Oh Say Can You See

It's possible to see the "ideal" of America by standing on certain of its "mountaintops."

Why is this important?

Because America's creativity -- as expressed through its individual citizens -- is jammed up by the imbalanced relationship between African Americans and European Americans. This imbalance was set when they met and is part of the nation's continuing past.

As a country, we've been able to get by with intermittent spurts of creativity, much of it coming from our European-American side, which has had access to more of its cultural tools. Such tools are essential to creativity and development.

This "mountaintop" view of America's ideal that I'm talking about allows us to envision the foundation upon which African Americans and European Americans can bring balance to their relationship. And while both sides of this social equation would reflect growth and development, the flow of creativity from the dammed-up African-American side would be mind-boggling.

I know that my argument needs a lot more amplification. So check out these "mountaintops" and I'll get back with you on a follow-up.

MOUNTAINTOPS

"I have a dream" speech
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
August 28, 1963

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends — so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and
justice.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today..."


Inaugural Address of
President John F. Kennedy
Jan. 20, 1961

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."



Gettysburg Address,
President Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us."


U.S. Constitution (1787)
Article I, Section. 2.

"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Terra of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."


Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.


John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher. Locke's book "Two Treatises of Government" (1690) strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

Locke believed that people by nature had certain rights and duties. These rights included liberty, life, and ownership of property. By liberty, Locke meant political equality. The task of any state was to protect people's rights. States inconvenience people in various ways. Therefore, the justification for a state's existence had to be found in its ability to protect human rights better than individuals could on their own. Locke declared that if a government did not adequately protect the rights of its citizens, they had the right to find other rulers.

'You Are Not Alone'

The sounds coming from the bandstand in Handy Park just across from my Beale St. office are so familiar to me after three years that I often tune them out. This afternoon, my ears were primed for receptivity because the park had come alive after a winter respite.

I recognized the lead voices running through selections of blues and R&B. Then I heard something that made me look out the window. It was different voice, a much younger voice, a Michael Jackson-sounding voice. I mean the Michael of the early years.

My view is such that I could only see half of the performer. So, I took a break and walked over to the park. The “voice” was through by then, counting money collected in a “Tip the band” bucket.

The “voice” had ventured to the park with an equally small friend, who was riding a bicycle. As they exited, newly earned fans stopped the “voice.” They hugged him and had him sing into their phone to someone on the other end that they were determined had to hear the “voice.” He obliged.

I later encountered the “voice” further up Beale St. This time he was on the bike. “Was that you singing in the park,” I asked. “Yes,” he said, nodding.

I gave him my “tip” – enough for him and his companion. “What’s your name,” I asked. “Kevione,” he said.

Kevione is 9 years old. And the song he was singing in the park? “Michael Jackson. ‘You are not alone,’” he said.

Back in my office, I did a Google search and I found the words I first heard Kevione sing. Check out these opening lyrics:

“You Are Not Alone”

Another day has gone
I’m still all alone
How could this be
You’re not here with me
You never said goodbye
Someone tell me why
Did you have to go
And leave my world so cold

My morning with Ben Franklin

For me to play a bigger part in the completing of a more perfect union in this country, I need a more complete understanding of its history. At least that's what came to my mind this morning.

I woke up at 5 a.m., 45 minutes ahead of my alarm. I decided to go in search of Benjamin Franklin, and I found him right where we last talked -- in the pages of "First American."

We picked up our conversation with Franklin about to make his second trip to England. It's the middle of the 18th Century and the Colonials -- with Franklin's evident hand -- have taken the position that the colonies must have a political structure that allows them to work in concert for the common good. The "good" at this point namely is to ward off danger, particularly from the French-"Indian" collaboration.

The Colonials still are loyal British subjects and Franklin actually travels to England to get the official support of the homeland.

I decided to review a few pages before picking up from my book-marked spot. Two passages jumped out at me, maybe because I have been immersed in guiding the Tri-State Defender's African-American History Month Section.

