Tuesday, November 17, 2009

12 Things The Negro Must Do For Himself

Written by a black woman in the 1900's


By Nannie Helen Burroughs

(Circa Early 1900's)


1. The Negro Must Learn To Put First Things First. The First Things Are: Education; Development of Character Traits; A Trade and Home Ownership.

The Negro puts too much of his earning in clothes, in food, in show and in having what he calls 'a good time.' The Dr. Kelly Miller said, 'The Negro buys what he WANTS and begs for what he needs.'

2. The Negro Must Stop Expecting God and White Folk To Do For Him What He Can Do For Himself.

It is the 'Divine Plan' that the strong shall help the weak, but even God does not do for man what man can do for himself. The Negro will have to do exactly what Jesus told the man (in John 5:8) to do--Carry his own load--'Take up your bed and walk.'

3. The Negro Must Keep Himself, His Children And His Home Clean And Make The Surroundings In Which He Lives Comfortable and Attractive.

He must learn to 'run his community up'--not down. We can segregate by law, we integrate only by living. Civilization is not a matter of race, it is a matter of standards. Believe it or not--some day, some race is going to outdo the Anglo-Saxon, completely. It can be the Negro race, if the Negro gets sense enough. Civilization goes up and down that way.

4. The Negro Must Learn To Dress More Appropriately For Work And For Leisure.

Knowing what to wear--how to wear it--when to wear it and where to wear it, are earmarks of common sense, culture and also an index to character.

5. The Negro Must Make His Religion An Everyday Practice And Not Just A Sunday-Go-To Meeting Emotional Affair.

6. The Negro Must Highly Resolve To Wipe Out Mass Ignorance.

The leaders of the race must teach and inspire the masses to become eager and determined to improve mentally, morally and spiritually, and to meet the basic requirements of good citizenship. We should initiate an intensive literacy campaign in America , as well as in Africa . Ignorance--is a millstone about the neck of the race. It is democracy's greatest burden. Social integration is a relationship attained as a result of the cultivation of kindred social ideals, interests and standards. It is a blending process that requires time, understanding and kindred purposes to achieve.. Likes alone and not laws can do it.

7. The Negro Must Stop Charging His Failures Up To His 'Color' And To White People's Attitude.

The truth of the matter is that good service and conduct will make senseless race prejudice fade like mist before the rising sun. God never intended that a man's color shall be anything other than a badge of distinction. It is high time that all races were earning that fact. The Negro must first QUALIFY for whatever position he wants. Purpose, initiative, ingenuity and industry are the keys that all men use to get what they want. The Negro will have to do the same. He must make himself a workman who is too skilled not to be wanted, and too DEPENDABLE not to be on the job, according to promise or plan. He will never become a vital factor in industry until he learns to put into his work the vitalizing force of initiative, skill and dependability. He has gone 'RIGHTS' mad and 'DUTY' dumb.


8. The Negro Must Overcome His Bad Job Habits.

He must make a brand new reputation for himself in the world of labor. His bad job habits are absenteeism, funerals to attend, or a little business to look after. The Negro runs an off and on business. He also has a bad reputation for conduct on the job--such as petty quarreling with other help, incessant loud talking about nothing; loafing, carelessness, due to lack of job pride; insolence, gum chewing and--too often--liquor drinking. Just plain bad job habits!

9. He Must Improve His Conduct In Public Places.

Taken as a whole, he is entirely too loud and too ill-mannered. There is much talk about wiping out racial segregation and also much talk about achieving integration. Segregation is a physical arrangement by which people are separated in various services. It is definitely up to the Negro to wipe out the apparent justification or excuse for segregation. The only effective way to do it is to clean up and keep clean. By practice, cleanliness will become a habit and habit becomes character.


10. The Negro Must Learn How To Operate Business For People--Not For Negro People, Only.

To do business, he will have to remove all typical 'earmarks,' business principles; measure up to accepted standards and meet stimulating competition, graciously--in fact, he must learn to welcome competition.

