When We Were Black

By Blakk Jack Samm

The book is called When We Were Black. I came up with the book, or the book came up to me several years ago. It was during one Christmas holiday spent time with children and grandchildren, while I was relating to my familys diverse tree, when one of my daughters informed me that her children did not consider themselves a color, speaking of black. Initially, I was insulted because black was never a color but was a very serious movement during the 1960s and 1970s.

Well, I had to consider whether I had impressed this point to my own children and spoke to others who were having similar conversations with the younger generation. I felt serious enough about it to write a book diagramming my road to being black because back then you were a Negro or Colored on your birth certificate. Being that this was on your birth certificate, the parents continued calling themselves that. It was a big thing, radical, to tell your parents that you were black because, for many, it was revolutionary. A revolution is nothing but change, and we were attempting to change the world.

I would guess that I am embarking on changing the world now because many do not see the significance between African American and black. There is a significant difference, which the book explains.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524614454

Blakk Jack Samm

I was born in the San Francisco Bay area. My family is from New Orleans, so I spent most summers there and even lived in New Orleans, going to school for a few years. After high school, I was a freelance photographer for many years. I went back to school and received a BA and MA at the New College of California. I got into a Masters Forensic Psychology Program at Argosy University but did not complete it because of my desire to write books and be a published author. At some point, I was a professional gambler in Lake Tahoe, Reno, or Las Vegas. I love the blackjack table, began gambling in high school, and still do, hence the name Blackk Jack Samm. I began to write poetry in junior high school in Louisiana yet did not seriously consider writing books until finishing BA. I would like to consider myself more of a poet than writer, yet it is very fulfilling.

Book preview

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2016 Michael Norman. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   06/23/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-1446-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-1444-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-1445-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016909990

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1    We People Who Are Darker than Blue

Chapter 2    The Cultural Change

Chapter 3    American Political Democracy

Chapter 4    Division of those who are divided Four Women

Chapter 5    Young, Gifted and Black

Chapter 6    Fighting their Wars

Chapter 7    I’m Black and I’m Proud

Chapter 8    Education

Chapter 9    Yesterday’s Heroes who never make history books

Chapter 10    Psychological Warfare Mental Lynching, Terrorists

Chapter 11    Black Muslim movement Nation of Islam

Chapter 12    The Black Panther Party Movement

Chapter 13    Legal Slavery

Chapter 14    Black Seniors Are Dying

Chapter 15    The Fallout from slavery

Chapter 16    The B. S. U.

Chapter 17    Your Mission Impossible

Chapter 18    Internationally Black

Chapter 19    Next book

Bibliography

Discography Music

References

Works Cited

Preface

I watched the BLACK MOVEMENT Cultural Revolution become history. There were no books to read nor movies to watch as I watched it unfold. From the beginning, respectable parents thought that it was inappropriate for the children or teenagers to be a part of this movement that would change the face of people of color forever. We were supposed to be nice little Negroes or Colored people. I remember my father shaking his head in disgust the first time I said that I was Black or if I went to a football game with him and did not stand for the National Anthem. It was hardly the same but was similar to the cultural revolution with my White Anglo Saxon friends who would go home with Rock and Roll albums of music.

Yet, make no mistake, just like with any underground movement, just like the Underground Railroad, there were those who would pretend to be Black because of their dark pigmentation or because it was the new thing to do. People who were secretly ‘niggers’ [as THE LAST POETS¹] would say, who were not truly down for the REVOLUTION²; and, cared nothing about being Black, nor any Black People. These people did not care about the Black Sister nor Black Brothers, would put their Black Sisters on the street, sell drugs that killed, referred to his sister as bitch or brother as nigger, not to be confused with nigga. People who also would not refer to themselves as being Black in the presence of their White friends or counterparts. Yet, to an extent as with any underground movement this was a successful way of succeeding for our people and movement. This movement preceded African American.

As the Staple Singers would say, it begins with "respect yourself³. Using curse words in the front of elders or children, just for the sake of using them. The not trying to push their children towards education, whether there are jobs or not. Many would become educated" and get indoctrinated, into the White world, never to come back as Black because of financial or sociological benefits even down to this day.

I hope that you do not mistake, my journey into Blackness, becoming ‘Black’ is not the standard; but, it is ‘my standard’, my story. It is a story that was ingrained into me by Black scholars, Black Panthers, Black Muslims, Black Nationalists. Then there were people other than Black, who discriminated against me. I experienced the Police who arrested me for no reason, the ones who told me to Run so they could shoot me, when I had done nothing wrong. When driving State Troopers who stopped me in my car when I broke no law nor my car no infraction. There would be educators who would not put the truth in the history books and would rather "mis-educate⁴." Sometimes, we looked hopefully to the clergy who saw and turned their heads the other way when we were wronged; yet, expected us to come to their church on Sunday. Yet, there were the clergy who hoped that we would not come to their churches on Sundays.

