Free your mind Ya’ll!

What is freedom and what does it mean to you? According to Merriam Webster, freedom means liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another. The common person feels as though freedom is the opportunity to go where you want to go, do what you want to do, and be who you want to be. That brings us to the next question: are Black People free in America? If we go by Webster’s definition, black people are free because we have been emancipated from slavery, we have the choice to vote for our government officials, we can choose where we want to receive an education, we can live anywhere we please, and we can ideally choose any career we desire.
The abundance of opportunities that have come after the emancipation proclamation shouldn’t be something that we had to earn; it should be given with no hesitation and everlasting riches for all of our ancestor’s endurances. With this in mind, black people in this country are more deserving for practically building it on our backs, why do we still wear a mask? As “free” as we are in a land full of “opportunities” and traveling a long road to “salvation,” why are we asking the question,” Are Black people free in America?” It is because the only freedom that any black person should be fixated on is freedom of the mind and black people for certain are not mentally free.
Some say that happiness, sadness; any emotion so to speak is a mindset. Freedom has nothing to do with being held on a plantation and forced to do labor. There was a choice for slaves to runaway, regardless of consequences. Only when shackles and a matter of bondage are involved is when physical slavery exists. Black people aren’t mentally free because we have opportunities to be our greatest selves but we aren’t and it is because we hide behind masks, compromising ourselves for the perception of the majority so that we may be accepted and rewarded monetarily.
Black people involved in the music industry and black entertainers generally wear the biggest mask. They mostly work hard for checks that everyone gets a share of before they even see it themselves and in the process having to put on a facade, completely comprising themselves, forgetting about their artistry, and becoming puppets of destruction. People of color have limited opportunities because we accept the deception and we don’t demand equality. In the business world we have to compromise our natural selves with matters as shallow as hair. Our natural hair gets called “un-kept” and “unprofessional” just to degrade us a little more than they already have.
The fight is not only with the majority; black people have to wear masks in our own communities. It is unusual and despised for young black people to be too intelligent to their peers. There is a demand to be trendy and dumbed down in the younger generations; detrimental behavior such as this is one of the biggest issues in the black nation. If more than a handful of young adults step out against the masses, and shed light to their people more often than not, it could be beneficial in the long run.
Black people have all of the resources we need to uplift ourselves and our people but the first and the smallest step in this process must be to free our minds of mental slavery. We can’t be ignorant to our truths anymore. The only way for us to try and fix hundreds of years of oppression in America is to open our minds and to be on one accord with our kindreds in the advancement of black people.