Pilgrimage to Point Comfort Virginia to Honor the Ancestors
Pilgrimage to Point Comfort Virginia
to Honor the Ancestors
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Dr. Molefi K.
Asante and his MKA Institute for
Afrocentric Studies sponsored
a trip to Point Comfort in Virginia
Saturday April 26. Entitled 400
Witnesses for 400 Years the pilgrimage left from the
institutes’ headquarters to travel by motor coach to Hampton
Virginia’s Fort
Monroe and Hampton University.
At Fort Monroe the travelers assembled around an
historic marker by the water designating that spot as the place kidnapped
Africans were brought ashore four hundred years ago in August of 1619.
Around the marker the pilgrims took pictures, shot videos, poured libations and
conducted a ritual washing ceremony for all the participants. Immediately
following the rituals the pilgrims boarded the bus and traveled the short
distance to Hampton
University where they ate
lunch and participated in a program in the McGrew conference center produced by
Doctors Asante, Mazama, Smith and others.
The program included: a moment of silence, naming the “twenty odd” Africans,
poetry readings, songs, story telling by Dr. Caroliese Reed of Keepers of the
Culture, personal reflections by the travelers; those who came on the bus and
those who drove on their own from outside of Philadelphia.
During the program at Hampton University Dr. Asante shared the history, “They
said the ship was called The White Lion, it was also said it was registered in
the Netherlands,
it was also said the ship was actually manned by Spanish seamen and that the
ship’s cargo had been stolen from the Portuguese. All Europe
participated in the enslavement of African people. In the very beginning the
Africans who landed at Point Comfort near Jamestown
had came from all regions of Africa as far as we know because many of them had
already stopped in the Caribbean before they
came to Point Comfort.
Our history for
four hundred years has been long, but it has also been a history of great
victories. We have achieved many victories. One cannot look at science or
philosophy or aeronautics, music, athletics or robotics where the descendants
of those twenty Africans who are now forty million have not achieved phenomenal
things and they have written their names in eternity.
We have come to this region of Virginia as pilgrims because we recognize
one of the things we need to do always is be mindful there are those we do not
want to disappoint. And that is the meaning of ritual always; is that we have
ancestor and elders that there are ancestors we do not want to disappoint.
Everyday when we wake up we should say there is an ancestor or an elder I do
not want to disappoint, there is something I have to do and I must do it well
so I do not intend to disappoint those ancestors and elders. This is our
motivation and we must teach this to our children”
Dr. Asante pointed out the gifts and talents those Africans brought with them
besides themselves and their skin. “Don’t let them tell you we brought nothing.
We had our skin but there were so many things we had with us. We had religion
we had philosophy, we had skills, we had hunting, fishing, growing rice we had
been gold miners, copper minders, metallurgy, we were builders, we built stone
structures in Southern Africa and West Africa, we were weavers. These things
were not necessarily visible. Don’t let people tell you we came with
nothing. We came brimming with ideas, we've lost a lot but we had much with us
when they were brought off that ship.”
2019 marks the four hundredth anniversary of “twenty odd”
kidnapped Africans were dropped off at by the pirates manning the Dutch Man o’
War who stole the Africans from another ship to Point Comfort in exchange food
and supplies from the English colonists. Official ceremonies will take place
all year long to honor the Africans and remember their arrival. Dr. Asante
stated he wanted to visit Point Comfort to pay respect and honor the ancestors
before the large crowds came during the summer months.
The weather was beautiful, the energy on the bus and camaraderie amongst the
pilgrims was extremely positive. The travelers were an intergenerational group
and we were blessed by the whole experience.
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Little Provides a Big Message
Little, Provides a Big Message
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
The motion
picture Little opened in theaters on
April 12 and is doing very well at the box office for a low budget film. As of
this writing the film has grossed $15,499,000 its first weekend coming in
second to Shazam the multi-million
dollar budget comic book character movie. Little is a fantasy that provides a
powerful underlying message.
Little is the story of an up and coming IT entrepreneur
named Jordan Sanders played by Regina Hall. Jordan Sanders is portrayed as a hard
driving, insensitive and obnoxious person whose management style has alienated
her employees, especially her chief assistant April played by Issa Rae. Hall’s
character shares early in the film via flashbacks why she developed such a hard
exterior.
Flashback scenes show Jordan as an
extremely bright student, who although supported by her parents was made fun of
and bullied when she was in middle school. To survive, young Jordan adopts a
hard exterior and decides to take on an aggressive posture confronting her
peers before they can mock and bully her.
