Opinion
The Kumbaya Effect
While its intentions were noble, the Dream had a major flaw: It did not and does not work. The base motivator of any race or cultural group is to adapt, evolve, survive and/or dominate at the expense of another. Whether intentional or unintentional, this is the general end result. This inherent way of thinking was and is the backbone of slavery.
As a sign of the times, then as it is now, in order for one to fit into any society that is dominated legally, economically and socially by another race or culture, certain compromises are generally made to operate inside of it. However, the ruling classes have to accept those compromises. When this did not happen, the powerless had to mimic the powerful or revolt against ill treatment.
An analysis of what the Kumbaya Effect was meant to rectify shows that it has not necessarily done its job yet!
What makes the Kumbaya Effect more damaging is the fact that in an effort to assimilate, we have ended up decimating our communities. The clearest example is how leaders in the Caribbean and Africa – reminiscent of those tribal chiefs and leaders who sold their own people into slavery, have made, and continue to make poor economic and social decisions and adjustments to their country platforms, atop lopsided deals with other richer nations. In the process, these leaders boost richer economies abroad and leave their own communities light years behind other communities and races.
What does this say about us as a people or a race? Does it really matter that we are screwing our own people over? Do we really even care about our next-door neighbor or our village over our own selfish interests or of those that come to influence us? And that, right there, is the problem. We care all about the wrong things not the most important one: each other.
Of course this is an ‘if the shoe fits’ type of article.’ If you are working to help black people in bettering their lives on important fronts without ignoring current struggles for egoism, greed and cultural erosion, you are truly Kumbaya free. But for those who work within these confines, there are, unfortunately, part and parcel of the collective group of the numerous elephants in the global room.
Being Anti-Kumbaya does not mean you ought to hate other people or other races. Simply, it is about knowing how to work, socialize and fraternize with your people first before you attempt a wholehearted embrace of everyone else.
