I always marveled at how nations ponied up and made agreements among themselves to protect and enhance sovereign rights. They are called pacts, or treaties if you will, and history tells us that most of them were successful. Now comes the brilliant and needed idea of a treaty for people of color! Yes, a pact among and for us...something meaningful, something of substance, and most importantly, something with a plan of action for solutions designed with modules for implementing a list of tasks. tantamount to our climbing the next rung for acceptance. THE COVENANT it is called. The state of Black America is not new to me – I’ve met Jim Crow, known the difference between just us and justice, and surely have attested on many fronts how people of other persuasions still run the institution called racism...and no matter how they disguise and dress it up, we still recognize its raunchy ways and impaired state of parity. But hey, that’s a story for another time.

You know, we traverse many roads in our lives...some of them twice, thrice and many times over. We have been there, done that. But this thing about people of color doing what is necessary to improve the quality of life often is met with apathy and much passivity. This has to stop. The questions will always abound and teem with other concerns that will permeate our existence. This covenant thing encompasses a lot of area, and has implied ramification on all segments of our lives. Ladies and gentlemen, what have YOU done to make a covenant with each other? Yes, we must first make agreements with ourselves...this means the whole Black Diaspora should circle the wagons, hold hands for solidarity and definitely keep our heads to the sky! We can’t wait for those people five or six shades lighter than us to care about our well being. This has to be our genesis and we must do something NOW!

I’m doing mine. Started long ago…I started with myself by taking inventory. I kept the logic needed to propel my thoughts positively and discarded rhetorical nonsense that didn’t allow reason to embellish common sense. I gathered my family around me and I rallied my point closer to the goals I’m talking to them about. Family is important to me in this whole process because Satan loves division. Family ties will look toward all things spiritual for the church to have a part in this. We need that Omnipotent One to surely stick closer than the brothers I’m trying to recruit and keep out of the white man’s jails. The church is the last frontier for change to fuel solutions and that means making the good decisions for meaningful direction – looking up, turning right and going straight. It’s about galvanizing our communities and taking them back from the Arabs, Pakistanis and the Koreans. We ran Joe the Chinaman away years ago only to allow others that don’t look like you take their places. Our communities are disenfranchised…others build businesses, houses (for others) and never keep monies therein. They take it out of our communities and bank the money we help them earn!

Oh how we need a covenant! Do you need me to help you make up your mind? Have you made your covenant with Black developers and construction companies? What about making one with that mom and pop bookstore that will eventually go out of business because we feel that Barnes & Noble and Waldenbooks are better. Our Black youth meanwhile are being rapped to death, running around with their pants hanging below the waist, and both sexes androgynous to the core, some confused where boys are pony tailed, ringed more often than women; girls are dressing more like men, and in some circles you can’t tell them from the males. And not to mention homosexuality that’s rampant in schools and pockets of society permits it. I mentor to a group of kids where Rites of Passage are being implemented for Afrocentric thought and the transition from boys to men. Their covenants have already been commissioned.

Know one is going to save us but us. I’m tired of the uncaring attitudes, lack of spirituality, and self-esteem. I want us to take back our streets. I want that village to be as prominent as it was when I was growing up. Those who are willing to sacrifice, to fight, to speak up and out, and those unafraid to stand up and be counted as diligent Black folk willing to challenge and change. So the onus is on us. Throw down your gauntlet, and make your covenant with Black America today. Let’s do away with the empty words, let’s respect our womenfolk, let’s turn off the television and turn God on for a change. Make your covenant today!