THE RASTAFARI COLLECTIVE--OCTOBER ARCHIVES
The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, September 30, 2001 to Saturday, October 6, 2001 Volume 1 No. 45 WEEKLY EDITION |
INI MUST REPATRIATE!!!
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THIS WEEK'S FEATURE
WILL THE WORLD SEEK LOVE?
This edition of the RastafarI Collective is a heartfelt plea to have all human beings recognize that the course being followed is a course leading to destruction. The normalcy that is being washed on the people's brain is the greatest disrespect to those who died and suffered on the behalf of causes none were affiliated with. Human beings must respect that it was the normal that created such chaos. We hear of Black Africans living in America bringing violence to their fellow Black African brothers and sisters who happen to be Muslim. We hear of Whites attacking Arabs, Pakistanians, and other Mid-Eastern people. All other nationalities are being very careful of what they say and do for fear of retaliation.
How can the people not see that those in power have frightened the people into being scared of their own shadow? Why have the people not learned the greatest offense is themselves? Everyone is asking questions and are taking the first answer given without researching because of holding on to the same lazy attitude of not making oneself concerned about what affects them and their fellow human beings. So when the question arises, "Why do they hate us so?," people should not only accept Pres. Bush's or the Taliban's answer; for the correct answer lies in each and every one that hatred is something that grows with time and can only be stopped when love is used as a small axe.
The imperfections of man and woman can only be improved when there is a global effort for all to strive for perfection with only internal destruction. The beast in all man must be placed in its right perspective, not as the controller of wants and needs. This collective damage to all humanity's physical, spiritual, and mental will remain as a mark shared by all who inhabit the Earth. This now stands as the one thing all humanity has in common, irrespective of color, class, race, creed, or religion. All should remember that to pray and ask for mercy is only part of the solution. Without credible and factual betterment based on the fundamental of love before profit will only continue a process no man should ever want. The King is a loving God and he is also the God of Judgment.
King RastafarI children, take your rightful place as the natural conscience of humanity. InI kingciples remain the same as Our Father has made it, we are unaligned, non-political and non-violent, we will forever seek peace before war. Our responsibility to Ourselves and to humanity is to continue Our chant of right over wrong with the Word Sound Power of the Kings of Kings and the Lords of Lords, H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie I King RastafarI InI First.
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The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, October 7, 2001 to Saturday, October 13, 2001 Volume 1 No. 46 WEEKLY EDITION |
INI MUST REPATRIATE!!!
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THIS WEEK'S FEATURE
WHAT KIND OF WORLD ARE WE LIVING IN?
This Monday, October 8, 2001, America prepares to celebrate the name of one of the greatest terrorist ever to live, Christopher Columbus. On Columbus' discovery, he terrorized not only the indigenous people of America, also the peaceful people of the West Indies and Africa. His wrath was only the beginning of what was to come.
It has become more than evident that the destruction brought upon the world, by the evil of man, has created even more bloodshed and strife on the Earth. Though every human being of every nation on Earth has found themselves a part of this turn of events, there are still a few who choose the road of ignorance.
It has been reported that polls are being held in America that Black Americans are leading the voice of advocating racial profiling against Arabs and Muslims. Ethiopia's Prime Minister has had contact with George W. Bush pledging their full support of America's war on terrorism.
These facts have to be the most destructive thoughts that Black people could have ever brought themselves to produce. How can a people who have been downpressed so long and so much, advocate the downpression of another human being? This would compare with Jews agreeing with the concept of using Nazi tactics to rid themselves of the Palestinians. To think these are the same Black people who complained about John Ashcroft coming to office with a President they claimed not to have elected, even think along such foolish lines. A people that can be so forgetful could never be people that represent the ancestors that lived and died to free themselves from a bondage which was brought upon them by the same country who still refuses to give them reparations and apologize for the terrorism that Black Africans endured through slavery. It seems that the integration of the American society has produced the results America hoped for, a population of Black Uncle Toms. Such treason of Black people against their fellow African brothers and sisters of any faith or any other human being should only be given the harshest pay for such work. These thoughts are only a spit in the eye of every freedom fighter and civil rights activist that produced themselves to complete the mission of One Almighty GOD.
