Emancipated – Are We?

OH look, it’s that time of year when black people around the island stand tall with their chests high like peacocks to proclaim how proud they are to be descendants of slaves…yes you guessed right, it is Emancipation Day.

To the vast majority, whenever the words “holiday” and “August 1” come together in the same sentence, it is usually followed up with “Oh, yeah, it’s Emancipation Day.”

The vast majority might also know the basics about slavery being abolished in 1833 after over 300 years of torture and bondage to say the least. They might even go on to get emotional as they think or speak about what their ancestors suffered through. I mean, there really is enough information out there to reduce grown folks to tears.

But when you really look into what it really means to be emancipated, I’m left to wonder whether people believe that they are truly emancipated.

Okay so emancipation means the process of being set free from legal, social and political restrictions. Yeah, I get all of that, but another definition of the word is called liberation and people, whilst we are free, we are not liberated.

Although the documents were signed saying that we are free to live like other human beings way back in the 1800s, the manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome blended perfectly with systematic mind control/brainwashing has served the masters of our descendants well as centuries later, we are still living with the mental capacity of the captive.

Skip to today and you will find that Carnival holiday is the ONLY holiday that is truly celebrated for its true purpose whilst extremely important holidays like Independence Day and of course Emancipation Day, they get overlooked and are seen as just one more day to either lie in, go to the beach or go to a fete.

Meanwhile, the very few who are conscious of these monumental days are just on the outside looking in rather saddened and disappointed as their people continue to walk around in their ignorant slumber.

Now, I mentioned earlier that we are free but not liberated because to this day, we still have limitations binding us in different parts of the world but we also have it here in our very own island of predominantly black St. Lucia.

We are free to work in the tourism industry and earn a living, but how free are we to enjoy the same luxuries of the visitors that we are bending over backwards to cater to?

We are free to walk around and go shopping in the big and fancy stores, but how free are we to demand that the store owners quit the price gouging and ripping off of customers?

We are free to vote, but how free are we to actually pick a government that we can make justifiable demands to when it comes to the proper governance of our island?

And finally, we have no restrictions to healthcare and emergency aid…or do we? With hospitals refusing to practice the Hippocratic Oath if you don’t have enough money and the blatant negligence of our fire and police resource pools, surely those are classed as restrictions.

Now the funniest part is that all of what I just mentioned are attainable…but only if your eyes are opened wide enough and you can see through the hogwash. It is only with open eyes that one can see that so many cannot and will not have the liberation to live life in the way that they should because they are asleep and resting comfortably in their blissful ignorance. Only the ones with their eyes wide open will see that only the LIBERATED get to enjoy such luxuries.

Another sad part is that sometimes, even though your eyes are wide open, you are powerless and you are either forced to live in the mess or you are left ostracised by people who simply don’t want to hear the truth.

That ignorance and systemic programming I tell ya, it’s a heck of a problem and it’s a problem that seemingly has no end in sight.

As long as black people refuse to stop killing and violating each other, the problem will exist because that means that they cannot break free from the Willy Lynch tactic of pitting slave against slave thus keeping each other down in the gutter and under the boots of the truly liberated.

As long as black people continue to make attempts to alter their natural appearance to make themselves look more “appealing” and “presentable” i.e. skin bleaching, facial and body augmentation to have more or less proportions, even down to the weaves and hair straightening, then other races (not even just the whites but the Indians and Asians who produce and sell these products when they themselves refuse to use them) just get continuous reasons to laugh at us and the way we literally try to kill ourselves to look like them…that my people is not liberation.

As long as locals would rather spend hundreds more on foreign brands and either completely ignore or try to get local vendors to reduce their prices, we will never see that it is only when we support each other that we can progress, so yes, we practice our freedom of choice but we are stunting liberty of our fellow St. Lucians and our island on a whole.

Times like these, I can only feel sad as opposed to mad because psychological effects are hard to fix and reprogramme. However, if the ones with their eyes wide open could speak up, then we could perhaps raise the new generations to be more aware of their emancipation and grow up to be truly liberated.

There are so many areas in need of change like the cultures that we raise our children up on…one where instead of seeing St. Lucian women walking the streets and going to fetes practically naked, we show our little girls that they can grow up to be powerful, popular and attractive without showing the whole world what is hidden underneath. At the same time, we can raise our boys to know that women are not objects or “dat” or “dem tings” that they should be cat calling or grabbing by the roadside or even violating and raping and that instead, they are future wives, mothers, teachers, doctors etc. who deserve respect.

Instead of raising our children in environments where women are demoralised and men are demonised, teach them to love and respect each other.

Perhaps most importantly, we need to teach our children to love and appreciate themselves as black princes and princesses who are descendants of brave slaves who endured the worst horrors for the sake of the future generations.

We need to teach them that their melanin is beautiful and regal and we need to stop pounding images in their heads that would make them think otherwise like the pretty blond haired, blue eyed dolls, the diversity less television shows and dare I say it, the image of a God who was born in the Middle East yet has pure Caucasian features…why would our children feel special at all with their black skin when to them, God himself is a white man?!

Ok I feel that I’ve said enough and I don’t want my message to be misconstrued. But at the end of the day, it’s a sad, sad fact that the importance of this day will mean nothing to so many.

This should be one of our proudest days yet but alas, there is not enough excitement and bacchanal attached to it.

In the meantime, people continue to wander in their slumber…they might as well just put on some glittery or golden shackles, join a chain gang somewhere and continue on their merry way because at least then, it will all make sense as to why they act the way they do even though slaves were released from bondage all these years ago.