In the first, Franklin is having dinner with Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Morris and one of Morris' associates. Morris remarks that he rather likes the thought pattern of Sancho Panza in "Don Quixote." Panza is offered a government and responds by asking that it be a government of Africans because he could sell them as slaves if he could not agree with them.

Morris' associate asks Franklin why he stays on the side of the Quakers. "Had you not better sell them?"

Franklin responded, "The Governor has not yet blacked them enough." H. W. Brands -- author of "First American" -- recounts Franklin's later amplification that the governor had labored "hard to blacken the (Pennsylvania) Assembly (of which Franklin was a part) in all his messages, but they wiped off his colouring as fast as he laid it on, and placed it in return thick upon his own face."

Several pages later, there is this sentence: The Franklin party -- consisting of Franklin, William (his son), and two slaves: Peter and King -- arrived in London in late July 1757."

I started to wonder about Peter and King and longed to hear their overlapping stories.

Franklin's view of slavery evolved, and to understand the end point, I have to know the beginning and middle. And to understand America and where we are, I have to understand Franklin. That's a large part of why I am reading this book and having this conversation with him.

To be continued...

In the beginning was the word...

It is important to get children to talk; keep working to get them to talk; slaves do not talk.

The structure of unity and the 'Grammar of Freedom'

I am convinced that the desire to be part of a unified whole is natural. In the social sense, however, unity does not just happen. It has to be structured.

Now, we are living out the disunity of slavery. We have to regroup.

The center point for regrouping is the American Creed penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. President Abraham Lincoln glimpsed the essential nature of the creed on the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg in 1863. President John F. Kennedy spoke to the absolute need for personal responsibility with the creed in his inaugural address in 1961. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asked the nation to come present tense with the creed during his "I Have a Dream Speech" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.

My bridge to this line of thought was/is Dr. Nkosi K. M. Ajanaku, ESQ., Chief Researcher/Founder of the Future America Basic Research Institute. He packaged the creed, Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy and King into usable history through something he calls the new science of Humaculture - the science of raising babies according to their natural human capacities.

Humaculture exposes the slave communication system that perpetuates slavery. In it's place Humaculture roots a new Grammar of Freedom that is marked, in part, by the absence of the black-white racial designations that lock us into dysfunctional thought patterns.

This 'program' is being interrupted...

I was 30 years old before I started to get a grip on the fact that my desire to rid the nation of crime, poverty and racism had gotten me no further than dealing with surface social issues. I didn’t have a handle on “basic research.”

Basic research tells you who and what a thing is in its original design. And in the context of the new Humaculture science, basic research tells you who a baby is, what the capacity of the baby is at birth, what happened to the baby socially, and how the baby can make adjustments to align with its capacity.

I had a conversation recently with Dr. Nkosi K.M. Ajanaku, Esq. He is the chief basic researcher for the Future America Basic Research Institute, which he founded in the early 1970’s. In 1985, he got me started on looking at myself through basic research. Now, 25 years later, I’m listening to him with fresh ears as he shares his objectivity about how he sees me and my “possibilities.”

I’ve agreed to a series of 20-minute conversations. The ground rules are that we just talk “facts.” It’s not about me doing anything at this point. I’m making what I got out of those exchanges public, thinking that what I received in response to my decision to get some objectivity about myself might be helpful to others interested in examining their own “possibilities.”

My first session was Saturday, Jan. 30. Here’s Part 1 of what I got:

• African-American boys had to be suppressed in the early parts of the 17th century. There was no other way we could have the system (of slavery) unless you suppressed the boys; because they would naturally challenge things.

• African men decided to go with the “master” and leave their position and memory of how they functioned in Africa to protect the women and children. The males were the “gates” and everybody had to readjust.

• For the boys, the image of man/men in Africa was taken away and replaced with the image of the person in charge – European man/men. Special schools evolved for this. They were for girls too, but especially for boys.

• The new mold of man/men set in and became institutionalized. Over a period of time, boys never saw a model in the neighborhood of man/men.

