The responsibility of African Americans to make the choice for freedom is pivotal for the experience and opportunity of succeeding generations.

A Choice For Freedom

“I am an African American.  I am free.  I am free because I have chosen to be free. “

It was 6:30am.  It was the year ending holiday season.  We were experiencing an unusual and significant snowfall where we live.  It was cold, dark and icy.  My wife and I were sitting for a few minutes at our local coffee shop having just finished a physical workout of weightlifting, stationary bicycling, and other exercises.  We were forced by the weather from our “outdoor” workout to our “indoor” workout at the local health club.

My wife sipped her coffee and I sipped my hot tea.  I like this coffee shop because of the music it plays.  After a few minutes through the speakers I heard the distinctive voice of David Ruffin leading the Temptations in one of their Motown Oldies.  The music began to warm me in an emotional way beyond the warmth of my cup of hot tea.  The feeling grew as I heard Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, followed by Richie Havens singing “Here Comes the Sun,” which reminded me of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, my favorite singing duet.

In these moments I am aware that my feelings start not just because of my love for music but also that this music gives me a strong sense of pride in my African American heritage and identity.  However, in hearing the music this time I felt an unusual strength of feeling that I did not immediately understand.  It took until later that day for me to see that my deep pride is due not just to my identity as an African American but also something else.  It is that I am proud because I am “free” and I am free because I have chosen to be free.

As an African American I am free.

I am free not because I have “arrived” at some elevated position in life apart from the reality we all share and must address.  I am free because I am not confined by factors in my experience as an African American that might hold back my thoughts and actions as I strive for growth and emergence.  Some of these elements might be the devastating history of unfair treatment of African Americans in our country, the persistence of racism and bigotry to this very day, and the various views of White Americans and Black Americans with whom agreement may be required as the terms of my acceptance in these groups.  I acknowledge these factors but first and foremost, I see myself as an individual who is free to think and act.

I have a choice to be free.

I am free because I know that I have the capacity to handle obstacles in my experience as an African American.  I know that this capacity gives me a choice to be free of these constraints.  Without this capacity, I would have no choice but to live with the reality of the restriction of my thoughts, actions, and growth.

From two sources I have acquired the capacity for handling the impediments I might meet as an African American.  The first source is a very personal one, that being my parents.  I watched them fight hard and successfully against racial discrimination and underlying racial bigotry.  In addition, I saw that they were free to treat as individuals and learn from, all whom they met.  With their capacity to handle the things that might confine them, my parents viewed themselves as individuals who were free to live, think and act.  Their approach serves as a role model that helps me to be free.

My professional work is the second source from which I have learned and continue to learn about how to handle barriers as an African American.  From my work I value the profound contribution of social science to not only my freedom of thought and action but also to my achievements in addressing the issues and problems of freedom and emergence for African Americans.  For example, as an undergraduate student I conducted pioneering research that investigated the effects of racial background on helping processes in educational and community settings.

This early research was part of a larger social science initiative that my colleagues and I conducted in educational, community, and workplace settings.  One of the major findings of our work was that in these settings there is a strong relationship between levels of effectiveness of the people involved on the one hand and the presence of issues or problems related to race and other background differences, on the other hand.  We found that in those circumstances where the people involved were functioning at high levels of effectiveness as measured by defined behavioral criteria, there was less of a likelihood of problems or issues related to background differences occurring.  On the other hand, in those settings where the people involved were functioning at low levels of effectiveness, there was a greater likelihood of problems or issues related to background differences occurring.  From this research I learned that analyzing human effectiveness is the most important ingredient in achieving my freedom as an African American.

I have chosen to be free.

With this foundation of human effectiveness I have capacity to handle what might restrict me and I am aware that I have a choice to be free of these constraints.  Therefore, I have made this choice for freedom for myself and in support of others.  For example, I have fought successfully the racial discrimination that my family members and I have experienced.  Also, I have conducted programs in education, the community and the workplace that have clearly resulted in growth and increased opportunity for African Americans, indeed all Americans.

African Americans have a choice to be free.

African Americans have made extraordinary gains in our society in spite of a history of unfair treatment.  But at this time African Americans are facing major problems and issues.  African Americans are at a loss as to what direction to take to build upon their achievements and move toward full emergence.  The powerful strategies and effort that created African American advancement in our society seem to have little to offer in the face of challenging circumstances in our society.  African Americans are at a crisis.  Unless they find a direction, progress toward freedom and emergence is at risk, if not already lost.

