Uncle Tom: Don't call it a comeback!

Originally, when I reopened my blog with this entry it was about three to four pages long, single spaced. But, I cut a lot of the material out—trimming the fat, so to speak. One thing that the Late Honorable El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, or otherwise known as Malcolm X, used to say was that we need to “Make it plain”. We shouldn’t dress our messages, essays and speeches up in inefficient rhetoric to make it “sound good” or what we think they should sound like. We should make them plain so that the message that we’re seeking to give is received. One thing that has stuck with me from my undergraduate education is the concept of communication. Although, I myself have not perfected this practice, I do know a little about it. I believe communication is a lifetime practice.

But to refocus, Malcolm said that to speak to someone, you have to speak their language. So, I hope that the writings I have are reaching you, the reader. One of the conversations that I’ve been continuously having in my mind revolves around the black community and the expanded role of the Uncle Tom Negro. If you’re not familiar or mistaken, Uncle Tom is person of Afrikan descent that participates in the oppression and denigration of his/her own people. In the slave context, Uncle Tom was used by the slave master to keep the other slaves in-check. If the slaves were planning a revolt, the Uncle Tom ran to his slave master and told him. If the slaves we’re talking bad about their slave master, Uncle Tom would run and tell the slave master. Like the other house slaves, Uncle Tom was treated better and so he believed he was better. But, Uncle Tom was the slave master’s personal pet dog. All the while, as good as master was to Uncle Tom (and compared to the field slaves, you could call it better), he didn’t object to the fact that he was still a slave. The slave master would never look at him as an equal or respect him. The slave master would rid of the Uncle Tom just as quick as the other slaves and when he did, that Tom had nobody to turn to. His master didn’t care for him, his people didn’t care for him and often, he didn’t care for himself because he was black.

Today, thanks to integration, Black America lives in a state where Uncle Toms are once again at the head of the slave house. I call these people Uncle Toms because they support oppression of their people, whether it’s openly on in secret. Today they mostly turn a blind eye to it, but, not to choose is to choose. You always make choices—passively or aggressively. Government, entertainment, academia, the social arena—when I look around at the black constituency I see “safe” Negroes, quiet Negroes, good Negroes and afraid Negroes. Not all, but many. These individuals need to be pointed out and described for what they are—Uncle Toms. Many aren’t concerned with the well-being of the masses. They choose to avoid interaction with their kind unless they fit a certain description or come from a certain type of background. As a people we are as great as our lowest brother or sister and many of our brothers and sisters are at low points—chained economically but more so mentally. Yet, when I look at the so-called black leaders that we have, rarely is self-improvement of the black condition on their agenda and if it is, too often there is a camera and a dollar sign attached to their hips. Where are the grassroots organizations that use to work for us? Where are the true leaders who live in the grind of heart of the movement? Everyone has an agenda and far too much is the agenda money. We live in an age of sellouts and Uncle Tom’s have to be called what they are—a disgrace to the race.