The Pursuit of Happiness: Decolonizing My Mind

-- By JulieIreneNkodo - 19 Feb 2016

“The revolution will not be televised.” - Gil Scott-Heron

I listen to Common’s track The Sixth Sense’s almost every morning and it was not until a few weeks ago that I questioned the origins of the sample, and discovered Gil Scott-Heron’s poem. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be force fed to me, it cannot be inauthentic, it will not be brought to me by corporate sponsors or commercial giants.

In taking the steps to decolonize my mind, and question the path that I’ve set on, willing myself away from the parade, I’ve come to a crossroads. What does it mean to pursue happiness, as a black woman, in today’s society?

“The revolution will not go better with Coke. The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.”

As the child of two immigrants from Central Africa, I was taught to believe that assimilation was the key to success. Do not get me wrong, I in no way condemn my parents for wanting me to be successful (The children of African immigrants are one of the highest achieving subgroups in America, it “works!”). Yes, we’re closing the achievement gap but conformity does not breed creativity and without creativity there is no ownership, there is no revolution. Without revolution, there is no pursuit of happiness. The revolution does not go better with respectability politics, with climbing the corporate ladder, with securing a position wherein diversity are institutions where African-Americans constitute less than 3% of associates.

“The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat” – Gil Scott-Heron

I think about this point the most. Is it all an illusion? I could take an active role, ask questions, demand to be educated properly and figure out a life of lawyering that is good for me outside the scope of the conventional system. But I would still be operating within the confines of a system that was not created for me to succeed. Is the pursuit of happiness a legitimate possibility in a society that was built on the backs of slaves?

“I mean, it’s evident that I’m irrelevant to society”- Kendrick Lamar, The Blacker the Berry

While I’m trying to forge my own path, whole communities are being poisoned, the education system is in shambles, gun violence is the leading cause of death for black children and teens, the unemployment rate among black women demographic can’t seem to improve, among many other issues. Yet, I am trying to operate within this system. Is the choice between forging my own path (or believing in this illusion) really that much different from following the one laid out for me, if they ultimately lead to the same destination? Who gave me the tools to carve out my own path, and who will ultimately tell me how far I can go? Is the difference between that, and joining the parade simply an illusion? As a black woman in this society, I have to question the credibility of the idea of “the pursuit of happiness.” Am I really driving the car or in my attempt to start an uprising, am I forgetting that the car was built by Ford?

Interestingly enough, this above illustration doesn’t account for gender discrimination. Lose 100 turns. #SayHerName

“The revolution will be no re-run brothers; The revolution will be live” - Gil Scott-Heron

Live. In the present, inconvenient, and difficult. Is the pursuit of happiness the act of insurgency? Of refusing to conform, of choosing creativity, knowing all the while that instead of creating a new government (because you can’t), you’re simply choosing to act in accordance with it. Along side the government, instead of inside it. I’m still in the process of determining what freedom means to me and haven’t to a personal conclusion yet. The revolution is live, and I need to take an active role in choosing to unplug the television. Is turning off the television enough for me when I know I’ll never be truly free? Is the revolution, for my generation, getting others to turn off the television so that one day we can in fact create new forms of governance? I don’t have the answers. Until then, I’ll reflect while watching Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Performance, taking in the irony of it all.

“There will be no highlights on the eleven o’clock News…The revolution will not be televised” – Gil Scott-Heron

The best route to improvement of the draft is to remove rhetorical questions and replace them with statements. From that process we can expect something to develop that will be the theme of the next draft.

From my point of view as reader, the crux of the current draft lies in these sentences: "I could take an active role, ask questions, demand to be educated properly and figure out a life of lawyering that is good for me outside the scope of the conventional system. But I would still be operating within the confines of a system that was not created for me to succeed." This apparently means something to you that it doesn't mean to me, and it would be helpful, certainly to the reader and I think to the writer, to unpack it. Rarely have I known anyone who lived in a world created for her or him to succeed; those I have known tended not to be successful. Jews almost anywhere, women in almost all societies at every time, short people, sexual minorities, near-sighted people, left-handed people, Mangliks, Dalits, Swedish speakers in Finland, those who cannot walk, or hear, the poor who are the overwhelming mass of humanity---they are all operating within a system not created for them to succeed. And so? I don't know from what you've written, or from my experience outside the context of your writing, why this constitutes in some way an argument against, using and improving your mind and acting creatively in society. Surely this is the strongest reason for doing what it will take to produce a stronger, freer, more capable mind backing a more liberated life.