What Should “America” Be Called These Days?

“In The 20’S America Was Called “Jim Crow America.” What Should We Call It Now?”

While sitting here watching the film about the life of famed trumpet player Miles Davis on PBS my spirit and heart were very vexed, due to the fact that nothing has changed here in “my country tis of thee, sweet land of no liberty” for us as a people. Miles’ father was a dentist and he was considered to be the second richest in the state of Illinois. WOW! To that I must say that money had and still doesn’t have any genuine affect upon what’s been instilled into one’s heart. Miles’ father was a very accomplished and successful dentist but to his “WHITE” neighbors he was still looked upon as being a “Nigger!”

“RACISM” was and still is deeply in existence in the “HEART” of America. Why?

In this film it stated that Mile’s father was a very angry man and many times he took that anger out upon Mile’s mother in a very mean way. His anger towards the way that he was treated as a “BLACK” man in this country, and especially as a very “successful” one caused him to take out that anger on those that were the closest to him. Does that sound familiar to you? Think about this very seriously. Why do you think that there is so much violence within our community? Why? Why? Why? Our anger, in the way that we are treated by the system, is usually taken out against one another. Why do you think that they kept our communities segregated for so long?

“White” America did not want our wrath thrown on them. No! No! No!

“Why Were Our Forefathers So Angry?” Let me share this excerpt taken from “12 Million Black Voices!” “While we are leaving, our black boys come back from Flanders, telling us of how their white officers of the United States Army had treated them, how they had kept them in labor battalions, how they had Jim- crowed them in the trenches even when they were fighting and dying, how the white officers had instructed the French people to segregate them. Our boys come back to Dixie in uniform and walk the streets with quick steps and proud shoulders. They cannot help it; they have been in battle, have seen men of all nations and races die. They have seen what men are made of, and how they act differently. But the ‘Lords of the Land’ cannot understand them. They take them and lynch them while they are still wearing the uniform of the United States Army. Our black boys do not die for Liberty in Flanders. They die in Texas and Georgia. Atlanta is our Marne. Brownsville, Texas, is our Chateau-Thierry. It is a lesson we will never forget; it is written into the pages of our blood, into the ledgers of our bleeding bodies, into columns of judgement figures and balance statements in the lobes of our brains.”

Miles Davis’ anger is an example of the anger that is being displayed by the “average” young “BLACK” man in America. Later on in Miles’ life when he was beaten by a white policeman, Miles said his anger from that stayed inside him throughout his life. WOW! Taking into consideration Miles’ status in life, coming from a family that was wealthy, then becoming a successful musician making lots of money, how can we be surprised re: the anger that the average young black man has going on inside of him? “Racism” is the major cause of the anger that’s in existence throughout “Our” communities. We take our “Anger” out on those closest to us and that is why there is so much “Violence” going on throughout our communities. The pain of being harassed by the police throughout our neighborhoods is a major reason for our youth taking it out on one another. It is now 2020! “What Should We Call America Now?

Please give some “REAL” serious thought to this specific column because we are losing our “African American” youth very quickly. We must “Wake Up!” Let me end this with the words from our great leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., taken from his book “Why We Can’t Wait!”
“It is no longer merely the idealist or the doom-ridden who seeks for some controlling force capable of challenging the instrumentalities of destruction. Many are searching. Sooner or later all the peoples of the world, without regard to the political systems under which they live, will have to discover a way to live in peace.

“Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence.

“He became endowed with a conscience. And he has now reached the day when violence toward another human being must become as abhorrent as eating another’s flesh. Nonviolence, the answer to the Negroes’ need, may become the answer to the most desperate need of all humanity!”

Let me end this with 2nd Chronicles 7:14: “If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” In a country that professes to be largely a “CHRISTIAN” nation how and why is it so “DEEPLY” divided and separated?

Let me also say that I now, more than ever, realize why we do not hear the music of such artist as Miles Davis and other “JAZZ” musicians too often because their music puts one in a very “Serious” Frame Of Mind!

“Give That Some “Real” Serious Thought!

This is “Lillie’s Point Of View” and I’m just having my say!” Now, you can most definitely have yours!