• The good thing is that this changeover was no more than taking on a new program. It didn’t take away the natural capacity to have an image rooted in who African people are. It still hasn’t evolved to that, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t.

• We haven’t evolved away from our natural capacity to think. We’ve just got a bad program.

A Tale of Discovery...

On the coffee table in my living room I keep copies of the National Geographic magazine lovingly passed on to me by an associate who knows of my fondness for well-turned phrases and provocative subjects.

The December 2009 cover asks the question, “Are We Alone?” The subtitle reads: “SEARCHING THE HEAVENS FOR ANOTHER EARTH.”

The author – Timothy Ferris – is described as a stargazing veteran with a California observatory. Astronomers, he said, have identified 370-plus “exoplanets,” which are worlds orbiting stars other than our own. Eleven of these have been photographed; the rest have been picked up by something called “spectroscopic Doppler technique.”

Writes Ferris:
“No planets quite like our own have yet been found, presumably because they’re inconspicuous. To see a planet as small and dim as ours amid the glare of its star is like trying to see a firefly in a fireworks display; to detect its gravitational influence on the star is like listening for a cricket in a tornado.”

This weekend, I thumbed through the article again. Afterwards, I immediately picked up my copy of the “Urantia” – which I have read twice – and randomly opened it. Here is the last verse on the page I turned to:

“Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well-nigh infinite family of worlds, but your sphere is just as precisely administered and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited world in all existence.”

I think I hear the theme music from the “Twi-light Zone.”

Let me help you to talk to me

I once habitually made statements whenever someone moved on me about something. I responded from my frame of reference rather than helping the person say what they were trying to say.

I've learned that such statements cause short circuits.

Now, when I am at my best, I find creative ways to ask these questions of the person moving on me:

What do your words mean?

Why are using those particular words?

What is the idea behind the words?

What is the reason for the words?

When the exchange allows, I play back all that I think I understand and ask my conversation partner if she/he has been understood.

I stay on this path until my partner is satisfied.

A smile is just a frown turned upside down

We must start to smile, honestly smile, smile very deeply from the inside.

Such honest and deep smiles will help us uproot the very hurting stereotypes that we culturally inherited and habitually use -- without thinking -- every day of our lives.

Building blocks for a new character

1. No negatives.

2. Think human.

3. Get the facts first.

4. Learn to value the truth.

5. Beingness is key.

6. Be a pioneer.

7. Eliminate hate.

8. You Can do Greater Works.

9. Slavery is the problem; Esnicity is the answer.

10. Don’t panic; stay in control; breathe.

11. Learn the value of the Declaration of Independence.

12. Know this: There is more to the world than what you see.

13. Learn to suspend judgement.

14. Be of good cheer.

15. Know love; be love.

16. Update your “self” files

17. Take time to reflect, review and study.

GHOSTS OF FEARS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS*

Psychological Blocks to Personal and Ethnic Family Growth

1. Fear of the "WHITE MAN!"
2. Fear of "The White Conspiracy," which will thwart every initiative!
3. Fear of being displaced as THE TOP AND ONLY African American authority on all issues.
4. Fear of being fired from the job if a reasonable and sound position is taken on issues (fear of being tossed into the streets)!
5. Fear of being ridiculed -- called a fool (laughing stock)!
6. Fear of an African American conspiracy to plot one's downfall.
7. Fear of rejection -- lack of affirmation from birth.
8. Fear of the invisible "THEY" (great and invisible negative forces)!
9. Fear of being homeless!
10. Fear of supporting one's own mind and its conclusions.
11. Fear of the "I" -- writing and speaking on issues in the first person!
12. Fear of the "them against me" illusion!
13. Fear of not having an equal voice in matters!
14. Fear of being subordinate to an African American Authority.
15. Fear of not having the prime spot on the stage!
16. Fear of not being heard -- not having a voice in substantial matters (not being accounted for, not being important)!
17. Fear of asking questions -- fear of exposure or being uninformed or ignorant about an issue.
18. Fear of loss or intimate companionship -- jealously, rivalry, illusionary parity!