The UN was in session to discuss this matter of global terrorism. In this session 157 representatives from various countries were scheduled to speak. All nations agreed that global terrorism cannot be tolerated, but many did not agree with the actions of an unjust war being waged on a mysterious enemy. Though America had its usual NATO partners and a few other nations rallying the 'war cry', there were heavy denunciations from a majority of countries against America's terrorizing foreign policy that created such a crisis.
Ethiopia, who has been an unaligned nation under the rulership of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I, has now stained its reputation by supporting and interfering in the matters of other nations. Let history show and prove that Ethiopia, as a Christian nation, has had a long prosperous relationship with its Islamic brothers and sisters that was only interrupted by the interference of Italy and other European powers in its personal affairs. We speak of the civil war of Eritrea and Ethiopia which has gone on much too long. The hope is that Ethiopia will not take this stance in trying to better its position by being a part of a George W. Bush and an American-Christian crusade. Ethiopians everywhere would insult the name of the King who built a Christian Church and a Muslim Mosque out of his own purse to symbolize the unity of both faiths.
America's advocation for war is causing great civil strife in every nation. The media has been proposing the concept that people who speak for peace are Anti-American. America refuses to begin any diplomatic steps to diffuse the current crisis. George W. Bush's statement that he was looking to push forward with the plans to recognize Palestine as a state before the September 11th events, has caused great uproar in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon delivered a speech Thursday night warning America that appeasement with the Arabs by creating a Palestinian state would be a destructive step and that Israel will not see the same results as what happened with Czechoslovakia. Sharon's comment drew the White House to denounce the statements and to remind Israel that they will not sell them out to achieve its goals. The American media acknowledges that they understand the US will have to 'dance' with people who are on their up-to-date terrorist list. In other words, America's war on terrorism will use other 'terrorist states' to fight against other 'terrorist states,' even though they have yet to show the full evidence of "Who is the terrorist state?"
The human beings of this Earth should not allow themselves to be led by other human beings using the force of malice, anger, and revenge. There is NO God that could ever lead such a humanity. Again, we say to ALL people internationally, the root problem of all injustice is selfish vain thinking. It is irresponsible for powerful nations and small nations alike to profess violence to solve the problems which are created through corruption. Any people who think their prayers will be answered by a higher power WITHOUT a change of direction is praising false Gods and idols. Faith without works is death. In this time, InI do hold firm to the chant of the Nyahbinghi: "Death to Black and White downpressors and spiritual wickedness in high and low places."
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The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, October 14, 2001 to Saturday, October 20, 2001 Volume 1 No. 47 WEEKLY EDITION |
INI MUST REPATRIATE!!!
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THIS WEEK'S FEATURE
U.N. MUST BE STRENGTHENED
"If we are to survive, this Organization must survive. To survive, is must be strengthened. Its executive must be vested with great authority. The means for the enforcement of its decisions must be fortified, and, if they do not exist, they must be devised. Procedures must be established to protect the small and the weak when threatened by the strong and the mighty. All nations which fulfil the conditions of membership must be admitted and allowed to sit in this assemblage. Equality of representation must be assured in each of its organs. The possibilities which exist in the United Nations to provide the medium whereby the hungry may be fed, the naked clothed, the ignorant instructed, must be seized on and exploited for the flower of peace is not sustained by poverty and want.
To achieve this requires courage and confidence. The courage, I believe, we possess. The confidence must be created, and to create confidence we must act courageously.
The great nations of the world would do well to remember that in the modern age even their own fates are not wholely in their hands. Peace demands the united efforts of us all. Who can foresee what spark might ignite the fuse? It is not only the small and the weak who must scrupulously observe their obligations to the United Nations and to each other. Unless the smaller nations are accorded their proper voice in the settlement of the world's problems, unless the equality which Africa and Asia have struggled to attain is reflected in expanded membership in the institutions which make up the United Nations, confidence will come just that much harder. Unless the rights of the least of men are as assiduously protected as those of the greatest, the seeds of confidence will fall on barren soil.
The stake of each of us is identical---life or death. We all wish to live. We all seek a world in which men are freed of the burdens of ignorance, poverty, hunger, and disease. And we shall all be hardpressed to escape the deadly rain of nuclear fall-out should catastrophe overtake us."
H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie I--October 6, 1963
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MOST WANTED
At every pick and peek at American society today, Africans are the most wanted. At the rallies against racism, on the most wanted list for terrorism; Africans are the most wanted. Among the voices calling for peace, to the industries fighting the health hazards of being obese; Africans are the most wanted.