11. The Average So-Called Educated Negro Will Have To Come Down Out Of The Air. He Is Too Inflated Over Nothing. He Needs An Experience Similar To The One That Ezekiel Had--(Ezekiel 3:14-19). And He Must Do What Ezekiel Did

Otherwise, through indifference, as to the plight of the masses, the Negro, who thinks that he has escaped, will lose his own soul. It will do all leaders good to read Hebrews 13:3, and the first Thirty-seven Chapters of Ezekiel. A race transformation itself through its own leaders and its sensible 'common people.' A race rises on its own wings, or is held down by its own weight. True leaders are never 'things apart from the people.' They are the masses. They simply got to the front ahead of them. Their only business at the front is to inspire to masses by hard work and noble example and challenge them to 'Come on!' Dante stated a fact when he said, 'Show the people the light and they will find the way!' There must arise within the Negro race a leadership that is not out hunting bargains for itself. A noble example is found in the men and women of the Negro race, who, in the early days, laid down their lives for the people. Their invaluable contributions have not been appraised by the 'latter-day leaders.' In many cases, their names would never be recorded, among the unsung heroes of the world, but for the fact that white friends have written them there.

'Lord, God of Hosts, Be with us yet.'


The Negro of today does not realize that, but, for these exhibits A's, that certainly show the innate possibilities of members of their own race, white people would not have been moved to make such princely investments in lives and money, as they have made, for the establishment of schools and for the on-going of the race.


12. The Negro Must Stop Forgetting His Friends. 'Remember.'

Read Deuteronomy 24:18. Deuteronomy rings the big bell of gratitude. Why? Because an ingrate is an abomination in the sight of God. God is constantly telling us that 'I the Lord thy God delivered you'--through human instrumentalities. The American Negro has had and still has friends--in the North and in the South. These friends not only pray, speak, write, influence others, but make unbelievable, unpublished sacrifices and contributions for the advancement of the race--for their brothers in bonds. The noblest thing that the Negro can do is to so live and labor that these benefactors will not have given in vain. The Negro must make his heart warm with gratitude, his lips sweet with thanks and his heart and mind resolute with purpose to justify the sacrifices and stand on his feet and go forward--'God is no respector of persons. In every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is' sure to win out. Get to work! That's the answer to everything! that hu rts us. We talk to o much about nothing instead of redeeming the time by working.


R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R


In spite of race prejudice, America is brim full of opportunities. Go after them!


And, this was written in the early 1900's! The more things change the more they stay the same.


Thursday, November 12, 2009

You CAN Love More Than One Person!

So I was talking with a friend the other day and we were talking about relationships and such, and the statement was made that you cannot love 2 people at the same time. That statement is garbage and anyone who says that doesnt know what love is in the first place. You have to fully understand the concept of love to be able to understand how it is not just possible, but happens to everyone, that you can love more than one person at the same time.

If you understand love, you understand that its different with everybody because you have a different relationship with each individual. You love your mother and your father and even though you love them both at the same time, your love for one is not the same as your love for the other. But you still love them both at the same time. I love my dad because he's easy going and accepts that even though they raised us the best they could, he knows that everyone has to suffer or prosper from their own actions. I love my dad because he allows me the freedom of independence. My mom on the other hand, no matter how old I get, still want to control me. But I still love her because we can talk and sometimes we have fun together. Thats only 2 people in my life that I can love at the same time as all the rest of the people I love.

"But thats not the same thing. Thats not the kind of love I'm talking about."

Thats exactly my point. The reason why you CAN love more than one person at the same time is because the love you have for each individual is unique to that individual. I dont love my boyfriend the same way as I loved my ex. I love my male best friend but not the same way as I love my female best friend. But I still love them. I love each person differently for different reasons. The problem is that most people really dont know or understand what love is. They confuse love with lust (or a strong like). Or better yet, they think "having feelings for" and "in love with" are synonymous. Those who mistake love for lust are thinking about sex when its said. Lust is of a sexual nature so when they say "I love you," if its not followed by something sexual, the thoughts they have are sexual. You can tell the difference between love and lust by just eliminating sex and see what happens. If you have nothing with that person without sex, then its lust.

Another point is that your level or intensity of love is different with each person. You can love more than one man or woman but one will have more pull on you than the other. Love is complicated like that but simple at the same time. Its easy to love but not easy to know real love and definitely not easy to stay there.