“Symbolism is the death of progress.” 

In battle, it is imperative—- not convenient or even strategic—to know your opponent. The contemporary climate obscures the enemy in a masterful attempt to control the masses.

We live in a world where it’s simpler to prove everything that isn’t true and increasingly difficult to justify everything that is. Western culture has tried to present the illusion of progress by twisting the perception of truth. 

Altering the perception of truth, the oppressor appears as ally, and perhaps most violently,  perpetuates the revolution as having already taken place. White supremacists guised as liberals have orchestrated both the race war and the race revolution. This is perhaps best illustrated by Colin Kaepernick. After careful examination, I contend that Kaepernick was hired by the NFL to perpetuate a revolution anticipated and staged by the NFL amidst mounting racial tensions. I believe the NFL staged this pseudo revolution to get in front of what could have happened in its place. The same can be said of BLM, another organization that mimics a black revolutionary past but implements symbolism not action. This post delineates other attempt at a similar evil. 

I. R. Kelly Documentary R

As delineated on a previous post, R.Kelly’s media lynching serves to distract black people from the true sexual predator. The black man is not the enemy. But watching the news, this is the projected image. Malcolm X once said, “if you’re not careful, white supremacy will have you loving your enemy and hating the oppressed.” This is exactly what the media aims to do in its portrayal of the R. Kelly scandal. 

II. Regina King wins a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress

Regina King’s recent “victory” at the golden globes, is yet another coin in the bucket or symbolism passing as progress. From Sterling Brown to Michelle Obama, the western world is relentless in its selection of black bodies to represent the glory of assimilation. King’s award is to create a false line of demarcation between the whites in the white house and the whites of the Golden Globes. This performance seduces many to forget the back door that blacks previously had to enter to attend awards like these–if we were to attend at all. Subsequently, any applause, tears, or feelings of pride that arise within the black collective in response to this empty symbolism, grants entry to a subjugated assimilation via back door. 

III. Cyntoia Brown gains Clemency 

This is yet another act of symbolism that surfaces to provide the illusion of change. 

2018 highlighted clemency for Alice Johnson and Cyntoia Brown, black women “freed” from what was an improper consequence to begin with. The symbolism that accompanies their clemency does nothing to repair a flawed justice system that continues to terrorize black people. In celebrating said symbolism, members of the black collective ignore the reality that these actions are highly individualistic and mean virtually nothing with regard freedom and black franchisement. These cases illustrate white supremacists as symbolically giving back what they’ve taken to which the masses applaud in a colonized daze.

The illusion of change functions so well because truthfully most do not desire change. To desire a changed world, is to welcome a change of self. Though many would adamantly disagree, most have subconsciously acquired to its ways and see white supremacy as something to be accepted, and black retaliation, whether verbal or physical, as a “complaint” that must cease.  

As long as we remain consumers of white propaganda and wait for the revolution to be televised by our oppressors, symbolism will continue to thwart progress. Symbolism reflects a fixation on the external that compromises the internal state of the oppressed. 

It is truly a scary time right now. The world has convinced many within the black collective that they are cured of a disease that continues to kill us physically, mentally, and spiritually. The severe tone of Dr. Francis Cress Wesling’s The Isis Papers not only makes more sense in this current environment but appears an imperative means to communicate a message so many would grudgingly listen to let alone accept.

We are at war. We are being attacked. One’s blissful state of ignorance or a cavalier disregard for the collective is not a personal choice but a fatal one. 

The revolution has yet to occur, but where will you be when it arrives?

Black Power ❤