Freedom

Who determines the definition of freedom? The answer is no one, because freedom is different to everyone and open to interpretation. We cannot create a universal standard of freedom by which everyone should agree with because of our differences in culture but we me can hold our beliefs dearly and speak from our experiences as to what we believe to be freedom. Freedom according to Wikipedia is the liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another and I agree. We must ask ourselves based upon these standards are we free? No. We are deprived of our freedom in many was and it extends from our government limiting our language, the media instilling self hatred in our (black) communities and an overall trust issue which exist only in certain communities.

Growing up in the ghetto, I have learned something’s cannot be taken for granted and one of those things is language because it incorporates us as a society. When you begin to study cultures, societies and other things related to how people communicate you learn that experience plays a major role as well as the linguistics of the society. So how is it possible for people to feel certain words should be outlawed from utterance. (Prime word being nigger) As the black communities progressed over time, we have learned to incorporate certain words in our day-to-day vocabulary, calling this slang linguistics. Some people have referred to this as Ebonics. In Ebonical terms nigger is a word used as homey or friend but others looking in our community do not understand and try to alter this and this is wrong. I feel Ray Gwyn Smith said it best when she said “who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war” because I feel it is the heart of war and the soul of confusion. (Taming a wild tongue, excerpt)

Freedom is ripped from under our children’s feet as well as ours with conditioned self hatred, taught in part by our media which portrays what beautiful looks like, what brand you should be wearing to be considered “fresh” (wearing the latest clothing) and/or color superiorities; these subliminal messages in turn tell our children, if you do not look like this your ugly, if you do not dress like that your poor and if your that color forget about it your nobody. Let us look at Sister Godzilla; she faced life long teachings being called ugly, in a place supposedly consisting of seeds, which should be fruit of positive lessons teaching us to love. This is the perfect example of self-hatred in schools. We learn to hate ourselves through the hatred of others. With these issues in mind, are our kids free, to go to school, and are we free to wear or look like we want, without resurrecting these conditioned hatreds? No therefore, we are limited in many ways stemming from the never ceasing attack on our freedom due in part to media.

Trust is an issue, which strikes a note commonly expressed with a middle finger to our brethren. In many other communities opportunities are taken advantage of and people teach values held high equivocating, sharing to caring, but in our case it is in evident. When we look at our communities, we see another Arab corner store, a new Chinese store, a different franchise sharing with us no money. When will we learn? Trusting each other is a lesson we must teach ourselves as we are instructed subliminally different. It is then we will prosper towards freedom surpassing boundaries no culture has ever thought about ever reaching.

Freedom is illustrated in many ways and each of these stories is a story in and of it self revealing a skew, new light or perception blinded to us by intangible forces. Justice is yet to be served and freedom lies in justices path so only when clean hearted mind purge themselves of all greedy desires can we live our dreams of freedom. Language, conditionings and Trust embrace our dreams with assurance of a dream evident in each of the readings aforementioned creating a goal in sight and reachable so lets meet the demands of a dying nation.