Keep the Body, Take the Mind

Son you want to go to college someday, don't you? Well if you do this is your ticket! Every chance you get go to the weight room, run some sprints, jump some rope, and take 1,000 jump shots with each of your hands. As long as you run faster, jump higher, and shoot better than everyone else you can go to any college you want, for FREE!!!! Just make sure you PASS all your classes and do OK on the SAT or ACT, and you are a sure thing. The aforementioned is the dream that both Black and White coaches sell our young African American children day in and day out. This is also the dream that our Black families neglect to thwart, day in and day out, with hopes of a meal ticket seasoned with a dash of glitz and glamor. The infamous Willie Lynch letter proposed a plan to keep the Negro slave in a proverbial captivity. This West Indian slave owners plan included the perpetuation of hate and discrimination among slaves, based on the lightness and darkness of the skin, and whether they worked in the big house or in the fields. Lynch also proposed a plan to "Keep the body, Take the mind." This plan emphasized the strengthening of the Negro's physical capabilities with a complete disregard for mental growth and development. Lynch believed that no matter how much brawn the Negro attained, his destiny remained in the hands of those who controlled his very way of thinking. Taking the advice of the Willie Lynch doctrine slave owners began using slaves as entertainment in a variety of athletic events, including brutal, physical altercations. Adding insult to injury slave owners manipulated slaves into believing there was honor in competing in these contest, which evolved into monetary bets between plantation owners. The concept of weakening the mental prowess of the enslaved Negro served as the precursor of the modern collegiate sports industry, the NFL, and the NBA.

Ironically, the relentless pursuit of "success" through athletics has never really done much, collectively, for our people. Sure, a select group of individuals have broken "color barriers," which did not exist prior to the 20th century when African American athletes wore the true international crowns in cycling, boxing, horse racing, and baseball. Yea, the victory of one has given millions the hope and pleasure of besting our Anglo-Saxon adversaries. Yes, a small percentage of the African American population has reached insurmountable financial heights by scoring touchdowns and shooting three-pointers, but what has that done to collectively advance our people. With the utmost respect and admiration to all the amazing athletes living their dreams in the professional ranks, I must say that the hoop dreams spawned from the hateful initiative to control the Negro until the end of time must be censored. The majority of African American progress has and will continue to be fueled by the pursuit of education. Knowledge, the one thing that has given us access to politics, business, our own colleges and universities, a Greek fraternity system (which needs our help) that has truly helped to shape American history, the entertainment industry, and an endless amount of opportunities to affect positive change. We neglect to inform our youth that there are more African American Doctors, lawyers, surgeons, judges, politicians, and CEO's than there are professional athletes. In order to ensure that our people have a strong, prosperous future we must begin to shape the dreams of our children in a much different manner. We must renew the spirit of tenacity possessed by Douglass, Mary McLeod Bethune, Laney, Booker T. Washington, and O. Equiano. We must reconnect the disconnect from our past. "A people without knowledge of its past, history, origin, or culture is like a tree without roots," Marcus Garvey. We have honestly come to far from the days of Sunday school in Savannah, Georgia to which evolved into schools in Augusta, Georgia, which then evolved into Fisk, Atlanta University, and Howard. We began the march toward liberation so long ago that it doesn't make much sense not to continue to seek and demand freedom in every sense of the word.