Black Intel

By Angela Hughes

As children, we receive praise from our parents and familial units for excelling academically. As adolescents, we are recognized for our involvement in positive and meaningful extracurricular activities. However, between the transition from high school to institutions of higher learning, the endorsement of our own becomes void. Often times, once reaching a certain level of success, we feel that the praise we receive from our own people isn’t enough, as if we aren’t complete unless we are given European validation.
In the early 19th century, our people founded their own schools, had thriving businesses and seemed to have managed quite well in a society that anticipated our failure. Growing weary of our mistreatment, some of our ancestors sought to have a knowledge of self,  like brotha Marcus Garvey and his Back To Africa movement. While much later, organizations like SNCC, the NAACP and the SCLC were created in the quest to be seen as equal to whites. 10 or so years subsequently, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the leader of the civil rights movement, teaching that we are all the same and should be treated as such. During that same time, brotha Malcolm X pushed for our people to adopt a black nationalist mentality: rely on our own people in every aspect of life. Around this time, our need for European validation in order to feel successful was birthed. Instead of trying to re-discover who we really were, we decided to adjust to a European influenced society, adopting European mentalities and neglecting the way of our ancestors.

Today, black organizations, institutions of higher learning and even black intelligence, is discredited simply because they don’t amount to, or don’t equate, the standards that which their European counterparts hold. This mentality is not only detrimental to the future of our people, but we continue to perpetuate the very white supremacist action that supports it. In Notes Toward Higher Ideals in Afrikan Intellectual Liberation by Mwalimu K. Baruti, he explains that before European invasion, a feeling of contentment came from the acknowledgment of our achievements by our elders. Again, living in a European influenced society, we have even adopted a European outlook of our elders, thus neglecting the esteem to which we once held them, making us less likely to seek validation from them.

This sense of validation is another tool of division that fractures the bonds between us. We are all well within reason to come to terms about how we feel about certain organizations and educational institutions based on their individual reputations. However, we are no better than those we claim to be un-like if we use our “self-righteousness” to discredit the institutions and organizations created by, and for, our fellow brothers and sisters. A primary example of this nullification of our institutions can be seen in The Princeton Review’s annual list of Top 100 universities and colleges: none of them are HBCUs. Why hasn’t this changed? Our people fought, died, shed blood, sweat and tears for us to have an education. The very foundation of our intelligence is built firmly on the backs of our ancestors, yet we are sure to acknowledge the brotha that received a doctoral degree from Princeton than the brotha that received the same degree from Prarie View.

The seeking of European endorsement also stems from the current definition of success in our community; cars, clothes and hoes [credits: Drake]. To them, success equates material wealth. To us, success is being spiritually wealthy. We have gone without material items for centuries, so it is not of our culture to use material gain to define who we are. Our connection to The Creator and our spirituality is what we value most and what has kept us afloat throughout our struggle.

It is not a palpable bolt of lightening, but a subtle breeze that blows your hair back without you even noticing. It is so devious that we don’t realize we seek it in our daily actions. Something as minor as needing to have a document proofread at work, or directions to the nearest bank, we turn to ask the melanin deprived before asking our own people. This subconscious need, this craving for a white person to applaud our efforts does nothing more to help our people progress than FEMA did when Katrina hit. If we don’t awaken and embrace the way of our ancestors by acknowledging and implementing the wisdom and intelligence of our own people, the future of our people will be nothing more than foreseeable bleakness.

We are descendants of the most intelligent, beautiful, technologically advanced people in the history of our world. The blood of the original mathematicians, astrologers, philosophers and scientists runs through our veins. Trusting the judgment of people who are descendants of thieves over our own, is absurd. Our children deserve to be applauded for their success by us but this can’t happen if they are seeing us seek validation elsewhere. This is a bad habit that must not only be broken but cease to exist. With realization, willingness and the awakening of our consciousness there can be a brighter future for our people. But the chains of ignorance must break and the subconscious, desired endorsement of Europeans must end.