The Black Canary
Until We Are Truly Free:
The Tale of The Black Canary
“Singing like a Canary,” as I recount in the streets of East Palo Alto, California as a child and teen held a call against the street code. I learned much from street scholars as well as from many books my father kept, yet I would never guess that I would understand the complex nature and significance that bird held in the lives of us all in this experimental extraction of resources we know as Capitalism. Although I had done some reading myself, I did not fully connect the relation between the oppression of a people and the government which benefited. I mean, I clearly knew the First Nation's struggles from broken treaties to massacres but to fully notice the uphill struggle of your own means one thing, that you can in no way discount or deny what you have been conditioned to live, or in the case of the canary in the mine, conditioned to die accepting.
All over the planet as well as in the earliest recorded histories African as well as the darkest skin of people tend to suffer an abundance of Genocide, Oppression and inhumane hardships. One could look at history from ancient times of the pharaohs and understand, why African slaves in more modern times, rebelled. In fact, Africans from the diaspora, although indoctrinated through a carefully controlled, Christian brainwashing, learned to read, in secret for themselves and thus were inspired to seek freedom, compelled by what was taught in the biblical book of Exodus. But why is it that Africans were used as slaves in the first place, why Aboriginal Australians were forced into slavery as well as any other dark-hued people of the diaspora and so forth? Being the first people, we have had many firsts, unfortunately that even means, the first to struggle and die.
During mining throughout the world, humans have learned to use the canary to signal when the air levels in the caves were too dangerous for miners, as it were live canaries used that got sick and in some cases, died before the people did. It is not strange for people to seek dangerous occupations, yet when your very life becomes dangerous, the term occupational hazard is no where close to the injustices which follow and the scars that are left. So yes, Africans and people of the diaspora have been the sociological, canaries in many societies, especially in this American one. In a sick twisted sense, what happens to us, will indeed happen to everyone. As a man of African decent myself, I cannot ignore the injustices, nor can I act caviler to the reality that some stranger, just because I have melanin in my skin might decide to physically attack myself or my family, unprovoked.
Many have accepted the generational injustices as “the way of things,” yet everything within their conditioned humanity seeks to scream, “give me freedom, give me peace,” when we have already fought and died for that many times over. Sacrifice is something understood which all can attest to building character, strength and resilience of spirit, yet how much burden do a people have to bear? When unfortunate circumstances happen to us, do we look at the past as a teaching tool or do we simply “move on,” to greener pastures, placing a blind “hope,” as an achievable goal, without worry for what could happen, or do we look back, take stock of the previous lessons learned and strive for a different kind of hope? I ask this due to the fact, that many can empathize as well as see the common threads in humanity from family, work, school as well as in our social lives and even in religious lives for some. The question for me is not whether people, can see themselves in us in different aspects but can people foresee the ways in which control and oppression has had a negative impact upon our lives and can sense the same common threads of dissent, abuse, financial fraud, and financial dependency aimed at them as well?
Many in capitalistic societies do not recognize their importance nor their role as an openly participating “Unit of Production,” per see, such as the social security number given to Americans since birth. I have not studied enough about other modern or “Western,” cultures to know how they view their citizens yet can clearly see the “trickle down effect,” from what the United States of America has modeled to hlthe rest of the world. We can easily look at any form of governance and see people being abused and even killed, while working for the common good, the unspoken monster which Capitalism breeds called “Greed.” Now this Greed, which societies experience is like the gingivitis to our teeth and gums. It eats away at any nutrients we need, after the accumulation plaque has prevented our gums to properly breathe. Capitalism as I have been told many times, is a good thing, yet ingenuity usually comes from a curtain kind of person, one that either wants to make their own circumstances better or in many instances, make the lives of others easier or better.
“It is genuinely the nature of the beast to want more and more, even after the feast,” I sarcastically say but what many fail to realize are the many ways in which, they too have fallen victim to and yes, have been used and abused by a nature which goes against everything good, wholesome and natural. While living comfortably, it is easy to understand why many would not see the struggles, hardships or even notice the many ways in which their society has conditioned them. Their relationship with their society has been designed to seem natural in all aspects from desires to need yet what was carefully crafted specifically for them, could be everything which alludes to superficial. “I get it I get it,” I mean, we all need to live by some type of rules and everyone has to work in some capacity in order to survive, yet where the question lies is with two words, choice and freedom. We are born into this world with the understandings given to us, whether through family, socially or educational.
The decisions we make, directly affects the outcome of how we are allowed to live or chose to live. When people say “Do as they do in Rome!” I question, do they know what happened to the Roman Empire and how it fell? When we see others suffering, are we drawn to help them, so we believe or aknowledge that what we see in that moment could also befall us or someone we care for? Why or why not? Is our ability to empathize and relate stifled by the monotony we toil with daily? Are the messages we are fed by government and media foster community, or individualistic success?
These are all questions for us to ask of ourselves while we seek to feel more “liberated,” as wholesome individuals on our own "road to sucesss," or view life. Now for the canary in the mine, the Black Canary… do you think that you could find yourself in situations where what happened to her/him could happen to you? Why or why not? Do you see instances of people taking advantage of others or has anyone taken advantage of you or your kindness in any way and if so, how did or does that make you feel? My only tasks I ask of you is that you try to look through eyes of a different lens, that you perhaps open yourself to the possibility or thought of… something magical and seemingly impossible and not befriend a Canary, but free them as well as others from the dangerous mines from dangerous minds which led them there in the first place. Besides, Compassion and Courage is Contagious. Dare to plant a seed of resistance and resilience and see what sprouts. (Poem left below, enjoy)
There have been many dark corridors and corners to turn
I swear it feels so trapped in here
Sometimes the air itself is so thick it burns but
I exist for a reason
Can’t you see that if I’m allowed space, I can spread my wings and fly but
My wings have been clipped and they gave me no reason why so
I sit in this cage
Calm and complacent
Still singing and patient
For one day I know they will open that cage and set me free
I know the world out there is scary
I have seen it all being the Black Canary
Watch me glide through the courageous skies and I
Will show you how to fly during the storm and when wet
I will unfold my wings to keep you dry and warm
Together, new treasures and shady trees we will find but please
Just please don’t force me back into that cage and mine
Watch me close even if your breathing is fine or
It might be you who finds yourself confined, out of time
The Black Canary
7-7-2020