Hall’s character is put in the
awkward situation of having to persuade her best client played by Micky Day, a venture
capitalist from a well-to-do family but who thinks he’s made it on his own, to
back one of her projects. The problem is, Hall berates her employees,
denigrates their ideas and browbeats them to the point they are afraid of her.
Her assistant April is also afraid of her boss and is fearful of pitching her own
ideas to Jordan.
As her assistant April is forced to work
with Jordan in close
proximity, she is the recipient of most of Jordan’s wrath.
The daughter of a food truck owner played by
Massai Martin and her father Preston played by
Tone Bell respectively are marginal characters but are pivotal to the story. Preston the food truck owner plies his
business near Jordan’s
building. His daughter is a fledgling magician with an active imagination.
Following a confrontation with Jordan
she casts a spell on Hall’s character wishing Sanders was small like her so she
could deal with her.
The film follows Hall’s character after she
has been changed from an adult to a pre-adolescent the same age as the food
truck owner’s daughter. The spell turns Jordan’s world upside down and causes
major changes in her life besides the obvious one of being a smaller version of
her adult self.
Little Jordan
now needs adult supervision because one of her neighbors, one of the many adults
Jordan
has alienated, calls protective services on her. The case worker comes to her
condo to investigate while April is there and asks why the child Jordan is not
in school. The case worker demands Jordan
get into school and threatens April with jail if she does not take Jordan to
school.
As fate would have it, little Jordan is
assigned to her old middle school, the same place she is forced to try to “fit
in” and relive being bullied and tormented by the “cool kids” who populate the
school. Once in school, she is mocked, isolated and forced to hang out with the
nerds in a safe place during lunch in the cafeteria.
Being an adult in a child’s body with her
obnoxious attitudes, she attempts to help her new buddies overcome their isolation
by using her money to give them makeovers to look “cool”. Turns out the nerds
are planning to showcase their talents at a talent show and they hope they will
be seen in a new light by their tormentors.
Without giving more details away, circumstances
force little Jordan
to rethink her ideas about fitting in and how to treat people. She eventually
sees the light and determines to be her authentic herself and not allow what
others think stifle her self-interest or plans. It takes a convoluted series of
incidents and events both at the middle school and at her business to help her
learn who her true friends are resulting in a personal metamorphosis while
still in Jordan’s
child’s body.
The film provides an important lesson,
which applies to all of us regardless of age, gender or socio-economic status,
having the courage to be authentically you. The film is not as ratchet as some
of the trailers I saw and I was really glad I went to see it. You will enjoy it also.
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Best of Enemies
Best of Enemies
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
There have been several films
released the last two years focusing on 1950-70’s era Black-White relationships,
The Green Book won an Oscar in 2018;
that film was a reverse of the 1989 film, Driving
Miss Daisy but in my opinion was a very well acted film. Now comes Best of Enemies which like The Green
Book is based upon real life people, events and relationships. In this case the
film is based upon a book entitled Best of Enemies; Race and Redemption In
the New South written by Osha Gray Davidson, which was subsequently made
into a documentary film.
The Best of Enemies theatrical film
was written and directed by Robin Brissell who used some of the audio and film footage
from the original documentary. Unlike The Green Book which focuses on the
interaction between a Black man and his White driver during the period of
American racial segregation, Best of Enemies follows two Durham North Carolina
residents as antagonists: Ann Atwater portrayed extremely well by Taraji P. Henson
and C.P. Ellis played credibly by Sam Rockwell as they grapple with issues of
immense social importance to both them personally, their families and the
communities they come from.
Atwater
and Ellis are on opposite sides of the racial, ideological and social spectrum.
They are familiar with each other because Atwater
is a community activist/organizer and Ellis who owns a local gas station is the
leader of the local United Klans of America KKK Klavern. Their paths have
crossed several times over various issues in the community and there is no love
lost between them.
The film takes place in 1971 when
much of the South was still living under racial, social and economic apartheid. The town’s Black elementary school is severely
damaged by a fire. Now the segregated community faces a dilemma: what to do
with the Black students and the damaged school and how to provide education for
the Black students for the rest of the school year?
Atwater goes to one of the city council
member’s office to ask to be placed on the council agenda, she is ignored and
she reacts. The chair of the council played by Bruce McGill happens to walk
into the office; he intercedes and agrees to place Atwater on the meeting agenda. Later, he
recruits the local KKK to also attend the meeting to insure he gets the results
he wants which is to maintain the status quo while appearing to be sympathetic
to Atwater.