* Future America Basic Research Institute, March 15, 1995

Thought you should know

"Psychosocial slavery” is the root cause for the condition of America’s troubled communities and people scrambling to survive in them.

“What is psychosocial slavery?”

It is the ongoing effect of slavery days as it shows up in the psychology and social lives of people today. It is embedded in our language.

Undoing slavery means learning how to go into the upper room of your mind to create a concept of yourself that is not restrained, chained or confined by any condition of the environment or old information about history and culture.

The process for undoing slavery is “esnicity” and the new science of raising children with "esnicity" is called Humaculture.

Both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners have unanimously embraced resolutions supporting the exploration of the creative use of "esnicity" in Greater Memphis.

Can you believe that?

I am 3 in 1!

I am Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku. Karanja means guide. My middle name is Aidoo. It means one who puts things in place; sets things in order. Ajanaku (as redefined here in Memphis) means free and wealthy people.

So I am the guide who sets things in order for free and wealthy people.

I take my name seriously. I have earned the right to do so. I changed my name on Sept. 26, 1986 from Leroy Williams Jr. to Karanja A. Ajanaku. I paid my approximately $42 to the local court system and went through the 15-minute court process.

Leroy Williams Jr.


The judge - Judge James Swearengen - saw me sitting at the back of the courtroom after all other business was concluded.

He said, "Young man. Do you have business with this court?"

I said, "Yes sir. I do."

I took the witness stand and swore to tell the truth about a self determination that I had made.

Judge Swearengen asked me all the questions he legally had to ask. That includes whether I was changing my name for religious purposes or to evade debt.

I told him it wasn't a religious thing and that although I had plenty of debt, I wasn't trying to weasel out of it through a name change.

I brought with me to the court a petition that my sisters in the Ajanaku African American Research Institute (now the Future America Basic Research Institute ) had helped me draft. It included an order to okay the name change. It only needed the judge's signature.

That order reads, in part:
"It appearing to the court that petitioner has all his life used the name of Leroy Williams Jr., and that petitioner was born in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. It further appearing that the said petitioner for good and sufficient cause desires to change the name of Leroy Williams Jr. to Karanja Aidoo Ajanaku, and it appearing to the court that the change of name should be officially noted on the birth certificate of the petitioner."


I changed my name to reflect a discovery I made about who I am. I learned at age 30 that I was an African. Up to that time, it never occurred to me, even though I had personally done genealogy research and had located a great-great-great grandmother, called Sara Brown, who the U.S. Census said was born in Africa.

It did not occur to me, at the time, a quote "educated black man" unquote - that I must be African, at least a little bit.

It wasn't until years later (when) I heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s former secretary - Washiri Ajanaku - the former Francis Sims Bascom - talk to me about her experiences, that I came to consciousness about Africa being in me; about being African.

Dr. Washiri Ajanaku

I mean, after all, I was American. Today, I know there is no conflict between being American and being African. To my way of understanding, America is a civic - government - situation. As a citizen of the United States of America, I have certain rights and responsibilities.


I have the right to be who I am as a cultural being - an African – and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of being happy.

I am an African culturally, an American civically and human essentially: 3 in 1.

Go With the Flow of Unity

The vital intellectual energy of the nation is dammed up. Cooperation in a great undertaking with a high goal is what we need to dissolve the blockage.

I think the great undertaking should be to penetrate the core of racism and eliminate it at its root - slavery. The result would be a release of creativity that would put the squeeze on poverty and crime, generating wealth in the process.

The lesson I've learned about slavery - my emotions notwithstanding - is that Africans suppressed their own history and culture and ushered in the institution.

This runs counter to what now is believed. Still, the truth is that one person or group can't put another person or group into slavery. One can make the other a prisoner, but the prisoner must decide whether to be a slave and assume the behavior required.