African Americans must become aware of and accept that they have a choice or direction for their advancement.  To find this direction African Americans must acknowledge the true, underlying enemy against which they have fought historically and that they continue to fight to this day.  This enemy is not just racism and other forms of discrimination and bigotry.  Clearly, these forces have been and must continue to be directly confronted and resolved.  However, my research strongly indicates that the sinister, insidious foe that African Americans have fought and continue to fight is the human ineffectiveness that creates an immense void.  Within this gap racism, bigotry, hatred, and ignorance flourish and grow.

African Americans must see that human effectiveness is the foundation or direction for their emergence.  This means that to be successful African Americans must analyze assumptions about, define and implement human effectiveness as their fundamental approach to resolving the obstacles, problems, or issues that obstruct their emergence.  With this approach African Americans can take their own initiative to address areas important for emergence such as education, the community, the workplace and overall economic prosperity.

As well, African Americans must examine their own relationship with human effectiveness.  From their experience of unfair treatment in this country African Americans have created entities that have served as pillars of strength and growth in their experience.  Some of these elements are educational institutions, communities, business enterprises, voter participation and political leadership.  Truly, they are part of the outstanding, ongoing legacy of the African American experience.  African Americans must seek to strengthen further these areas through the analysis of assumptions about, the definition of, and the application of human effectiveness.

African Americans must chose to be free.

African American movement toward freedom and emergence will be accounted for by the actions they take or they do not take.  With the underpinning of human effectiveness African Americans must understand that at this turning point they should chose to be free.  Undeniably, African Americans have to take full responsibility for that choice.  This choice does not relieve other segments of our nation of their responsibility to African Americans and to all Americans.  However, it does mean that African Americans have the capacity to and must take principal responsibility for their choice for freedom and emergence.

The responsibility of African Americans to make the choice for freedom is pivotal for the experience and opportunity of succeeding generations.  Our society and the world overall are in the midst of significant and rapid change.  These are the circumstances within which African Americans are seeking emergence for now and the future.  African Americans cannot prepare the next generation for these changes by simply dispensing guidance such as “make good choices and you will be successful in this world.”

These are false promises.  For one thing, more than those words will be necessary for success in this complex, changing world.  Most importantly, African American adults cannot tell the next generation to make “good choices” when the adults fail to make the “good choice” for freedom based on a relationship with human effectiveness.  Without the adult choice for freedom, succeeding generations may be designated as the new “bearers of the Torch” but they will lack the availability of “good choices” with which to grow, be free and carry that “Torch.”  Tragically, the future for these young people may well be a sentence to an “enslavement” created more by a failure of the African American adult generation of this time to make a choice for freedom than  by factors such as continuing unfair treatment, bigotry, or ignorance in our society.

Moreover, so many people in our history have made the commitment, sacrifice and contribution for African American advancement.  African Americans continue to recognize and honor these people and their accomplishments and they are determined that all Americans show this appreciation.  However, if African Americans fail to make the choice for effectiveness and freedom they will squander and dishonor this fine legacy for which so many have “paid.”  African Americans will have to stand in shame in the eyes of the countless number of people who gave their lives for freedom and who look down from “on high” with hope and pride to see the state of their legacy.

As an African American I have a choice to be free and I have made that choice.  All African Americans have a choice to be free and they have to make that choice.  With that decision we all can stand in the view of the multitudes that have preceded us and in the view of the generations who will succeed us and make this statement of thought and deed.

“We are free because we have chosen to be free.”

The author is Dr. George Banks author of several books and publications including:  The Issue of Race: A Resolution for the 21st Century.

The following is a sample of the work upon which these views are based.

George P. Banks, Ph.D.  The Issue of Race: A Resolution for the 21st Century.

Weblink: http://www.seaburn.com/The_Issue_of_Race.htm

George P. Banks, Ph.D.  “Banking on African American Emergence.”

Weblink: http://www.todaysdrum.com/4933/banking-on-african-american-emergence/

George P. Banks, Ph.D.  “Thinking Skills for Innovation, School Improvement, and Charter Schools.”

Weblink: http://www.paedeia.com/Thinking%20Skills.asp

George P. Banks, Ph.D.   “Handling Racial Profiling: A Case Study.”

Weblink:  http://www.todaysdrum.com/7159/handling-racial-profiling-a-case-study/

Robert R. Carkhuff. Ph.D.  Saving America:  The Generativity Solution.

Weblink: http://generativitysolution.com/scientists-life.htm

The Issue Of Race