The Last Black Man Standing
by Dr. Kamau Kambon

As the last Black man faced his demise, he decided to tape-record how he was an eyewitness to the collapse and disappearance of his race on U.S. soil. He asks, rhetorically, what happened to my whole race of people, how were we forced into extinction? The following is his testament:

Now that I am the only survivor of our race, and I can't hurt anyone's feelings anymore, I CAN SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID! LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN! Our demise as a race WAS NOT AN EVENT; it was a PROCESS. A SLOW PROCESS THAT TOOK YEARS!

We refused to unite with one another, letting our affiliations separate us-fraternities, sororities, one was a democrat, one a republican, the dark ones didn't like the light skinned ones, and so on. We all worshipped differently; most believed Jesus to be white, and this, perhaps, above all, paved the way for our psychological
extinction. Other races united along racial, economic and cultural lines, but we could not or would not.

Unless. . . .It was very strange to see us in all of our odd behavior and skewed thinking in the last days. We had been a pure, unadulterated people before the invaders. We were such a Blacknificent people, but the invaders not only invaded our land, worst, they invaded our minds and contaminated our hearts. We descended into
thinking of ourselves as "minority," as "third world," and living in a "crib." We cherished our enslavers' name, clothes and values.

Our descent was swift because we had given up our own cultural values. We formed all of these little groups who talked big but produced nothing concrete-no schools, convention centers, restaurants, hotels, bus lines, or manufacturing plants.

We all spent our money lavishly and foolishly: Black men spent most of their money buying cars that put them deep in debt. They bought these cars to show off, to style, to front like they had wealth. They, unknowingly, made other races rich. They were car rich but land poor. Just the interest on the loan for the car could have enabled the Black man to buy and own his own land. There were reports that he spent more on his car than he spent on the education of his children.

The Black man also spent enormous amounts of his money on alcohol and malt liquors. Apparently, his pain and psychological self-hatred were too much for him to bear. Look at how much marijuana he smoked, marijuana laced with deadly chemicals which destroyed his perception, personality, and his genetic potential (his children were born with many emotional, psychological and intellectual deficiencies).

The Black woman, also majestic as the mother of all races and civilizations, lost sight of her authentic self. She started imitating the women of other races-it is difficult for me to talk about all this, but I must leave at least a taped message as a legacy about my people.

The Black woman spent billions of dollars in what was called beauty parlors. She never realized she was the original beauty queen and everyone modeled her image. She spent large sums of money on clothes and made unwise use of her money, buying bleaching creams, hair dyes and, especially, getting her nails painted. How
economically foolish.

A silent way her money left the community was through her excessive use of the telephone. This was money spent that was never talked about in any business magazines or economics classes. I went back and looked at all the telephone bills of Black people and the money spent on the phone alone could have enabled the race to rebuild and restore Africa completely.

In the area of economics, both male and female are to blame for the building of more churches than was needed.

Oh! I know this tape will hurt the feelings of any who finds it. The naïve Black people thought they were praising the heavens by building all these churches. What a mistake! Our people were merely making their enemies, the contractors and vendors, richer and richer.

In other words, other communities were the beneficiaries of Black mismanagement of financial resources.

Time is running out, I must hurry! Another critical area that hurt us was food consumption. My race continued to eat foods that were "death foods," foods contaminated with chemicals and other toxins. They ate lots of "fast foods," and genetically-engineered "foods." How pitiful!! In the last days, Black people became an obese and out of shape people. They drank something called soda and ate untold mounds of sugar, pork and fried foods. As a result, and over time, many got sick and had to go to hospitals that performed unnecessary surgeries, pumped them with drugs and overcharged them.

Above all this, the Black man and Black woman refused to listen to their warrior-scholars, African-centered psychologists and educators. These warriors, psychologists and educators wanted to restore our thinking about the importance of remembering our ancestors, educating our children through reading to them and building their identity and self esteem.

Those who had our interests at heart fought night and day to get us to change for our own good, but the media (television, radio and the newspapers) had us brainwashed against our leaders and ourselves. Black radio stations, in particular, were actually against us: many only played lewd music, gave us no relevant survival information and aired ads to get us to spend more money and party.

Well, the tape has about run out and, I must admit, it is a very sad day for me, as The Last Black Man Standing.

I am so very sorry to have to say all these things about the demise of my race. We were a very beautiful and loving people but, oh! what a hard-headed and stubborn people we were. It seemed as though we were on a non-stop path of self-destruction.

I am sorry to have to report all of this but . Wait!! What! Who! Is that a Black Woman! Someone else survived! Impossible! Maybe if she and I can examine all the mistakes of our people, and not repeat them, perhaps we could.

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO CHANGE, BLACK PEOPLE, BUT TIME IS RUNNING OUT!! DON'T MAKE THIS STORY COME TRUE!

(Kamau Kambon is author of several books and runs the Blacknificent Bookstore in Raleigh, N.C. He can be reached at (919) 250-9110.)