Opinion

OP-ED: Don’t Judge this Book by its Cover

Published

13 years ago

October 2, 2013

I am a 56-year-old Black man who has read a total of five books in my life. I simply do not like reading books. Now before you get too excited, I have read the Holy Bible, cover to cover, have you? I believe the Bible is the soap for the heart and I encourage all to search out and apply its wisdom as soap, not man’s myths or biblical customs in an attempt to clean up one’s life.

Why has it been so easy to buy into the myths that Adam and Eve were the “First” people on earth and that Adam and Eve ate an “Apple”, but when it comes to reading, “Love one another”, too many of us act illiterate?

Recently, I walked into Marcus Books; the oldest Black owned book store in the country, located in the Fillmore district of San Francisco. Karen Johnson, who runs the SF store (There is a Marcus Books, Oakland) held up a book for me to read. Reading the title, I thought to myself, get real and then, this woman has lost her mind. I was offended by the title: “What is Wrong with Being Black?”

If there is one good quality about me, it is the fact that when I get offended, I do not run or lash out. Therefore, I took the book and thumbed a few pages. But I purchased it out of curiosity. This erudite Black London preacher and author, Matthew Ashimolowo, born in Nigeria pastors the largest church in Western Europe and he got me to read his 344 page book, by insulting me first.

After reading this thoroughly referenced work and certainly no expert on reading material, I recommend every Black person on earth read, “what is wrong with Being Black?”

Commonsense answers the question posed by the title. Nevertheless, with this book sitting in my vehicle, I still purposely hid the title from view. The author takes you on a well researched tour of truth about the Black race from Adam and Eve to Rev Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton before ending in chapter 25 on the subject of marginalization. “Celebrating our heritage, confronting our challenges” is the sub-title but I still can’t handle the title.

Thank God I can handle the truth.

I am also a man who has always been annoyed with the stories of slavery. In fact, I don’t think I am alone. While teaching a Bible study in the early 90’s, to a room full of Black teenaged felons at the San Francisco juvenile hall, I said, “I am more concerned with Black future, than Black history.”

They all applauded my statement. My guess is that they too, were not quite buying into the stories of the past 400 years of slavery as I had not. Sure Blacks were slaves for too long. But I never felt as though the whole story was being told, after all, I only had White teachers.

This is quite a biblical and African history lesson to say the least. This London preacher pulled no punches. And though I can’t say I subscribe to everything he suggested on what struggling Black communities should do first, Blacks can’t go wrong by applying all of his advice towards changing course.

Ashimolowo, points out how and why slavery of the Black man was not the fault of the White man, while not letting the White man off the hook for their evil deeds. He also exposes two well known American preachers for who they really are and then artfully compares the totally different approaches against segregation used by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. Both men were 100% right. He even pointed out the good of segregation that most, including me, would not have seen, were it not for his pointing it out.

I was most impressed with how Ashimolowo pointed out the problems of trying to educate today’s young Black male and his suggested solution. Where I slightly disagree with the pastor is when he suggest Blacks should first get a hold of God.

Though God is first, in my life, I believe Blacks should get a hold of the book, “what is wrong with Being Black”, first.

Allen JonAllen Jones was a Bible Study teacher to teenaged felons from 1983 to 1993 at the San Francisco juvenile hall. Currently he is a prison reform activist living in San Francisco.

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Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

4 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.