A World without European Conquest, White Supremacy & Chattel Slavery
By Solomon Comissiong
Hip Hop music has often served as a reliable vehicle for thought stimulation, especially Hip Hop music (rap) that the white dominated corporate media attempts to marginalize. This kind of rap serves as a direct threat to the concentration of economic power (and therefore political power), within the United States. It should be understood that within any capitalistic cesspool, money buys you political power. This is an assurance that routinely keeps the poor ultimately excluded from any significant shift in structure needed to alter their overall living standards. This economic and political power is almost entirely concentrated within the hands of white men—institutional racism is a pillar of “American Society”. In essence, these kinds of socially unequal conditions are what Hip Hop was born out of. Hip Hop is the manifestation of resistance and innovation throughout black and brown communities. And as Hip Hop evolved it became more and more of a tool for political expression, cultural edification, and, yes, radicalization via critical thought and analysis. That critical thought is what; once again, rap music led me to when recently listening to a song entitled “All Black Everything” by Hip Hop artist Lupe Fiasco.
The song (All Black Everything) takes listeners on an almost four minute journey exploring the possibilities of a world without there ever being chattel slavery imposed on Africans by the hands at Europeans, a world free of institutional racism and white supremacy. The song immediately invokes critical thought—which is exactly why it will most likely never find its way on rotation of any corporate radio station. It is commonplace within corporate media outlets that play Hip Hop music to continually dumb down their audiences with music that is not only overtly racist and misogynistic, but also psychologically debilitating. These media outlets are, in essence, psychological crack peddlers, routinely handing out doses of destructive music to youth throughout America. Lupe Fiasco’s “All Black Everything”, is antithetical to the aims and motives of the likes of Viacom (BET, MTV, VH-1), Clear Channel, and Radio One. It is the kind of song that would precipitate a lot of analytical thought from youth, especially Black/African youth. For instance the chorus (hook) of the song is:
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything
The song goes on to imagine a world where Malcolm X was never assassinated, the US constitution was written by W.E.B. Du Bois (and not by a gang of slave owning amoral white men), and of course black/African people were never kidnapped, placed in bondage for hundreds of years, and forced to endure the deadliest Holocaust know to man, the African Holocaust. Now why in the hell would the white dominated corporate media ever want to play something like that? They are a part of America’s establishment, thus they willingly profit from black/African suffering (physical and psychological). These outlets could give a damn what affects the narrowly focused music they only play, has on the minds of black/African youth. Conversely US corporate media is not concerned, one iota, how the stereotypically racist images they peddle, contribute to the shaping of public policy. The corporate media almost exclusively promotes the one sided images of black/African people as pimps, sexually promiscuous, crime addicted and anti-intellectual. This supports Euro-America’s overall perception of black/African people. These kinds of images make white people feel much more at ease. Imagining black/African men pointing guns at one another is a much more comforting thought than those same black/African men politically organizing ways by which they can overthrow an institutionally racist and destructive system that continues to rob them of their freedom to truly determine their own destinies. Thoughts of the latter are terrible nightmares for most whites in America, because it represents a direct threat to their white privilege and thus their illegally manufactured power structure. Even most white so-called liberals are petrified of losing grip of a white dominated political and economic structure that was established by way of stolen land and stolen labor. It is a structure that continues to subsist on a gluttonous diet of racially based inequities and injustices.
The United States may foster a society where the system of institutional racism has been perfected, however similar structures can also be found throughout the globe, especially in lands where Europeans have plundered. European global conquest has had a most deadly impact on hundreds of millions of people of color. However, what if it never happened? What if the so-called white man never viciously ventured onto lands that were not his? How many lives could have been saved? How many people of color, presently, would have averted mass suffering? These are the kinds of thoughts that the lyrics from “All Black Everything” helped evoke in my mind. Songs mean different things to different people, however as a black/African man in America, I am always dreaming of liberation as well as an end to institutional racism. “All Black Everything” was an ideal playground for some of my pent up thoughts.