If it were true that Europeans had the unilateral power to create slavery, then the Native Americans would have become slaves. And if it were true that Europeans had the unilateral power to create slavery, then it would mean they are inherently superior.

Now - more than ever - it is necessary to focus on how slavery functioned, how it was/ is passed along and acted out today, and how the crippling cycle can be interrupted.

My Experience with 'The Book of Eli'

I went to see "The Book of Eli" at 9:20 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 18, as I wound down from a long Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Earlier, I had covered two King Day events for the Tri-State Defender. On the way home, I bumped into an associate at the Schnucks on Union (one of my favorite chance-meeting spots.) He asked about my day. I shared my highlights and then asked about his day. He'd seen "The Book of Eli" with a friend and was primed to see it again. Two thumbs way up!

I took his energy with me and moved on it later after watching the conclusion of the two-day, four-hour premier of this season's "24." I went alone to the movie. I've not done that in years.

I'd gone with so little sleep the previous 36 hours that I literally was fighting to keep my eyes open during the first few moments. I don't know why, but I snapped alert about the time Denzel made his way into town.

From then on, I was riveted by the imagery, the storyline, but mostly by Denzel's character. There was something about him that just seemed, well, familiar in a way that was very alright with me.

Then came the scene that sticks with me. Denzel as Eli is recounting how he came across the book and how he came to be traveling west in search of a people and a home for it. He talked about a "voice" that essentially was his guide.

Well, that was a little spooky to me. Here's why:

Twenty-five years ago, I was sitting in a car with a woman I did not know outside of a supper club on Elvis Presley. We'd stepped outside during a break of a performance by Dennis Edwards, the former leader singer of the Temptations.

We were chillin' when suddenly this thought came into my head. It was so strong and real that I could not help but blurt it out, even though it just didn't fit at all with the scenario. I yelled out, "I'm going to be the leader of the free world."

The woman in the car with me about blew a gasket. She said let me out of here and quickly made her way back inside the club. I strolled back later, enjoyed the show and made my way home.

The next day, I went to visit the man who was evolving into my growth coach. My name was Leroy (Williams Jr.) and he asked me what I wanted to do in the world. My mind instantly went back to the night before and I said, "I want to be the leader of the free world."

He told one of the "sisters" in the room to go and get me a name that fit who I wanted to be. Minutes later, she came back and presented me with Karanja (guide), Aidoo (one who puts things in order, sets things in place), Ajanaku (free and wealth people.)

It took me a while to grow into it. In fact, I still am. More than a few have wondered whether I had/have lost my mind.

I've come to know that I have. The mindset I had previously needed to be lost. It was like a coat that just didn't fit my reality. So, I had to go crazy to get on the road to sanity.

All of this came rushing back to me during my viewing of "The Book of Eli," which sticks out to me as a story of conviction and a testament to the role each individual can play in helping a new world take root.

My Ideal Woman

by Karanja A. Ajanaku

My ideal woman knows it is ideal to be human.
She smiles at me from deep within stimulating
my intellect to tell my emotions that I love her.
My heart races to tell my brain that it got the message.

My ideal woman knows that my human nature is wired
to respond to a sincere statement of her need for me.
She knows the power of truth, which she demonstrates
by telling me that she appreciates me in her life.

My ideal woman desires to be great.
She pioneers through the frontier of ignorance,
knowing that my desire for greatness mirrors her own.
She hears my ideas and improves upon them.

I dream of her dreaming of me.

Dr. King Day – 2010

We have to face the truth. And part of the truth that we must face is that we are late in learning the truth.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says we have to rise up and live out the creed. What does it require to “rise up and live out” the creed? And what exactly is the creed?

There actually is an “American Creed.” William Tyler Page (of Friendship Heights, Md.) wrote it in 1917 as an entry into a patriotic contest. The U.S. House of Representatives adopted it on April 3, 1918. Page described it as “a summing up, in one hundred words, of the basic principles of American political faith.”

Here’s what he created:

“I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

“I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.”