We lived through the city officials who move Black people out of neighborhoods, when it was to their advantage and to my disadvantage. The professions, dentists, doctors and lawyers who gave me less than standard care; yet, wonder why we do not go to hospitals. The merchants who saw me first in line but asked who’s next? There was employers while working at their jobs and passed me over, when I was due for a promotion. Uncle Toms who passed me over for positions, afraid for their positions because I was ‘too militant’, hair too Afro (are you willing to cut your hair?). Instructors who graded me down, when I did the work in class but was not given the correct grade. The landlords who did not even look at my applications for housing, schools who would not consider me for doctorate nor anthropology applications into the University(s) nor consider me for employment in their schools.

My counterpart co-workers, who worked side-by-side with me, and yet I knew not to look at their mothers nor sisters, face-to-face. There were employers who would not hire me because I would not cut my hair for interviews or people who walked on the other side of the street when they saw me coming on the sidewalk. I was the first to carry the ‘boom-box-radio’. I and others like me paved the way for the revolution but our blackness has fallen by the wayside in the following generations.

Our stories must be told. Here, today, is another story of ‘when we were Black’ because this new generation does not know nor remember. There is hate in this country. Hate is coming from the white people. Then the Hate perpetuates from the foreign people. Finally, there is ‘New’ Hate generated from foreign—born people.

This remains because we are a reminder of … a storied past in this country.

We are fighting for Human Rights Worldwide for a people who were kidnapped; who were not immigrants on this passage; yet, this human rights fight begins here before it is presented before the United Nations. It is needed to be taken before the United Nations because it has gone beyond Civil Rights because of the kidnapping issues.

Human Rights are a worldwide issue from the standpoint of many fleeing to foreign lands after being kidnapped; yet, still experience this hate after being displaced. Initially, the purpose of these pages was because my grandchildren did not want to be called Black because they viewed it as a color; not recognizing that it had been a powerful movement in the history of this country. So, in various chapters I leave timelines to mark historical vantage points in the viewpoints that I propose.

I want to explain the hate which causes the discrimination in this country and worldwide. Many of races say that they don’t feel hatred while we still suffer from substandard positions. For every one of us who does not suffer hate, there are 10—100—1,000s who do. This needs to be explained to all children but specifically Black children, Black children’s children as well as their children.

The important reason is because as a child I was always curious as to why I as well as others like myself were hated so passionately. This hate has not just vanished away; it is bred just as love is in families.

The other reason I used timelines at the end of chapters is so maybe this book, or inserts from it can be used as a textbook or instructional in some circles of education such as preschool, elementary schools, high schools or even college.

Introduction

If you look up the word Black in the etymology dictionary of 30 or 40 years ago, you will see that in the beginning this word had no negative connotation, it was not until King James and the slave trade in Europe and America that you begin to notice the negative demeaning with the word Black. Yet, dictionaries change from generation to generation. Words and meanings change because ‘public opinion’ in this country is stronger than law. Many times you can be tried in ‘the court of public opinion’ prior to reaching a court room.

I am appealing to ‘the court of public opinion’ in the United Nations. This book should have been 1,000 pages; but, I did not have the resources to complete it. This book probably should have been properly edited; but, I did not have the $1,000s of dollars for the editing process. Yet this message had to get out there and the completion can come later if public opinion demands, if people truly care about black people here as well as world wide, and if black people truly care about the other blacks who may or may not share their views.

I wrote this book because I was explaining our family lineage with my grandchildren and my daughter interrupted stating that her children did not wish to consider themselves … a color. Well, this was quite insulting for a person who lived through the BLACK movement. Maybe those who read will understand and create a new standard in Blackness.

Martin Luther King wrote that sometimes people hate each other because they do not know each other. Although, as it says in the Bible, the slave knows his master. Minorities have worked for the ruling class since the beginning at the Mayflower, sometimes … the slave knows the master better than the master knows himself. Minorities worked for the master but from the beginning black people were slaves. There have always been ’house niggers’ as some of us were referred to. These were those who distinguished themselves enough to work in the presence of the ruling class. Yet, just as in the beginning, the majority were left to work out in the fields until dead.

Today you have a president, senators, congressmen, governors, state assemblymen, mayors, judges, lawyers, doctors, nurses who are exceptions to the rules. For each and every one of these there are those who are left by the way side, in sub-standard housing and communities. Special education has become a whole new class of people who will never reach these positions in society. Children were expected to fit into class rooms, mind instructors and survived. Parents were allowed to chastise children, for survival. We knew if you could not negotiate the classroom, you would not be employed.

