Reading 101 Textbook: None. Selected writings found online will constitute the textbook.Instructor: Mba Mbulu

Class #7

 Review

 Lesson

 Explanation

In previous classes we have discussed some important hints. Included are:

(1) Assume a comfortable position, but get out of it every eight to ten minutes.

(2) Practice blinking while you read.

(3) If a sentence "loses" you, reread that sentence until you have pinpointed the source of that confusion.

(4) Don't worry about what others might think when you read.

(5) Think about what you read.

(6) Keep a good dictionary within reach.

Subject Matter

Read the following Extract and think about it. Then read the Explanation and compare your thoughts to those in the Explanation.

Class #7 Reading Extract [Top]

Shotguns Disguised As Ministers

Why is it so difficult to instill pride in Black People today? Because We don't know who Our leaders and heroes were yesterday. Why don't We know? Partly because nearly all of them had a European or Arabic name attached to their African bodies. Why? Because nearly all of them had adopted Christianity or Islam as a religion of expediency, or were forced to carry Christian or Islamic names as a result of enslavement.

why is it going to be so difficult to instill pride in Black People in the future, say 300 years from now? Because future Blacks are not going to know who their leaders were today. And why won't they know? Because nearly all of Us have Christian or Arabic/Islamic names attached to Our Black bodies. A Black child 300 years from now will say, "White people have names like Martin Luther King, Jr., and think, therefore, that King was probably white. Another Black child will say that Malcolm X was an Arab because Black People don't have a name like El Hagg Malik El Shabazz. Can you imagine that? Three hundred years from now Malcolm X might be identified as an Arab instead of a Black man simply because he innocently embraced a religion to replace the one which had been robbed from him.

Malcolm's original religion, that of Mother Africa, was destroyed by the very Arabs and Christians who, today, will not allow Blacks to adopt their religion without also adopting one of their names. Why is this name change so important? Because to eastern whites (Arabs) and western whites (Europeans/Americans), religion is a political tool used to subdue and eliminate a different group of people as a historical and sociological reality/factor.

Explanation of Class #7 Extract

This essay is about the political roles that religions play. The title says it all. Shotguns are power symbols. Since politics is a power game, shotguns represent politics. But, for whatever reasons, shotguns feel the need to disguise themselves and take the form of ministers, the supposed representatives of everything good about life.

However, when one leaves the title and goes into the extract, one realizes that the deception runs deeper than that. The deeper deception is that ministers have become shotguns without taking on the shape of shotguns. The bottom line: religions have become political in substance, but they have maintained their religious rhetoric.

One of the victims of these so-called religions are Black People, who fail to look behind the disguise. As a result, Black People open up to these "religions", adopt them and throw away elements of Our culture, Our history and Our essence. A genuine religion would not require people to give up anything that is essential to their understanding of themselves as a distinct group of people.

To read this entire essay, see page 56 of Black Smart.

Reread the extract!

Questions? Email aset@asetbooks.com and list your course title as the subject.

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