains, at last we are free of the shackles but the years of enslavement have left the scars on our minds and bodies as we rise from the ashes of despair, how sluggish we are after all this time in bondage, how ill equipped we are to compete in a world beyond the plantations as we rise to this challenge for survival.

These self-anointed, professed civilized and God- fearing people that prospered on the backs of slavery when now questioned or challenged on their stance on that immorality then and to some extent now, they offer weak and empty apologies on their parents behalf but do not take responsibility as a people for the inhumanity of slavery even though they benefited from our blood and sweat and tears and death, their fortunes are stained in our blood, they are the beneficiaries of our slavery and as such they have also earned the responsibility of atoning for the sins of their ancestors just as we are the beneficiaries of the burden of grief from our ancestors, and as such we have earned the right to share in the wealth that we contributed to in forming this country’s prosperity, we are morally entitled, we are spiritually entitled, we are ancestoraly entitled, we are by labor statute entitled.

“We the People” challenge you to live up to the creed you claim allegiance to as you address the world professing dedication to humanity: In this new day, in this dawning of awakening and awareness you are invited to come aboard and ride on this wave of change and bear witness to the new horizon in the morning.

My Apologies! I beg forgiveness for having strayed into a preamble that may appear irrelevant considering the nature of the original topic, but I dare suggest that all roads led to this eventuality, the voice of “We the People” have spoken in pronounced emphasis demanding that we right the wrongs inflicted over time, repair the broken bridges of promises.

I would suggest that humanity has an obligation to itself not by choice but by need, our salvation depends on our recognition of our needs. Together we are strong, divided we crumble to dust, the earth we occupy is a smaller place today than yesterday, we all have access to the same capabilities. If there is uncontrolled strife because of greed and selfishness our past tendencies suggest we are capable of destroying ourselves. Our world is no longer comfortable with the haves and the have nots; the rich and the poor; the master and the servant; the Prince and the Pauper. The cry is now, equality and justice for all.

So now “We the People” stand in solidarity challenging the status quo, “We the People” have arrived at a consciousness that determines the salvation of justice and equality for all.

We demand what’s due.