Many of the other minorities have problems with Black people because they do not know us and have bought into the stereotypes. The other reason is ‘niggers’, people of dark pigmentation who look like Black people, walk and talk like us but are very different. Yet, there is the conundrum. If there were ever to be a true revolution where Black people achieve equal terms in society, all of the people of dark pigmentation would have to have some involvement. There is no race here were love exudes from the top to the bottom. All Orientals don’t love all Orientals and it is the same for Whites. So, Black People have to learn to tolerate the others as we move forward and maybe the others will change as they move forward.

The so-called nigger is allowed to prey upon his dark pigmented Black brother. He is allowed to be a ‘terrorist’ in the neighborhood preying upon everyone. Police allow these people to terrorize because they make financial gains from employing them to do their dirty work. Police can sell drugs through these terrorists. Probation officers can run rings of prostitution through these, if not outright themselves. Merchants can charge outlandish prices for goods and services in these communities. THE FUNERAL HOME has become big business because of everyday murder in the Black Community. People are paying to die.

Oprah Winfrey is a good person, a great person. She is one who has survived, in spite of the system. I have even attempted to contact her as well as other influential Blacks who I thought could help me as well as others in my position. Making the attempt to contact her or other well-off people of color is like attempting to hit the lottery. At least for people like myself it is. So, there is the top and there is the bottom. Just like there is only one of her for every 100,000,000 of us, this is what our story looks like.

I offer a different point of view. Too many of us do not know their own history, I offer a different story. My history is your history. We are all in the same struggle.

The book GREAT SPEECHES BY AFRICAN AMERICANS inspired me to write.

I wish to emphasize to the reader that I am just an ordinary man.

What would make us Black is our collective consciousness as well as the understanding of the need for Black Nationalism.

I will re-emphasize that we were kidnapped, seek ‘Human Rights’, as well as reparation for this kidnapping, rape, murder; and, then the kidnapping of offspring from the raping of the kidnapped. This is clearly a ‘Human Rights’ issue and not just civil rights. In the onslaught of all of this perpetual raping, my people were just expected to be freed from slavery; and, perform normally, not having any long term disability nor fall-out from slave conditions.

This is a story about how I and many like myself came to be Black.

Chapter 1

We People Who Are Darker than Blue

⁵

1949–1969, 1969–1980

We, the people, who are part of an American dream that, for us, has become a nightmare!

We, the part of the vast great American cooking pot that has become a side order, only added upon request, sitting on the side of the pot wilting in the kitchen for lack of interest. We, the side order that is very spicy and can cause indigestion. This side order should be properly sautéed so that the right flavor can be added to the vast gumbo of ingredients. This sautéing through education creates a mutual language between ingredients. Yet the pot is rarely interested in this rare ingredient; it can be ruined before the process is properly started because of ignorance of it. Many times, this rare ingredient is overcooked until it has no more kick!

So overcooking this spice or side order takes all of the fragrant taste out of it. There must be an understanding of this ingredient for the best results. If it’s not sautéed enough, it’s too strong; yet, cooking it too much leaves it bland and tasteless. Like peppers at a flea market, there are all colors, especially in the international market of peppers. Some may look bland, yet even to just touch one pepper and then accidentally brush an eye can have alarming results, sometimes even blindness! The most common mistake with the side dish is to think that all in this category are the same, when they can be vastly different.

In rare cases, sautéing through the educational process creates an even stronger side dish, causing not only indigestion but actual food poisoning. The pot-stirrer finds that this side dish does not fit in and tries to eliminate it altogether from the kitchen. The cook has no consideration for the other side dish ingredients awaiting the pot and just rids the kitchen of all.

How the side dish arrives into the kitchen is given any consideration. Sometimes it arrives with no tending in the garden or fertilization. So in essence, this side dish is much stronger than the others, like a weed in a garden that refuses to die, in spite of the fact that we have been poisoned by disease and sometimes spoon-fed drugs that kill. Yet, as always, our strongest always survive and thrive in the heat of battle.

So Black people are like a side dish in the American melting pot. As everyone knows, when you add black to other colors, it changes the hue, view, or perception. Some are reluctant to stir the pot. Today in America, Black people are ignored, and their problems are ignored as well. Oh yes! America gives us lip service yet, upon investigation, not much aid. Why should Black people be ignored when we have been here longer than everyone other than the Native American? There is evidence that we were here when the Anglo-Saxons and Spaniards arrived. People from all over the world marvel over an America built by Black people. Even if we were just labor, is that not part of the process? Yet our being just labor is far from the truth.

As far back as 1843, Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882) gave an address to the slaves of the United States of America. This man was born into slavery but escaped from Maryland to New York. At that point, he pursued his education at the African Free School #1 and the Oneida Institute. Later, he became a Presbyterian minister. In Chicago, he delivered a speech to the National Convention of Negro Citizens in Buffalo, New York. This was as far back as 1843, and even farther back, people came together as a race for the purpose of gaining equality. This group lamented the tears of their fellow slaves in the South. They felt that their hopes were in vain as years passed while they awaited their fellow slaves to be freed. Garnet did not attempt