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Have you given it much thought? What does the US mean to Black Americans?
We have described elsewhere how, on an adjusted basis, other nations’ governments spend more per capita on goods and services for their citizens than does the US government. Therefore, the quality of life may be better in those nations than in the US.
It is common knowledge that Black life has always been devalued in the US.
Yet, Black Americans have fought valiantly on behalf of this nation in its many wars. Why? To risk our lives for a few material benefits? At the same time, we know without doubt that freedom, justice, and equality have always been absent from the benefits Black Americans experience in the US.
If we were not fighting, then we were working ourselves to death building infrastructure and producing goods and services that transformed America into a high quality and economically rich nation. For this, we have received crumbs from the rich man’s table, and too many of us still live in poverty.
But one can eat, sleep, work with a miniscule probability of becoming a billionaire, and receive a few deformed socioeconomic benefits (e.g., inferior quality schools and healthcare, discriminatory and predatory financial practices, etc.) almost anywhere.
Consequently, we invite you to become deeply introspective and identify the real value that you derive from residing in the US.
Assessing realistically your life in the US, do you derive a profound sense of belonging, pride, or satisfaction from living here? Do you feel appreciated for your contributions to this nation?
You may be proud of yourself for navigating the gauntlet of racism and discrimination in the US to meet your material needs and those of your family. You may have even squirreled away a significant sum for retirement and for intergenerational transfers to your descendants. But could you not have had this same experience in almost any pseudo democratic nation where racism is the order of the day?
Would you not have preferred the same, a similar, or even a better material life in a nation owned and controlled by Black folk?
A nation to which you really belonged and that you could call your own. A nation whose development you could contribute to in significant ways. A nation where your efforts would be appreciated because of a sense of community—the type of emotion enjoyed in our areas of influence when we achieve goals that we establish for ourselves. A nation that you could be certain would be handed down for so many generations to your descendants and to the descendants of other Black folk. A nation through which you would have had a real voice in the world through your own Black governmental leadership, ambassa- dors, and military.
Would you not like to be a citizen of such a nation, rather than to simply exist in the US where you are unwanted, unwelcomed, and despised?
Especially in the context of the big questions (e.g., “What is the meaning of life?”), would you not prefer to live in a Black nation where our Afrocentric nature guarantees our efforts to preserve the planet so that our descendants can ultimately uncover the secrets to life’s great mysteries in the distant future?
Are there other reasons why you would prefer to live in, and would value, a Black nation— even if certain hardships are endured at the outset as we build that nation?
We have failed to move incessantly toward Black Liberation and Nation Formation for a variety of reasons: One being that we have not pondered sufficiently, as individuals or as a Black nation, the questions posed above.
We should recognize quickly that generations are disappearing and that we are slipping down a mountain slope into a valley of annihilation. A logical strategy for survival is to climb back up that slope and descend into a valley of Black Liberation and Nation Formation on the other side.
It is through Nation Formation that we can rescue and preserve ourselves and our generations to come. But we must first come to comprehend that we glean no real joy, pride, or value from living in the US. Rather, that joy, pride, and value can only be realized in our own Black nation.
