"Blacks who accept another culture's definition of health, medicine and food are enslaved by that culture via their stomachs."~
Llaila O. Africa, author of “Afrikan Holistic Health”I got this quote from a yahoo group I just joined -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RevolutionaryDailyThoughts - moderated by the elder Mwalimu Baruti, the co-founder and co-director of Akoben House (with his wife Yaa Mawusi Baruti) an independent Afrikan centered full-time and after-school home schooling and tutorial program. He is the author and self-publisher of “Homosexuality and the Effeminization of the Afrikan Male”, “Asafo: Afrikan Warriorhood”, and “Excuses, Excuses: The Politics of Interracial Coupling in European Culture”, among other books. Visit their website at
http://www.AkobenHouse.com The quote itself, though, makes me think of the knowledge cipher degree of the 1-36 (10:36): “Because the devil taught him to eat the wrong foods.” And whenever I build or meditate on that degree I think ”What are those wrong foods?” And the first thing that came to mind after reading this quote was our “Tell us how you see it” question, answered in the current Autumn 2009 issue of The 14th Degree and Beyond Magazine; and that question is: “What does being a ‘Vegan’ mean to you – is it a dietary law (way of eating) or a cruelty-free lifestyle?”
This question was posed here in our blog also, and that is where we took most of our answers that were published in the mag. But I myself never answered it. And so the quote made me think about why did I go vegan/vegetarian and how have I managed to maintain that self-imposed dietary law with all of the “wrong foods” (literally) that are available to us – like KFC’s beef stock injected chickens, chitterlings (which remain a staple at holiday gatherings for many Blacks in America), white bread with it’s bleached flour and mono-diglycerides, jello with its gelatin made from animal hooves, salmon with its artificial food coloring, many other fish with their severe environmental and mercury contaminations, and even cheese with its rennet which is an enzyme extracted out of calves (yes, baby cows’) stomachs.
And I remember that I went vegetarian because I didn’t want to eat the wrong foods – dead animals in this instance. But my reasoning was that I didn’t want to partake in animal cruelty, didn’t want to support nor finance the literal rape, enslavement and murder of other living beings. I was able to maintain the diet, and evolve into veganism, when I started studying the health benefits of eating the right foods – fruits, vegetables, un-bleached grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, berries, and generally non-processed foods that were supplied to us by mother earth herself.
And even as a vegan I continue to learn more about my diet and how just because I don’t eat flesh or the by-products of animals, there are still “wrong foods” in my diet like many of our very commonly ingested vegetarian friendly processed meat and cheese alternatives that were created in a lab by starting off as a soy bean, some kind of oil, wheat, natural flavors and colors, etc – then grafted from original into products made to resemble the texture, color, and taste of our favorite meats and cheeses that we still haven’t disciplined ourselves to live without.
And this is just one example – the literal example – of the “wrong foods” that we eat and digest physically. It doesn’t touch on the figurative meaning of the phrase – “the devil taught him to eat the wrong foods.” I’ve made knowledge born to several people that my employer has tried to put fear in me – stating that my life and that of my unborn child is in grave danger – in order to convince me to take the swine flu vaccine. And I’ve seen discussions online about medical professionals being threatened with termination if they do not submit to the devil’s will. And though we have no proof that this vaccine will even work, and KNOW that the swine flu broke out in April and that 6-months isn’t nearly enough time to test its safety and observe the full scope of the side effects that this supposed vaccine could cause we’re supposed to have blind faith that it’ll work safely; and for the rest of us, simply allow ourselves to be scared into submission. And if a vaccine could be created in less than 6 months to fight a supposed virus… are we sure that what we’re supposed to be protecting ourselves from is a nature borne virus at all???
They would sure like us to believe this, and the mainstream media, doctors, nurses and even school administrators are doing everything in their power to strip OUR power and replace it with fear – fear of sickness, fear of unemployment, fear of the unknown… causing us to blindly choose to “eat the wrong foods” by taking their vaccinations!
On top of that, I’m listening to the radio every morning this week listening to the silliest discussions on every show from Tom Joyner to Steve Harvey to the local cats out here in Atlanta (this excludes local independent stations and NPR – which do their duty daily). And yeah, some of it is funny… but when is it time to stop joking and get serious and serve the people in a way that can empower them rather than dumb them down?!? Radio personalities have an opportunity to educate and bring awareness to a great number of people. Many in the afternoon radio shows like Michael Baisden and even Al Sharpton, who I am NO fan of, use their platform to bring awareness to certain issues – but even the over-abundance of TV talk shows are making Black media a joke… period point black. Serving no purpose but to keep our own people blind, deaf and dumb – STARVING FOR THE RIGHT FOODS.
A tragic event happened in Chicago this week where a 16 year old honor roll student – Derrion Albert – walking home from school was encircled by thugs and beat with wooden train track rails and stomped in the head while he was already incapacitated until he died. This was all video taped and sent to the media via an anonymous person - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/27/beating-death-of-derrien_n_301319.html. What confuses me is that I’m not hearing any calls to action – morning radio gave this tragedy about 30 minutes of discussion time this week; I’m reading that the President (our supposed savior who has arrived) – who could find the time to drink beer and gab with a racist cop and elitist academic (married to a white woman) about racism – instead of taking action to bring awareness about an end to gang violence thru the education and provision of recreational activities for our youth is not taking a trip to Chicago to address the matter but sending out his flunkies – Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan – to do this vital work for him. Which means they probably won’t be doing much at all but spitting the same old “wrong foods” (aka RHETORIC) in our faces!
If this blog seems real random – it is! There are so many things on my mind right now that are prevalent right now and need our immediate attention and digestion RIGHT NOW that I just had to find a common bond between them all in order to bring them to your attention.
Of course, I ask myself, what will bringing these things to your attention actually DO and ACCOMPLISH… well, I guess as the reader of this blog YOU are that determining factor. Ideally, you’ll spread awareness and put in work to feed others the right foods to live!
Peace,
Eboni Joy Asiatic
Learning to live in the moment and enjoy the moment for what it is can be a very empowering skill to learn. Not only does it help lessen our stress and anxiety, it also teaches us to appreciate what we do have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.