While teams of scholars and analysts are currently engaged in understanding why Africans answer some calls yet ignore others, I hope it is not too premature to say that an affliction of amnesia and the death of ambition is at the root of the answers.
Recently, polls conducted by both The Gallup Organization and Zogby International reveal that African Americans are more apt to support racial profiling of other ethnic minorities in the name of American patriotism. This appalling national statement not only shows African-American hypocrisy, but also exposed a lack of commitment to justice for all humanity within the community.
After suffering and being liberated from slavery through activities also regarded as terrorist, this group continued steadfastly in the struggle to denounce any depiction of blacks as anything short of sane law abiding citizens. But now, the recent polls show that this struggle was not based on a fundamental human right to be regarded as 'innocent until proven guilty.' It was based on a need to be comfortable consumers in pursuit of obesity.
For Africans to deny others the rules and morals that fueled our ancestors struggle so that we may stand, as equal men thus equal citizens in lands foreign to our ancestry, is ludicrous. It is the failure of our leadership for not having procured the social mechanisms to help us remember the standards and humanity that guaranteed us our freedoms. By not renouncing or strategizing to combat the embarrassing declaration of the polls, African-American leadership have renounced their responsibility to America and Africans, and the rest of the world.
The Congressional Black Caucus, the Black America's Political Action Committee and the NAACP are among the African American organizations that should be ashamed. Their lobbying efforts had not sought to rid not even the black world-to say the least, of the conditions that encouraged 12 Africans to be on the list of America's most wanted terrorists. Although historically having close acquaintance with the factors that result in terrorism, these groups have not done anything to give voice to their voiceless brothers at home or in the Diaspora.
Instead, they have joined mainstream America and visionless African Americans in annihilating the ambition of black men to be humans contributing to justice as they would have it for themselves, thus for all humanity.
When rallies supporting 'anti-racism and dialogue' instead of war, alienation and destruction lack representation from the African-American community, it says that as a people, we are going backwards. It says, we are asking that our rights to make demands of our citizenship be revoked as we are too steeped in the joy of American consumerism to care about the responsibilities it carries. It says, we have succumbed to the fallacy that our voices do not make a difference and as such we do not make the difference.
It says, we have forgotten the sincerity of our ancestors struggle, and have no ambition to fulfill their dreams beyond being irresponsible American consumers.
by sensimellia gardner
(c) www.rastafaritoday.com 2001
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The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST |
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Sunday, October 21, 2001 to Saturday, November 3, 2001 Volume 1 No. 48/49 WEEKLY EDITION |
INI MUST REPATRIATE!!!
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THIS WEEK'S FEATURE
Speech by Marcus Garvey
Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 21, 1919
(82 years to date)
Hon. Marcus Garvey, Foremost Orator of the Race, Delivers Brilliant Speech in Philadelphia
Big Success for Universal Negro Improvement Association
...Last night the People's Church, corner of Fifteenth and Christian street, was the scene of wild enthusiasm, when the Honorable Marcus Garvey, president-general of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and president of the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation, appeared to speak. Mr. Garvey opened a campaign here last Sunday which opening was very successful. Thousands jammed the church, and thousands were turned away unable to get admittance.
...Mr. Garvey's Speech
Mr. President, Lady President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Once more it is my pleasure to be with you. That you have turned out in such large numbers tonight proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that you good people of the race in Philadelphia are very much alive to the principles, to the aims, to the objects of the greatest movement among Negroes in the world today--the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. It is the greatest movement in the world, because it is the only movement today that is causing the white man to tremble in his shoes. (Cheers.) The white man has had the policies of our great men or the great leaders of the past. They have had the policies of Booker Washington, they have had the policies of the other great leaders of this country, of the West Indies and of Africa, but out of these policies nothing ever came to the Negro, and the white man was satisfied. They have buried our great leader in America, Booker Washington, and yet we have achieved nothing by way of our own initiative. They have buried the great leaders of the Negro race of other countries, and yet we have achieved nothing, except in the Republic of Haiti, where one Negro repelled them and established an independent republic. I speak of Haiti. They did not like Toussaint L'Ouverture because he had initiative. They lied to him, they deceived him, and when he had just a little faith still in them they destroyed that faith. They made a prisoner of him, took him to France, and there he died. Thank God, as Toussaint L'Ouverture in his time was able to inspire the other men of his country to carry on the work until Haiti was made a free country, so today we have inspired not one, not two, but hundreds of thousands to carry out the work even if they imprison one or kill one.
