Identity is central to
knowing who we are.
But once it is stolen, who we are
remains a mystery—a lock
with no key—and our past,
which determines who we
will be, is anyone’s guess.
Our struggle for basic human rights
has raged for some time now,
and in this great contest we have
been ridiculed, mocked, and laughed at
like some comic farce that stumbles its
way across the world stage,
the brunt of the worst joke
in all of human history.
With a sliver of hope,
we looked to men who rose
within our pathetic ranks;
men who, for a time at least,
seemed anointed and equal
to the task before them.
One by one they emerged,
each aspiring to be a modern-day
Moses, backed by the Almighty;
the great deliverer of a broken people.
And try they as they might,
each one of them failed
to free us from the grip of the
American Pharaohs and their
Egyptian-minded denizens who
sought our destruction.
They purported to be
citizens of this country, yet,
like us, they were once strangers
in a strange land. Therefore,
theirs is an existence forged in
hypocrisy and built upon the
weakest foundation.
The storms of opposition are stirring,
and that foundation will soon crumble,
toppling the once-great behemoth
of society, the Eurocentric, bigoted,
and white supremacist giant of yore.
We were brought here on ships
by these enemies, against our will,
if the chains and yokes were any indication.
Our identity was theirs to strip away,
and so we were renamed, reeducated,
and refashioned as chattel, no better
than branded oxen or mules that
bear the white man’s burden.
But despite this incriminating history,
many among us are led to believe that
the ills we suffered are a thing of the past.
After all, there are billionaires who bear
our skin color, a U.S. President who
represents the highest level of achievement
among so-called “blacks,” and we even have
a month dedicated to our history.
But only those who are unaware of their
history need a month devoted to such.
Alas, the tide is turning, because
Yah is even now returning to us the
cherished identity that was stolen
during the nasty business of enslavement.
We are finally realizing who we are,
and to whom we belong, because Yah,
who has heard our cry, is reclaiming
his people, true Israel, as he promised
in passages such as Zechariah 10 and 6:
“I will strengthen the house of Judah,
and I will save the house of Joseph.
I will bring them back because I have
compassion on them, and they shall be
as though I had not rejected them,
for I am Yah their Elohim and
I will answer them.”
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