The racial animus at the council
meeting heightens tensions within the Durham
community. The council denies the Black parents’ request to allow Black
students to attend the white school for the rest of the school year. The NAACP enters
and sides with Atwater
and the Black parents. The NAACP files a lawsuit on behalf of the Black parents
and students.
The Judge who receives the case
doesn’t want to make a decision, so he asks for advice and a lawyer buddy
suggests calling in a Black college professor Bill Riddick played by Babou
Ceesay who is a conflict resolution specialist. His buddy calls Riddick and he
agrees to help.
Without giving away further details
this decision brings Atwater
and Ellis into conflict. The film is not a down the line White bigot vs Black
hero scenario, there are shades of gray on both sides and the film does a good
job showing all sides, the pressure they are under and we the audience get to
watch as the resolution plays itself out.
The costumes, setting and cars are
period, the characters are not stereotypical but we see the economic class, social
and political dynamics of the times, some regressive and reactionary and some
progressive. The only piece that struck me as not reasonable was the Black
neighborhood where Atwater
lived seemed too affluent but again the film is not stereotypical.
See the film. The message is still
relevant today, we still need black folks like Ann Atwater and Bill Reddick, to
raise hell, use their talents and skills to fight the powers that be and do the
right thing.
I will share this, the documentary footage
shown during the closing credits shows the two real life antagonists Atwater and Ellis and how
they developed a respectful working relationship.
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Deaths of Despair
Deaths of Despair
Junious Ricardo Stanton
With the round the clock media focus
on the Meuller investigation into Russian collusion which every discerning
person in the US knew was bogus, the mind control apparatus glossed over the much
more relevant issue of declining life expectancy for Americans. This marks the
third year in a row US
life expectancy has fallen. This is a dramatic trend because it has been one
hundred years since this has happened. The last time this occurred was in
successive years 1916-1919 during World War I and the spread of the Spanish Influenza.
Public health experts and people
familiar with this rend are calling this “deaths of despair”. I encourage you
to watch the HBO Documentary United
States of Stress that looks at this phenomenon specifically focusing on
white working class families. The theme is the impact and affects of stress on the
human body and the documentary pinpoints several factors they believe are
causing the high rates of suicide, drug and alcohol related deaths in America.
During the program one
of the speakers says African-Americans have been experiencing this forever;
meaning the social pressures of living in an uncertain and hostile environment and
the sense of having no personal control over one’s life elevates stress levels
which trigger physiological reactions which over time damage the arteries and
organs in the body.
Looking at the data, health and
demographic experts saw an alarming pattern: most of these early death causes
could be eliminated. “The biggest factors behind the drop in life
expectancy among Americans over the last three years are drug overdoses and
suicides. In 2017, more than 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, and
approximately 45,000 people intentionally took their own lives. These deaths,
along with alcohol-related deaths, have been dubbed “deaths of despair” by
researchers Anne Case and Angus Deaton. The “despair” referred to by Case and
Deaton is largely economic, resulting from diminished job prospects and other
personal disappointments. As Case put it, “Your family life has fallen apart,
you don’t know your kids anymore, all the things you expected when you started
out your life just haven’t happened at all.”
Again what
is alarming to these researchers and public health officials is that these “deaths
of despair” are happening to white people! When drugs were flooding our
communities the narrative was we are morally lax and their solution was a “War
on Drugs” featuring harsh sentencing for Blacks and lenient sentences for
whites. Now that whites are hooked and thrown off, the narrative is “we can’t
arrest our way out of this epidemic we need treatment and prevention”.
I wouldn't
wish drug addiction on anyone, neither suffering nor the loss of a loved one
prematurely due to maladaptive lifestyles and psychological pain, but let’s be honest;
there is something horribly wrong in America today. Despair, depression,
frustration, anxiety and hopelessness are the root causes of much of this.
People are seeing their lifestyle
and economic futures evaporate before their eyes and they don’t know what to
do. They see the 1% getting away with causing their pain and angst and nothing
is being done to help them. Banks and big industries are being bailed out, but
not them. Then they fall victim to political slogans and campaign rhetoric like
“Hope and Change” or “Make America Great Again”, yet no matter which party is
in office conditions don’t improve for the little guys!
Don’t allow
yourself to lose hope. Our ancestors endured much worse. Personal strength is a
choice. Optimism is a decision, no matter how bleak things look. Resilience and
fortitude are embedded deep within our souls waiting to be called up and used
at the appropriate and appointed times. Don’t allow appearances or circumstances
to undermine your sense of self, your optimism or your quality of life
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