There are countless prosperity based situations that probably would have happened had it not been for exploitative based European encroachment, on land that was foreign to them. The following are but a few of those wishful thoughts… Well, for starters, the communal and agrarian based societies that existed in places like Turtle Island (North America) and Alkebulan (Africa) would have most likely continued to grow and thrive. The indigenous people in these places lived within their means. They worked together as a collective. They had great reverence for nature and the communities they lived within. Without the so-called official term of “socialism”, these societies were largely based on what most would now define as socialist or communal based. These societies needed no white man to validate their way of life with a term for it; they simply lived it. There was no notion of owning land as we now understand it within a capitalistic framework. European concepts of things like capitalism were as foreign to these societies as the European invaders that would eventually destroy their land and tens of millions of people. These European thugs, often euphemistically called “settlers” or “pilgrims”, raped, murdered, and maimed astronomical numbers of human beings. They often did this despite being welcomed with open arms by indigenous people of color who were clearly far more civilized than they were themselves.
Despite claiming to bring “civilization” to the black, red, and brown people of the world; they only brought death and destruction. They were the barbarians, and their actions more than proved that. These pathologically sadistic people often justified their campaigns of mass murder by quoting verses from their numerously rewritten “bible”. They were well adept at creating their own interpretations, especially if it meant stealing land that was not theirs or enslaving people with vastly different values than their own. Prior to the European plunder of places like the continent of Africa, magnificent civilizations and societies existed such as Great Zimbabwe, Kemet (ancient Egypt) and Timbuktu. These places were rooted in knowledge, culture and technology. Alkebulan (Africa) is the birthplace of things like science, mathematics, and philosophy—those who say otherwise are either fools or liars. Africa then, as it is now, was rich in natural resources. European conquest was largely based on theft of other people’s resources, no matter what the costs. Dreaming of a world without European conquest it should be easy to envision the further development of science and technology, as well as medicine. Without European interference, indigenous people of color, the globe over, most likely would have continued to thrive, develop, and innovate.
Contrary to the lies frequently taught in US classrooms, without European global conquest the world would be a far better place. Entire populations of people were completely destroyed due to these invaders’ devilish actions. Various species of animals would not have been forced to the brink of extinction due to the out of control greed of these people—maintaining balance with Mother Earth was well off their collective radar. And the world would most likely not be in the perpetual state of war that it is today. This narrative of European conquest is seldom told to children in America, which is why; unfortunately, the cycle of destruction has no end in sight.
If one follows the limited and often mythological Euro-American narrative you will believe that the “Dark Ages” impacted the entire globe. This is far from the truth. African, Asian, and societies throughout the “Americas” were prospering. The Black Plague killed between 40-60 percent of Europe’s population. This European catastrophe sent that region into an all out upheaval that harvested everything from cannibalism to mass murder. The author is not reveling in this series of events, I am only pointing out the double standards and narrative inconsistencies seldom confronted. People of color have routinely been described as unclean, uncivilized and barbaric. Interestingly, soap, like so many other inventions, was created outside of the European world. Those same unkempt Europeans described indigenous people of color as sub-human. However, when Europeans began their journeys to prosperous lands, only unfamiliar to them, they routinely brought turmoil, destruction and disease with them. Diseases, such as small pox, were unknown to these indigenous people, which meant they had little to no immunity to fight the viruses. Europeans, like Lord Jeffery Amherst, soon began to purposefully hand out small pox infected blankets to indigenous people of North America. Do these actions sound “civilized or cultured”? The ways and actions of these cretins were nothing short of barbaric. Entire native populations were killed because of this and for this reason I cannot help but imagine what could have been if European invaders never set foot on soil throughout the “Americas”. So much precious life and humanity was lost, all in the name of European conquest and greed. This horrifying, yet true, tale is not told within US history classrooms. The American history lessons taught in these classrooms are stories used to perpetuate white supremacy. They are fairy tales of the worst kind.
American children are mass indoctrinated with lies and fairy tales of European and Euro-American conquest. These fairy tales have even been shaped into holidays, such as Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July. They glorify everything from the genocide of indigenous people throughout the Americas to white people celebrating “independence” meanwhile millions of Africans were still enslaved within stolen US borders. For any Black person to refer to the likes of George Washington as their “Founding Father” is a prime example of the effectiveness of this mass indoctrination. George Washington was a proud slave owner and killer of indigenous people. Given the fact that America promotes the life and times of people like Washington and Columbus; should there be any shock when the US government orchestrates the mass murdering of black and brown people in Libya, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan? And countless others have lost their lives in places like Zimbabwe and Iraq due to brutal economic sanctions such as the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001. America’s imposed economic sanctions and foreign economic policies continue to devastate “developing nations” and the people of color who mostly occupy them. Most Americans know nothing about this perspective in regards to their government’s actions— unfortunately they believe whatever the corporate media tells them. They are fantastically obedient. The US government routinely commits or financially backs the extrajudicial assassinations of heads of state just as they did with Muammar Gaddafi, Patrice Lumumba, Salvador Allende, and many others. The vast majority of Americans accept these injustices by way of their complicity and obsequiousness.
