Celebrate, Cry or Both?

CNN Reports: 

West Point is about to graduate its largest class of black women

Should we celebrate or cry, or do both? To handle any obstacle course is an achievement, make no mistake. I love and celebrate powerful sisters. And West Point is not just an obstacle course, it's a military education and indoctrination institution. Are we to assume that they've been imbued with the proclivity and skill to defend our community or attack our enemies? Are we to ignore the initiatory nature that instills identification with and allegiance to those who oppress us?

I asked this in a post on Memorial Day when my family was celebration soldiers and former soldiers in my family - thanking them for their service in the military without an expectation of any service to defend and or lead our family or community against attacks on our community. It's difficult to raise because we applaud their courage, tenacity, intelligence, perseverance and more.

Our celebration forces us - like the ostrich - to bury our heads in the sand ignoring that those who oppress us - who shoot us in the streets have just certified them "worthy" of service.

Is it like being so hungry and weary that we celebrate eating a meal prepared by our enemies and hoping that they've not poisoned us or hoping that the nourishment we get will allow us to counter the poison they've placed in the meal?

Have we just given up the ghost? Has our resistance morphed into retreat morphed into surrender?

This isn't just a question for the Black graduates - female and male - of West Point, it's relevant to us all as we celebrate our youth "graduating" from educational institutions not designed specifically to lift and defend our people.

Another commentator before me was inspired to post a picture of Okoye - leader of the Dora Milaje from the fictional Wakanda as an affirmation of the announcement. Hmm?

Are we to assume that West Point has prepared the warriors-sister (and brothers) to battle for us? Does the FBI train the Dora Milaje to defend Wakanda to the death? Maybe our fictional victories are enough? Are we to allow that to be part of their purpose - to help us vicariously feel powerful while we surrender our power - our culture and our youth?

This is no criticism of these women, it is of us - the elders. For my part, I apologize for I have failed them. I've not created and implemented an educational and socialization, and reward program that counters the indoctrination of West Point, or UNC, or SMU or any of the White-serving institutions. I must apologize for underestimating the tenacity of racism and placing them in harm's way at 5 and 6 years old. I must apologize for conflating the need to be certified to earn the income needed to care for their and our families with "service" to our community's highest aspirations and needs.

It was a Black cultural sheath that allowed many Black soldiers from the Civil War to the Vietnam war to stay clothed in their "right" Black minds and to use their training, resources, and opportunity to defend our communities like Tulsa, Bogalusa, Watts, Newark, Rosewood, New Orleans, etc. That cultural sheath is so torn and tattered, that it isn't even a good ornament to that past, and certainly offers no protection to our youth who we entice to endure everything for the oppressor's validation.

It was and is our responsibility - those who know better - to repair this cultural sheath. Otherwise, such celebrations - that fills our bellies and lifts our spirits - will at the same time be our last meals. Worst - for abandoning our responsibility and our youth, the last thing we'll get to see them executing the kill order issued by their superiors.

I'm crying, and each tear waters a renewed commitment to do the difficult work ahead of us to restore our people to our traditional greatness