It is for me to say to you faithful members and followers of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Philadelphia that the movement that you are in is a movement that is causing not merely the individual white man, but governments to be living in fear as touching the outcome of the Negro peoples of the world through their determination in the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
THOUSANDS JAMMED HALL
Last night, after I was through addressing my people in New York, about 5,000 of them jammed themselves into Liberty Hall, overtaxing the capacity of that building, and we had to turn away about 10,000, and there were fully 3,000 around the building, trying to get in last night. The biggest meeting we ever had in Harlem was last night, when we had fully between twenty and thirty thousand Negroes trying to get into Liberty Hall. After I was through addressing the good people there, one of the members brought me a letter he had received from his friend in Panama. They did not know that the Universal Negro Improvement Association has secret service men all over the world now, and the letter said that just two hours before he read a cable which was sent by the Canal Commission in Panama beseeching Washington not to give a passport to Marcus Garvey to visit Panama, because if he landed there, there would be trouble for the white men there. Now, you know who are the people who are controlling the Panama Canal under this administration. They are Southern white men. The chicken is going home to roost. We told those Southern crackers that one day the Negro would get even with them. You see how cowardly they are. Now, I am quite away in New York and they are begging the people here not to let me get out of New York to go there. But to show you how puzzled they are: My District Attorney friend in New York has been trying for many months to get me expelled from the country. Some want me to go and some don't want me to go. What must I do? To my mind, it is a question of being between hell and the powder house. (Laughter.)
ANCIENT FOE PUZZLED
Now, that is what we can compliment ourselves for today. We have our foe, our ancient foe, puzzled. He does not know what to do with the New Negro; but the New Negro knows what to do with himself. And the thing that we are going to do is to blast a way to complete independence and to that democracy which they denied us even after we left the battlefields of France and Flanders. We, the New Negroes, say there is no turning back for us now. There is nothing else but a going forward, and if they squeal in America or anywhere else we are going forward. Why, we are not organized as four hundred millions yet, and they are so scared. Now, what will happen in the next five years when the entire four hundred millions will have been organized? All the lynching in the South will be a thing of the past. We are not going to fight and kill anybody because he has more than we have. But if there is anybody taking advantage of the Negro, whether he be white, red, or blue, we are going to organize to stop him. We believe that white men have as much right to live as yellow men; we believe that yellow men have as much right to live as red men; we believe red men have as much right to live as black men; and we believe black men have as much right to live as all men. Therefore, if any race of mankind says that the other race must die, it is time for that race that is dying to organize to prevent themselves from dying. And as for me, the sweetest life in the world to me is the life of my race. I cannot change my race overnight. You cannot change your race overnight. We have not been able to change our race for three hundred years. No one can change our race overnight. God created us what we are and we are going to remain what we are until Gabriel blows his horn.
Therefore we are of the Negro race and we are suffering simply because we are of the Negro race, and, since we are four hundred million strong, it is for us to organize that strong to protect our race. And I want you young men, you middle aged men and you old men of the race and women also to realize that this is the age of action--action on the part of each and every individual of every race. If there is a white man who does not love the white race, to his race he is an outcast; if there is a yellow man that does not love his race, to the yellow race he is an outcast: if there is a Negro who does not love the black race, to his race such a Negro is an outcast and should be trampled to death.
FARCE OF BROTHERHOOD
We have lived upon the farce of brotherhood for hundreds of years, and if there is anybody who has suffered from that farce it is the Negro. The white man goes forth with the Bible and tells us that we are all brothers, but it is against the world to believe, against all humanity to believe, that really there is but one brotherhood. And if there are six brothers in any family, at least those six brothers from natural tie ought to be honest in their dealings with each other to the extent of not seeing any of the six starve. If one has not a job, naturally the others would see to it that the one that is out of a job gets something to eat and a place to sleep so as to prevent him from starving and dying. This is brotherhood. Now there is one brother with all the wealth; he has more than he wants, and there is the other brother. What is he doing to the other brother? He is murdering the other brother. He is lynching the other brother, and still they are brothers. Now, if I have any brother in my family who has no better love for me than to starve me, whip me and to burn me, I say, brother, I do not want your relationship at all. To hell with it.
