This is hard for millions of people to accept for various reasons. But this is something I have always known and have happily embraced. And it only gets confirmed each step of the way.
When I moved from Central LA to Mays Pond where through some sort of Imperialism, I had to go to Junior High and High School in Mill Creek, with some of the dumbest and most priveledged people I predicted would peak before they graduated. I remember being told to,
“Stop acting black.”
I knew I wasn’t Black in America but I went home everyday to my Puerto Rican Mother who loved me, who was clearly part Black. She and my bad ass White father was damn sure I knew every step of the way that they were proud of it.
And so was I, which made some people f_cking uncomfortable but I wasn’t going to let Brad Thornberg tell me who I was, when he was clearly ashamed of who he was. Am I supposed to not walk with confidence and bend some notes in choir for some rich muthaf☆cka that couldn’t point Puerto Rico out on a map?
But some of the most delusional Americans I encountered in my life were some of the folks I met in college when I was president of a Latino Fraternity. As the sons of migrant workers they were often clearly Indiginous, but swore they were Conquistadors. But in some cases there I was, looking into the eyes of an Aztec.
Some of them said I was too White, as far as my olive skin and Gringo demeanor in their particular context as Chicano. But my reply cut them to the bone.
“Well I am part Black and my Mom is as dark as you, so tell me who you are.”
But I remember when a bomb dropped on the whole Latino community at WSU when this heroic, respected author and intellectual was flown in to speak to us. His name escapes me but his cajones and words will always endure.
This speaker who was too much of an elder and an expert to be questioned, got the entire community gathered right in the palm of his hand. Like a preacher he took them to this mountain top. Then he pushed button.
“Most of you I see in front of me are Indians. You are more Indiginous than many of the leaders of tribes in America I meet. But many of you are at the same time red necks. And the truth is that more slaves were brought to Mexico than there were original Spanish Settlers. We Mexicans often have a prejudice against Africans but they are your brothers and sisters.”
You would have thought he was their father and he just slapped them all in face. Except me. I said without hesitation,
“Amen”
Because my parents were honest and a wonderful example of an interracial couple in America. I knew as a kid what I still know.
It’s not that I think I am Black, America and the Americas are in denial about how Black we are. I am talking about Sicilians.
I am talking to every Mexican who loves their Revolution and doesn’t realize the General who won and destroyed their caste system was Vincente Guerrero. A man as Black as Obama that was called the equivalent of the N Word by the Spaniards, but instead of weakening him, that racial hatred saved Mexico because he would not surrender.
Vincent Guerrero fought to liberate the European, the Indian, and the African of his heritage from the tortures of Apartheid. But he was so successful Mexico fully absorbed its Black ancestory and within 100 years and forgotten why their Grandmothers looked a little black at all.
But there ain’t no denying this in Guerrero and Vera Cruz.
We can make all kids of distinctions. Mankind always wandered and got laid were they could.
Europeans are just North Africans as far as I am concerned. The Moors were African colonizers in Europe until the very year Columbus left for the New World, setting this whole thing in Motion.
The irony of saying Africans are not also Colonizers is that Queen Isabella would not give Columbus the ships and the money till she finally drove the African colonizers out of Granada and Southern Spain. Though in reality the Moors were still there because they colonized there for 700 years. They were successful African colonizers in Europe in the age of Exploration.
So when I hear the sophomoric Marxism that people pass off as a basic ass definition of racism, I laugh. Especially after they claim my Moorish ancestors in the same breath.
When my Dad sat next to my Mom and read her DNA test over the speaker phone, upon my return from Jamaica, everything they told me since I was wee lad was confirmed. But now with detail and tbe probability of Scientific near certainty.
But there was never anything anybody could tell me otherwise, if I could tell they were know nothings. You can’t really tell someone who they are, if you don’t know who you are. We all came here for reasons that are either lost or in many cases our ancestors felt it was better forgotten.
But now every single one of us, has a trail in every one of our cells. And that one cell has a lot to tell.
It’s more about who you are, than who you are not. Because you are human until fear and hate makes you something else.
Be proud. Make your kids proud. But don’t let your pride ever put you one notch above anyone else. Because we most certainly are not. Do you boo.
Davin’s new song has been released and is fast becoming a dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many musical ventures and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. He has just returned from three weeks of networking and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. Next stop, Lagos, Nigeria.
