Submitted by Yardbroom
“No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands, and don’t forget that. That’s what we have to teach our children. No excuses,” he said. “We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes-because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is …how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves.”
“Obama also urges African-American parents to raise their children’s expectations by looking beyond dreams of becoming basketball players or rappers”…I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers”. I want them aspiring to be President of The United States of America.” – Chris McGeal, Washington – The Guardian; Saturday 18 July, 2009
I was heartened by the President’s words, because in a response to David of Barbados Underground on the thread: The Children Are our Future, yesterday Friday 17th July, 2009 I had said:
“If we dedicate ourselves to ensuring that our children are better educated than we are, know who and what they are and be prudent in the spending of their money and to whom, almost all our difficulties would be at an end…that is a fact some of us do not want to hear it, but it is true, our future is in only our hands”.
What applies to African-Americans with some modifications because of culture and life experiences; can also be beneficial to black Barbadians. We are allowing opportunities to slip away from us, as we arm ourselves with excuses. That is not good enough, and despite the retribution I will suffer for saying the above, it should be said.
Only recently, I had a heated exchange here on this blog with someone whose name is unimportant now, but by way of distraction he went into us being poor and a legacy of poverty. He knew I was black, I have said it often enough, he thinks he is white, or assumes it. His exchange suggested he felt financially better off than I am. I know more about him than he knows about me, it gave me a great inner glow of satisfaction to know how wrong he was…he lost the battle, he had taken a wrong turning. I never followed him down that road; I smiled inwardly and that was that.
The world out there is for the taking, blacks must be wise, have a sense of purpose and not be distracted. If you do not know where you are going you will not get there. Sacrifice in the short term for long term gains; it is never easy, but anything worthwhile never is.
Acquire the things that will have value in ten years time, or you will be poor when you are old, and there is no greater hardship than that. We cannot save the world but we can “try” to save ourselves and our families from destitution. If individually we can do that and make tomorrow better and thus brighter for our children and grandchildren; we have won the battle.
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