No, sire, I strike against the idea of brotherhood as coming from that man. I believe in the brotherhood of man. I believe in the fatherhood of God, but as man sinned and lost his purpose ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, I also realize that man has lost his closest connection, his closest tie, with his God. And since man is human, since man has lost his instinct divine, I am not going to trust man. From the attitude of man, from the action of man today, I can see that every one is looking out for himself where the question of race comes in. The white race is looking out for the white race; the yellow race is looking out for the yellow race or Asiatic race. The time has come when the Negro should look out for himself and let the others look our for themselves. This is the new doctrine today. It is the doctrine of Europe. Europe is looking out for the white man. It is the doctrine of Asia. Asia is looking out for the yellow man. So should Africa look out for the black man, the Negro. And since they (the whites) have divided up Africa, having a part in America, a part in Canada, a part in the West Indies, a part in Central America, a part in South America and a part remaining in Africa, we are saying that the time has come that there should be a united Africa. And before a united Africa comes, Ethiopia as scattered as she is, must stretch forth her hands unto God.
TIME TO HELP SELF
Tonight the Universal Negro Improvement Association is endeavoring to teach Negroes that the time has come for them to help themselves. We have helped the white man in this Western Hemisphere for over three hundred years until he has become so almighty that he respects not even God himself. The white man believes that there is only one God, and that is the white man. We have a different idea about God. We believe that there is but one God, and his is in a place called heaven. There is a heaven, we believe, and a God presides over that heaven, and as far as the Negro is concerned that God is the only being in the world whom we respect. We believe with Theodore Roosevelt, "FEAR GOD AND KNOW NO OTHER FEAR." And if every Negro in Philadelphia could just get that one thought into his or her mind, to fear God and him alone and let the world take care of itself, the better it would be for each and every one.
WHITE MAN'S IMPERIAL MAJESTY
The white man comes before you in his imperial and majestic pomp and tries to impress upon you the idea that he is your superior. Who made him your superior? You stick his face with a pin and blood runs out. You stick the black man's face with a pin and blood runs out. Starve the white man and he dies. Starve the black man and he dies. What difference is there, therefore, in black and white. If you stick the white man, blood comes out. If you starve the white man he dies. The same applies to the black man. They said the white man was the superior being and the black man was the inferior being. That is the old time notion, but today the world knows that all men were created equal. We were created equal and were put into this world to possess equal rights and equal privileges, and the time has come for the black man to get his share. The white man has got his share and more than his share for thousands of years, and we are calling upon him now to give up that which is sensible enough to give up what is not theirs to save confusion. You know when a man takes what is not his, the one from whom he took that thing is going to take him to court so as to recover his loss. Now, the Negro is going to take somebody to a court of law one day. This court is not going to be presided over by the white man. It is the court to be presided over and decided by the sword. Yes; the sword will decide to whom belongs the right.
AFRICA TO CALL FOR A JUDGMENT
And I want you men of Africa, you men of the Negro race, to prepare for the day when Africa will call for a judgment. Africa is preparing to call for a judgment, and that judgment we must have, and it will be a judgment in favor of four hundred million oppressed people. And the marshal who will carry out the authority of the court will be the new Toussaint L'Ouverture with the sword and the banner of the new African Republic. You black men of Philadelphia sit here tonight as jurors in the case where judgment is to be given in favor of the Negro, and I am now asking you jurymen: Gentlemen of the jury, what is your verdict? Cries of: "Africa must be free!" Now, if Africa is to be free, it means, therefore, that Philadelphia has given her verdict as we have in New York. It is now for the judge to give his finding. The judge will give his finding after all the jurors of the Negro race, four hundred million, will have given their verdict. And then after the judge gives his findings he will have to find a marshal to serve the writ, who will require the New Negro to help him serve this writ, because the man to whom this writ is to be served is of a desperate character, because he prefers to shed blood and take lives before he will give up what is not his. You have to spill blood in Africa before you get what is belonging to you.