The destructive path we find ourselves on has much to do with the past and how the lessons of the past have yet to be learned. The past has become a current event. Glorification of mass genocide caused by European conquest is something that occurs on a frequent basis in places like the United States. US society continues to show no respect for the decedents of people trampled upon in order for that conquest to occur. Native Americans have been cast off onto reservations that are violently devoid of any adequate resources.
African-Americans make up the bulk of the US prison population. As a matter of fact, 1 in 8 of all of the world’s prisoners is an African-American. Euro-Americans have replaced chattel slavery with a prison industry complex that devours black and brown people. And people of color throughout the globe continue to feel the wrath of centuries of European conquest. When European criminals from Britain were cast off to Australia they summarily raped and murdered tens of thousands of black aboriginals and subsequently stole that continent for their own. Today the descendents of those black aboriginals are catching hell from white Australians. Australia remains a very unequal society with the whites on top and the black Aboriginals on the bottom. Europeans also virtually wiped out the entire indigenous population of Tasmania.
Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia (among many other places) have all been ravaged by European conquest, in one-way or another. They have had countless lives taken because of that ruthless conquest, which still goes on today. These regions have had European religious ideals imposed upon them, ideals that completely went against their existence as an independent people. European Christianity was vile and evil to its mythological core. It was the Catholic Church that still stands as one of the largest slave trading institutions ever. Without European Christianity imposed upon indigenous people of color, throughout the white man’s global conquest, we can safely imagine a world free of the hypocritical tentacles that came from missionaries and violent invaders. Christianity continues to retain a powerful grip upon the minds of people of color; most cannot even trace the point in which they became “Christians”. Christianity, for instance, was imposed on enslaved Africans for the purpose of indoctrination and pacification. They were trained to place the white man/woman much closer to God than they did themselves. God, in essence, became white. If we closely examine the things many Europeans did to people of color, in the name of religion, we can safely assume that the entity they worshiped was, in fact, the devil. This devil has shown its ugly face in the 21st century as war.
Little has ideologically changed today. Europeans and Euro-Americans are still waging wars of imperialism throughout the globe. In the days of chattel slavery the white slave master was able to find some black slaves willing to compromise the interests of his/her people. In 2011, the US has numerous black elected officials who are more than willing to serve the interests of their masters by waging wars in places like North Africa. Perhaps if European conquest never occurred many people of color might still have their minds—-far too many seem to have had them co-opted by a European value system that is directly working against their communities’ interests.
Unfortunately the mass carnage and loss of life that has occurred by way of European global conquest cannot be reversed. However, the destruction of lives and societies does not have to be in vain, if we all decide to abandon the ongoing legacy of European conquest. Reclaiming our collective identity, as human beings, will be an important first step, followed by the repudiation of any value system that glorifies slave owners, rapists, murders and plunderers. We must envision a better society, one free of injustice, war, white supremacy and institutional racism. The vision must be followed by political action aimed at reclaiming our destinies, especially those of us who identify as people of color. These are the thoughts much of the white American power structure frowns upon, which is why they methodically marginalized Hip Hop music riddled with political or cultural darts. The war on politically oriented Hip Hop is not simply a war on a popular music; it is a war for the minds of black and brown youth everywhere. These youth, if mentally freed, represent resistance and therefore substantive change. If various rap songs can stimulate some of us to deepen our thoughts and imagine the possibilities of a world that never had chattel slavery then we should all begin to envision a future without white supremacy, war, and institutional racism. Visionary thoughts lead to revolutionary actions—it’s time to start thinking, once again, as a community with a unified mission that leads directly toward real liberation, equality and justice for ALL. Our (Humanity) prosperous futures depend on it.
Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News media collective (www.yourworldnews.org). He can be reached at: solo@yourworldnews.org