As for Dr. King and the “creed,” it’s clear that he was focused on the Declaration of Independence during his classic “I have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. in 1963.

Says Dr. King:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”

Memphis – forever linked to Dr. King’s spirit by his last days on earth here – eventually will be the epicenter for a “rise up and live out the creed” movement. This I see. This I am committed to make happen.

To “rise up” we have to first "slow down," and attach value to the creed – as did Dr. King. Start simple: read the “Declaration of Independence.” And then find a child you can talk to about it.

My Top Ten Thoughts – Vol 1

10. When someone says something to me, I want to curb the tendency to make a statement in response. I want to focus on getting clarity about what the speaker is saying. Slow things down.

9. Color locks in the old world relationships from the plantation and slavery.

8. Becoming “free” is simple:

7. I must define myself.

6. I must introduce myself to myself.

5. I must establish what I can expect of myself.

4. I must introduce myself to others.

3. I must let others know what they can expect of me.

2. Freedom involves being aware that my species is “Homo sapiens”; and knowing how cool that is.

1. My first orientation simply was not enough to encompass who I am.

How has Dr. King increased your life?

I first ‘met’ Dr. King in January of 1985.
He had been dead nearly 17 years.
The ‘introduction’ was by his one-time scheduling secretary, Dr. Washiri Ajanaku, formerly Francis Sims Bascom.
Through her, I got acquainted with the human being who she said gave all he had for all people, particularly African Americans.
She paved the way for me to meet the man who would become my mentor, Dr. Nkosi K.M. Ajanaku, esq.
He told me Dr. King was the ‘modern day Founding Father’ – the person whose life provides a bridge to the country’s Founding Fathers.
Once I ‘tagged up’ with the Founding Fathers, he said, I would have the footing to pursue the idea of making Memphis a model city in honor of Dr. King.
That remains my mission.
In 2010, I’m determined to increase the pace.

The Truth Is Always Naked

In the context of human evolution, any two people should be able to connect through an idea.

Events of recent days, however, once again indicate that we have a problem living this out. At the core of the problem is that while each individual sees through his or her eyes, the individual tends to be measured by his/her ethnic group.

Follow me down this road:

As babies, African Americans inherit an image of European Americans as a “big, bad, white, dirty group.” So, when an individual European American shows up, the individual African American cannot get rid of the early orientation of how he/she sees the whole European American group.

Meanwhile, the European American shows up not knowing how the African American baby is looking at him. The two can’t get a communication going. They are culturally inhibited in the negative.

And they have no idea to build upon.

The cool thing is that the individual actually is built/designed/endowed with the capacity to create a new culture. But he/she cannot change the existing culture doing business as usual.

Year after year, small groups of African Americans get together to change things, but they come to the “change” meeting with images in their heads of the big group they want to change.

If African Americans could ever really truthfully get at how they see European Americans, or if European Americans could ever truthfully get at how they see African Americans, and people could actually talk about that, then you would create another culture.

But normally, we don’t get at the truth.

Life after Reid

In light of the hoopla over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's reported comments, we need a starting point for life after the eruption.

I have learned that it helps to start with an understanding of the core of America.

Consider this: African American males and females and European American males and females are the founding core of the country.

Other groups have tried to penetrate that core. And despite varying attempts, the core has not been breached (as Capt. Picard of the Starship Enterprise would say.) Some of the groups have tried to organize African Americans to overthrow the European Americans. At last, that has not met with success either. Thus the newer groups are left to orbit the core in satellite mode.

Newer generations of African Americans inherit the "backyard" of the core. Newer generations of European Americans inherit the "frontyard" of the core. The two core member groups do just enough to keep the core intact and in motion.

Trying to break this core relationship with tools created within the core is futile. (Okay, another "Star Trek" reference for those familiar with the Borg.)

New tools are needed. And this means going into our imagination to think outside of the black-white core.

Let's stop there and chew on that for a while.

Then check back with me tomorrow.