A NEGRO GOVERNMENT
Therefore, you will realize that the Universal Negro Improvement Association is no joke. It is a serious movement. It is as serious a movement as the movement of the Irish today to have a free Ireland; as the determination of the Jew to recover Palestine. The Negro peoples of the world should be so determined to reclaim Africa and found a government there, so that if any black man in any part of the world is abused we can call the mighty power of Africa to come to our aid. Men, a Negro government we had once, and a Negro government we must have again. Tell me that I must live everlastingly under the domination of a white man, that I must bequeath to my children white overlordship, then I say, let me die now, Almighty God. If there is no better future in the world for me than to be the slave of a white man, I say, take the life you gave me. I do not want it. You would not be my God if you created me to be a slave to other men; but you are my God and will continue to be my God if you created me an equal of all men.
LIFE GIVEN FOR A PURPOSE
Men, I want you to realize that the life you live was given you for a purpose; not for the purpose of being a slave, not for the purpose of being a serf, but for the purpose of being a man, and for that purpose you must live, or it is better you die.
THE NEGRO WILL DIE ECONOMICALLY
Now I want to come to the practical, common sense side of this question. We have started an agitation all over the world. It is the agitation of self-reliance wherein the Negro must do for himself. I want you to understand that if you do not get behind this agitation and back it up morally and financially you are only flirting with your own downfall, because the world in which we live is today more serious than ever it was. White and yellow men have become more selfish today than they were before causing the terrible war, the terrible conflict, of 1914 to 1918. They destroyed all that they spent years and years to build and all the time and energy they gave us counted for nought because of the destruction. They have, therefore, lost their sympathies for other men. They have lost their sympathies for other races and have settled down to see nothing else but their own interest until they will have succeeded in rebuilding themselves. During this selfish, soulless age it falls to the province of the Negro to take the initiative and do for himself; otherwise he is going to die. He is going to die, as I stand on this platform tonight, economically in America; he is going to die economically under the yoke of Britain, of France and of Germany. He is going to die in the next one hundred years if he does not start out now to do for himself.
DEAR AMERICA FOR WHITE MEN
I want you to realize that this dear America, the greatest democracy in the world for white men, the greatest republic in the world for white men, that this America is becoming more prejudiced every day against the Negro. Month by month they are lynching more Negroes than they ever did before; month by month more riots are going on in the industrial sections of this country than ever before. This is an indication of the spirit of the people that are living today. It is the spirit that will be bequeathed to their children and to the unborn posterity of the white race. If you think that the white man is going to be more liberal to Negroes than they are at present, you are making a big mistake. Every succeeding generation of the white race is getting more prejudiced against the Negro. It is time, therefore, for the Negro to look out for the future for himself.
FOUR HUNDRED MILLION WHITES
We have in America ninety million white fellow citizens, and they are lynching us by the dozen every day. In the next one hundred years you are going to have four hundred million people (white) in America. Now, if they are lynching twelve a day with their ninety millions, how many are they going to lynch when they are four hundred millions. I want you to figure this out for yourselves. And it is because our old time leaders failed to see this that we of the Universal Negro Improvement Association say that the old time leadership must go.
NEGROES FLIRTING WITH THEIR GRAVES
Again I want you to understand that economically we are flirting with our graves if we do not start out to make ourselves economically independent. This war brought about new conditions in America and all over the world. America sent hundreds of thousands of colored soldiers to fight the white man's battles, during which time she opened the doors of industry to millions of white American men and women and created a new problem in the industrial market. And now the war is over and those millions who took the places of the soldiers who have returned home say: "We are not going to give up our jobs. We are going to remain in the industrial life of the world." This makes it difficult for returned soldiers to get work now. There will be sufficient jobs now for returned soldiers and for white men, because abnormal conditions are still in existence, but in the next two years these abnormal conditions will pass away and the industries will not be opened up for so long. It means that millions are going to starve. Do you think the white industrial captains are going to allow the white men and the white women to starve and give you bread? To the white man blood is thicker than water.
Therefore, in the next two years there is going to be an industrial boomerang in this country, and if the Negroes do not organize now to open up economic and industrial opportunities for themselves there will be starvation among all Negroes. It is because we want to save the situation when this good time shall have passed by and the white man calls you, "My dear John, I haven't any job for you today," and you can leave the white man's job as a porter and go into the Negro factory as a clerk, you can leave the white man's kitchen and go into your home as the wife of a big Negro banker or a corporation manager.
