Everything in life costs something. Irregardless  of what it is there is always a price we must pay for something we want. It doesn’t always necessitate money as being the common denominator. In my last piece I wrote about the price we pay for over indulgence, making ill-advised purchases as well as trying to maintain a life style that we can’t afford.

In this piece I’m going to talk about Freedom today and what are some of the primary related costs. More importantly is the question, are we willing to pay the price for freedom today?

I’m not going to elaborate on the brave people and pioneers of yesterday. Folks such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Jane Pittman, John Brown, Nat Turner WEB DuBois,  MLK JR. Malcolm X, The Black Panthers and others who championed the cause for Black Freedom and Equality…or folks who help build up Black America during The Reconstruction Period, The Black Wall Streets of America, The Voters and Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s and 70’s. These folks were cut from a different cloth and we today haven’t experienced the suffrage that they have and aren’t as courageous..Neither do we feel the same sense of urgency.. We definitely need too though!

What does it cost to have real meaningful freedom? I’m talking about the kind of freedom that will allow you to go anywhere your heart desires, do whatever your heart desires ( within the framework of the law ), live where ever you can afford to live and be whomever you desire to be without the pigmentation of your skin being a factor? What is the cost to be able to live separate but equal and furthermore is that even possible in today’s society?  What would be the cost for either of these notions to be transformed into a reality?  What is the price we have to pay for law enforcement to stop profiling us and to stop shooting us down like animals?

What would that cost be for dark-skinned people as well as white skinned people for this to be realized? You see, whether or not you considered this brothers and sisters there is a price that white folks must pay also for any of this to become a reality. I’m not so sure that they are willing to do so. You ask, what the heck is it going to cost them? Well then I will tell you. It’s going to cost them sacrifice  and reconciliation the same that it will cost us. What do I mean by sacrifice and reconciliation?

In order for us to have unimpeded freedom or separate but equal status they have to open the door for the former or we have to force it open and they also have to accept the notion that we are their equal and they are not our superior. And let’s be honest folks, white America ain’t ready for their big show to end. Nor are they willing to accept us as equals..  These two in my book are the primary reasons why we are stagnated aside from the fact that we don’t take the initiative to radically challenge it. We are conditioned for docility and don’t even know it. We don’t believe that we can ultimately win against them and that is a very sad and disappointing reality. This brings me to my second issue and that is the costs for black folk. Again we are decimated and stagnated mostly because of systematic and systemic society that is predicated on white dominance.. Systematic because of the step by step methods that have been implemented to create and build a system of oppression, discrimination, marginalization and dehumanization. Systemic because it has become so ingrained in this system of white dominance/superiority and now inherently into the minds and lives of Black folks.

We are now and have always been confronted with self-identity, self-confidence, self-esteem issues to say the least. Another destructive organism is the self hate that we feel and project onto each other in the most harmful and violent ways. ie; rape,murder etc. Which brings me to another aspect of freedom that we fail to give much attention too. What about the freedom of our little black girls and our little black boys? Yes, the freedom for our children to play in their front yards and community playgrounds without the constant threat of shots being fired and having their life snuffed out before they even begin to live.. How about the freedom of not being exposed to drug dealing and other illegal activities that plague our streets and trouble their innocent souls? What about their freedom to grow up, go to school, have friends and to pursue their dreams?  What about the freedom of safety for them because it is the same freedom of safety that we want to have with law enforcement, isn’t it?  Our children also have a right to the exact same freedom of safety that we expect to have. We want freedom for ourselves and don’t provide freedom for them. We can’t expect to receive and not be willing to give. So I guess it is fair to say that some costs for freedom begins at home…It begins with one’s self and what one is willing to change in order to gain that freedom..Again courage!!!

We have a propensity to sabotage our own progress and fail to provide each other with the support we need in order to make constructive progress. . We have become our own worst enemies when we fail to utilize and convert this negative energy into positive energy and work towards gaining real freedom.
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Do we continue to march and sing or do we resort to some acts of violence to achieve freedom and respect?  Do we continue to burn down buildings and in the process destroy integral parts of our own communities? We gotta do and give up something man. Has the implementation regarding conceptual freedom been so elusive because of our reluctance to conform to what we think white society wants us to be? Hmmm, let that marinate for just a minute…

A lot of us are already wearing the skin of the uncivilized,      uneducated,unemployed, impoverished and no good for nothing filth that they view us as. So why not wear the skin of the conformist? Imagery and Perception I guess.. It would be too demeaning to most of us and would suggest a degree of Coonism or Uncle Tomism to conform..Could there not be conformity without fully embracing Ideologies and Doctrines of white America? I believe so and this is a topic that I will talk about in my next piece.

So what does freedom cost? A whole lot folks and I’m not so sure that we are willing to pay the price because it requires a great deal of courage, personal sacrifice and reconciliation on both sides.  For us as Black people our freedom starts with us liberating our minds and separating ourselves from the umbilical cord of white America’s poison. We must start looking at ourselves and each other through a different set of lenses other than the ones provided by them. Stop feeding on and digesting the never-ending poisonous propaganda that they spew through the conduits of communications. Stop believing and accepting it!!! If we continue to reconcile ourselves to the picture that’s been painted, the narrative that has been spoken and written about who we are, what we are and what we can and can not do then we will always be enslaved. Don’t believe the hype from them or from the naysayers… 

You’ve got to know who you are before you can be free. Freedom begins at home, mentally, spiritually and physically…

Yeah, Freedom costs a whole lot folks..Most folks ain’t ready for that. They may talk about it but they’re too damn lazy and or brainwashed to do anything about it. They’ll be the ones who will enjoy the fruits from the labor of others..

Sacrifices, Reconciliation and Courage!!!