Measurement of History Determines Our Success
The More We Know, The More We Achieve
The knowledge of our history is synonymous with our level of success. We must recognize the importance of knowing our history to enjoy the cool breeze of freedom under the tree that our ancestors planted so long ago. Dr. Akbar, a great psychologist, says, “Acquiring knowledge can permit human beings to master their environment and themselves.”
Can we master this racist environment we call America?
“I made it out of the hood”, “I started at the bottom”, etc. are typical responses from our people who have experienced some form of success. Their personal history serves as a basis for their motivation, inspiration, desire, and purpose to shoot for the stars. The stars of individual success, that shine a light on our historical amnesia.
J.R. Smith, a two-time NBA Champion, appeared on the I Am Athlete podcast in early February and shined a light on the historical amnesia that some of his NBA friends expressed in the bubble in 2020 during the George Floyd atrocity when they stopped playing to show solidarity. They were asking the question, “What are we going to ask the owners for?” Smith replied, “Stop asking them for shit!… I got Paul George…Demar DeRozan…and Russell Westbrook sitting right here…Why don’t you guys have your own gym? Why do we have to work out at UCLA every time we’re in LA. You all are from the exact same community. You want to inspire kids that look like you?… We have the money, we don’t have the mindset.”
“We’d rather go throw $60,000 in the strip club than go feed 2,500 people in the hood. I could’ve fed my whole community ten times over with the money I was just [paying fines for] being late on the bus.”- J.R. Smith
The absence of personal and ancestral history controls our behavior on unconscious levels.
We oftentimes ask ourselves, “Why did I do that? That was so stupid.” We shall look to our ancestor, Dr. Amos Wilson for an explanation, “If we don’t know our history, or if we’ve made our history unconscious and therefore placed it out of awareness, that unconscious history becomes a source of unconscious motivation, then why we behave the way we do becomes a puzzle. We’re confused by our own behavior. If we want to know why we behave the way we do then we must know our history: the unconscious must be made conscious.”
Dr. Herbert Harris defines success as “the continuous realization of outcomes or results you desire.” As individuals, once we reach a level of success that supersedes our personal history we become complacent. As long as our families are taken care of we forget about the community. Hell, we leave the community and don’t even think twice about building up our communities because we’re operating on a low level of history — personal — individual success. We then possess the logic framework of, “I just wanted to make it out, not make it up.”
Then we complain when our oppressors come in and make it up. They will put a Starbucks where our grandma used to stay and a condo in place of our community centers. They’re operating on a high level of ancestral history — community success.
Dr. John Henrik Clarke says, “history is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be.”
So I ask you, the reader, what time is it?
It’s time to study our history and regain our African consciousness, for if we don’t, Wilson says, “We assume the wrong identity and identify ourselves with our enemies. If we don’t know who we are then we are whomever somebody else tells us we are.”
They tell us we are niggas with no worthwhile history to be proud of and we should ask them for things that we can make happen on our own. This is why we ask the owners, the owners of our history and culture because we suffer from historical amnesia that gives us a false sense of success.
We must have a vision as a community. We share goals and a common ancestral history. Our ancestors that built Black Wall Street and the many Dynasties of the Ancient World understood the power of community excellence. As an individual, we are only successful when our communities are achieving the highest aspirations of the rest of the world.
“In order to influence the vision, we must have the power of information as well as inspiration.” — Dr. Na’im Akbar
We must chase after our history like we chase after that money. As a community, the more history we know the more success we can achieve. The more success we can achieve the faster we will be free.
Can we operate on a high level of ancestral history?
Sources
Dr. Amos Wilson
Dr. Na’im Akbar
Dr. Herbert Harris
Dr. John Henrik Clarke