THE BLACK STAR LINE
That is why we want the Black Star Line so as to launch out to the Negro people of the world, and today the richest people of the world are the Negro people of Africa. Their minerals, their diamonds, their gold and their silver and their iron have built up the great English, French, German and Belgian Empires. Men, how long are we going to allow those parasites to suck the blood out of our children? How long? I answer for those who are active members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, "Not one day longer." No parasite shall continue to feed off my body, because I want to have a healthy body. I have not sufficient blood to give to any parasite, because when I get sick I will need every drop of my blood to sustain me until I am well, so while I am well I will have to take off that parasite and throw it away. The time has come for the Negro to exert his energy to the utmost to do. Men and women of Philadelphia, the question is now for you to decide. Are you ready tonight or are you going to wait for two years more to be ready. The answer is, "You must be ready now." Thank God, there are millions of us who are ready already, and when the Black Star Line sails out, by the demonstration of the Black Star Line spontaneously and simultaneously, millions will become wealthy.
SOME BAD NEGROES
Some bad Negroes, and I understand some are in Philadelphia, say there will be no Black Star Line. I am only sorry that I have not the time to waste or the strength or energy to give away that when I come against those bad Negroes to just get a big stick and give them a good walloping, because such Negroes are not entitled to courteous treatment. I want you active members not to waste time with such Negroes, but to put them down. Mark them well, because those are the same guys who, after you have achieved through your sacrifice, will go around and day: "We did it; we did it." The so-called big Negroes are the ones who have kept back the race. Some of them are doctors and lawyers and other professionals. They feel they are not belonging to the other class of Negroes. Those are the people who have done nothing to help the race because they sell out the race. This Black Star Line we are putting forward is an industrial proposition, and we are putting this proposition forward not by the big Negroes, but by the small Negroes. The first ship of the Black Star Line that we are to float on the 31st of this month will be owned not by the big Negroes, but by the small Negroes, and on that day we are going to say to the big Negroes, "Now, who are the big Negroes?" We who have made the Black Star Line possible are the big Negroes. In New York we have discarded that kind of big Negroes. If they want to be big, they have to come right in line with other Negroes and show how big they are. We are not going to take it for granted that you are big. You have to show how big you are, not by the amount of money that you have, not by the automobile that you can afford to run, but by your sacrifice for your race. The sacrifice that you are prepared to make, that is how we are going to make men big. The so-called big Negro tells you that he is an aristocratic Negro; he is a gentleman. I want to know where the Negro aristocrat came from. A little more than fifty years ago Abraham Lincoln took up the pen and liberated four million Negroes. He did not say to any particular one, "You are a big Negro," or " You are an aristocrat," or "You are inferior." Victoria, eighty-two or eighty-three years ago, took up the pen and liberated a few million Negroes in the West Indies, but she did not classify them. All of us got our emancipation on equal terms, and it is for those who have the noblest blood, feeling and sentiment towards humanity to come out and do service so as to distinguish ourselves from the rest. Have they done it? Outside of Booker Washington and Frederick Douglass, there is not another aristocratic Negro in America. Douglass and Washington are the only two Negroes in this country who went out and did service so as to make themselves singular among the Negroes of America. It was not a matter of money that made these two men big Negroes. It was nobility of soul, of spirit, to do service to suffering humanity, and that made them different from the rest of the people. That made them aristocrats among their own. But these fat headed, big belly politicians who have robbed the people in their votes at the polls for a few dollars go among the people and say: "We are the aristocrats; we are the big Negroes." Indeed, I refuse to respect any such big Negroes. Show me the Negro of Booker Washington's stamp, show me the Negro of Frederick Douglass' stamp, and I will say, "There go the aristocratic Negroes of the race!"
NOBILITY THROUGH SERVICE
Men become noble through service. Therefore, if any Negro wants to call himself an aristocrat, a nobleman, before he will get that respect from me he will have to do some service to the Negro race. So you lawyers, you doctors and you politicians who think you are big Negroes we want to tell you that you are nothing for us, of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. You have to do service, and the time will come when we will give you a chance, when we will give you the opportunity to do service, because we are going to want hundreds of you professional men to lead the Negro forces on to VICTORY.
So tonight I want you men and women to understand that there is a chance for every one of you tonight to do service to your race, to humanity, before I leave this building for New York, and that is to help to launch on the 31st of this month the first ship of the Black Star Line. I want you all to buy as many shares as you can. If you can buy twenty, buy them; if you can buy fifteen, buy them; if you can buy ten, buy them. Buy as many as you possibly can, so as to render service to yourselves, service to your race, service to humanity.
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