Many white people and a few blacks on this board say Rastafari is all about including everyone into the fold. How can black people deal with other groups when InI dont have our house in order? Knowself first! To I, Rastafari is about black people reclaiming what was taken from us by the same ones who want to be in the fold. Would a wise man be willing to accept someone into their gates that has shown a history of causing chaos, confusion, and destruction? Haven’t we learned from our past mistakes? People can call themselves Rasta if they want. InI can’t do anything about that. But when the fiyah gets hotta and hotta, all we have to do is look and see who is on the front line. Many times white people try to come into the trod because of the guiltiness that rests on there conscious. They can’t identify with Afrikan culture which Rastafari sprang forward in this time and that time. They can’t remember being packed tightly in ships as human cargo. They can’t remember getting thrown overboard and having their bodies and bodies of their bredren and sistren lining the bed of the Atlantic Ocean. They can remember the crack of the whip on their backs. They cant remember the pain their mothers felt having their babies cut out of there bellies because of a bet made on the sex of the child. They can’t remember there wives and children being taken away from them and sold to a plantation hundreds of miles away. They can’t remember being called ‘useless farm machinery” because machines were made to replace them. They can’t remember being ‘set free’ and forced to become share croppers, which was an economical control method to keep them slaves dependant on the new massa….the employer. They can’t remember being hung for looking at a white women or having to stick there heads in barrels to laugh for fear of the whiteman whipping or lyching them. They can’t remember having piss and shit thrown on them by whites driving by, while walking on the side of the road. They can’t remember being told that they can’t come into a building because they are black. They cant remember being told to give up there seat when a white person needed to sit down. They cant remember their leaders such as Garvey, Malcolm, Paul Bogle, Lumumba, Mandela, King, etc., being murdered and brutalized because of there desire to be looked upon as a man. They can’t remember being kidnapped and shaven because they carry locks upon them heads. They can’t remember being mocked and scorned about hailing a black man as the redeemer, when it wasn’t cool to do so. They can’t remember any of these thing because it is not apart of who they are. It is not contained in their genetic memory banks. We also have a few blackpeople who choose to not retain such things. If they can’t remember these things, how can they know Rastafari when Rastafari in this time has come from these same conditions that InI were/are faced with? White people can only identify with Rastafari from the sidelines. They will never feel it, therefore never knowing it. Why don’t the white people who are so concerned about Afrikan redemption and liberation, start their own groups focusing on these things? And take what ever kneegrow with them who wants to be in their good graces. But the black man and black woman will not surrender nor bow to the concepts of ones who have historically been an enemy to all black and brown people on the face of the earth. The Rastaman is not going to be tricked once again. This is my I-ditation.

And Tiqur Fiqir
One Black Love
selassieilive