Since the early 1900’s, Black and white
scholars have written much on the Black family. When one
examines the card catalogue
of any library in America they will find volumes of books,
articles and newspaper clippings discussing some aspect of
Black family life.
What we
need in the African American community is a framework to
examine and solve the problems of Black family life on our
own terms.
The capturing
of African people, who were placed in chattel slavery in
North America, has left some devastating scars on the most
basic unit or any group - the family.
There is
no question that the family has been the unit that provides
the basic foundation for any group of people to survive and
develop.
Families
constitute grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers,
brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and in-laws. Sometimes families
extend beyond blood relatives to those persons we bring into
our families for whatever reason.
Families
function in the context of their racial and ethnic identity.
This identity is shaped by the historical and external forces
of a given society.
Although
the problems of the Black family appear to be very complex
on the one hand, on the other, the problem is very simple.
First of
all, African people who were captured and introduced into
the western hemisphere as property and commodities were removed
from their land and institutional arrangements of African
life.
Second,
this process of white takeover of Black life, through the
most brutal form of oppression - the slave trade and the
eventual enslavement of African people on the plantations
of North America, has been a back breaking experience for
our people.
Even through
our survival techniques have been superior, in the face of
brutal psychological and physical violence against us, we
are now at the crossroads.
We face
the challenge of preserving some of the traditions of the
Black family, developed by our ancestors, who fought so hard
against racism and white supremacy in this country.
This must
be done, in part, through the rising and growing African
Centered Education Movement. As our renowned ancestor and
deep thinker Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers explained, African Centered
Education should focus on the following:
We must
not abandon family life. It is the basis for our survival
and development. It is the strategy of our white oppressors
to place so much pressure on us that we give up our fight
for independence and freedom.
When the
family unit begins to wither away, we must rise to the occasion
and fight to keep its basic elements alive in our communities.
It is the
duty of all Black people to understand that we are faced
with a genocidal set of circumstances in America. Look around
our communities and what do we / you see?
We witness
the absence of that fighting family spirit among us that
has been so much a part of Black family life.
The family
is the support mechanism for all that we do and it is a sacred
institution that we must preserve and protect on our own
terms.
BlackCommentator.com columnist
Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman of the
National Black United Front (NBUF). Click
here to contact Dr. Worrill.