Dear
Family,
Happy
Thanksgiving weekend. I wanted to drop you a few lines before you get too far
into your plans. I know we are supposed to shun all Thanksgiving related
activities, but I hope you didn't allow the Pharisees in the
"Conscious" Community to talk you out of spending time with your
family. There's a qualitative difference between celebrating colonialism and
being with loved ones. I hope you didn't let people more interested in your money than you convince you that eating a meal in a predominantly
Black space somehow contributes to racism/white supremacy. I hope you didn't
fall for someone's narrow conception of being Black or woke.
The
Conscious Community has 20/20 vision when it comes to pointing out the crooks
and hypocrites in the church and Mosque- and there are plenty, but they go
Stevie Wonder when it comes to seeing the nefarious actions some in their
movement engage in. There are prominent Conscious leaders who have a history of
"swirling," engaging in some of the worst forms of misogyny, ripping
off charitable donations, selling curricula available through open access
courses and charging you to participate in the kind of marches civil rights
activists use to do for free.
There
are some strong brothers and sisters in the Conscious Community and there are
some snakes. It may take some time to distinguish the real from the fake. Some
have honed their craft for decades.
Here
are three easily identifiable traits in false leadership you should lookout
for:
1.
Anyone who is unnecessarily condescending or tries to come off as your
intellectual superior. Charlatans rely on the gimmick of possessing some
esoteric knowledge that the rest of us aren't privy to. They will reference a
book or thinker you aren't likely to have read or heard of any time you
challenge an assertion they make. Last year B.o.B. and astrophysicist Neil
deGrasse Tyson had a public spat over whether the earth is flat: the
earth is not flat. It ended with Dr. Tyson publicly humiliating his
young woke adversary with hard science, “It’s a fundamental fact of calculus
and non-Euclidean geometry. Small sections of large curved surfaces will always
look flat little creatures that crawl upon it."
2.
Anyone who habitually engages in personal attacks against people in the Black
community who question their logic, motives or actions. Pharisees in the
Conscious Community don't suffer challenges to their authority well. If someone
refers to Black women as "Negro bed wenches" and you call them on
their misogyny, watch how quickly they redirect their anger. If someone
solicits money from the community and you ask them about oversight you will feel
their wrath.
3.
Anyone who has too many obvious double standards in their words and actions.
False leaders are experts at what everyone else should be doing. They excel in
finding fault in the actions of others while ignoring their own problematic
behavior. They preach ad nauseam about unity inside the Black community, but
they will be the first to attack a Black woman who doesn't conform to their
narrow conception of what it means to be a woman, anyone who holds beliefs
different from theirs and the entire gay and lesbian community. We are all
kings and queens until we step out of line.
Pharisees
inside the Conscious Community are no different than their Biblical
counterparts; they crave attention, approval and money. You don't have to give
them any of the three. There will always be Black people who have convinced
themselves they have transcended the psychological effects of racism/white
supremacy in America. Some are genuine and want to help others overcome its
crippling effects. Some are stuck in that sunken place they are trying to
deliver you from. The truly lost souls believe their way is the only way to
advance our people. Their inability to confront ideas and opinions different
than their own is only topped by their inability to confront white supremacy in
the world. Sadly, this has caused too many within our community to create
hierarchies that give them a false sense of status.
Hypocrites
will tell you not to celebrate Thanksgiving while they eat at their in-laws;
they will call someone a coon or a Negro bed wench for shopping on Black
Friday, but they won't return anything someone buys them; they will tell you
not to bow down to the government, and then go pay their personal property
taxes. Don't listen to them. They are hiding their short comings and failures
behind empty rhetoric. Their opinions don't matter. Your family is more
important than their approval. When it comes down to it they need you more than
you need them.
Sincerely
Danny
Cardwell
