‘How Blacks Can Succeed’

Rev & Author Gary Hibbert

By Rev. Gary Mwentin Hibbert : Who can be considered Black? Many Black people consider themselves “Black” because of the darkness of their skin. The term “Black” refers to a nation and must not be limited to simply a skin color. We must also understand the meaning of “nations”. Nations originate from a man and a woman—a family.

Black people have not understood that we are Black not because we have “dark skin” but because we are a nation. If we look at Genesis 10:6, it says that the sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan. In Hebrew the word “Ham” means “hot”; this name suggests one who is heated by the sun or sun burnt, probably Noah’s way of describing why his son’s skin was dark. In the Hebrew language the word “Cush” means Black. (18) This tells me that Ham, when he named his first-born son, “Cush”, he was actually saying, “You are Black.” Gen. 10:20, says that the sons of Ham became nations.

The word “nations” has been used since the time of Noah while the term “race” was coined for use less than 200 years ago. People are generally still referred to by their nation except when you are talking about Blacks. You don’t hear people—in general—talk about the Chinese race, the Italian race or even the English race, but many refer to the “Black Race”. This goes to show how much Blacks have been stripped of national identity to the point that we substitute our national identity with a word less than 200 years old that was designed to make Blacks lower and inferior to other humans.

God speaks of nations in the Bible, not races. Nationhood is not based on your skin color, it based on who you were descended from. Black is not your skin color; there is no person on this planet who is Black in that sense. Black has to do with your nation, not your skin. “White” is not a nation. We were conditioned by the lie of “Black and White” peoples. When you say “He’s White”, what are you actually saying? You’re being vague. Only the meaning imposed upon that word is being expressed. So, when someone says, “White”, what nation are they really referring to? There is no “White Nation”! “Europe” is not a nation; it’s a group of nations. Do you see what I mean? We talk about “Africa”, as if Africa is a country, a nation; rather, Africa is a group of nations or peoples. Black is a nation, not a skin color; However, “White” is not a nation it refers to a pale (pinkish) skin color. Today, “Black”, like “White”, no longer refers to a nation, but to skin color.

Acts Chapter 17:26 says the following of God: “So then He has made, from one blood, every nation of man, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” God has set the boundaries of the nations, thus predetermining where they would dwell. As we saw previously, by God’s design, all nations came from one blood. So, no matter what shade, no matter what nation we identify with, we all come from one blood. The genetic code for all of us was in Adam and Eve. God is a God of variety. The reason I bring this out is that God says, out of one blood He has made all nations. Why is there no Black nation on the Earth? Why don’t we think in terms of a Black nation? This is precisely why Blacks have been divided, because Blacks don’t think in terms of “nation”. They think in terms of the demographics of a geographic area. We need to accept what and who we are, what and who God has made us. Each and every one of us, whether you’re Black, whether you’re Scottish, whether you’re from England, or Germany, or whatever your ancestry, you have to be who you are.

So, if one of your parents is Black and another one is English, then you’re Black and English. You’re Black and English, and you need to be proud of your English heritage. You must not deny it. You need to be proud of your Black heritage. You must not deny that either, because neither ancestry is better than the other. When we understand the concept of nations, those whose parents are of two nations will no longer have to be confused. For example, take a child whose father is of the Black nation and whose mother is of the French nation. Because of a lack of understanding, that child is referred to by many names such as mulatto, mixed-breed, mongrel, mixed, half breed, bi-racial, colored, high colored and a multitude of other names that are worse than these. So, what is the child? The child is of both nations. The child has the right to be called Black because that is his/her father’s nation and French because that is his/her mother’s nation. The child does not need to deny either parent. Neither does he/she need to be confused about who he/she is. The child has both Black and French ancestry and should be proud of both.

Let me give you an example from the Bible that has to do with Paul, the apostle. Paul was born in the Roman province of Tarsus; obviously his father or grandfather was Roman and his mother was a Hebrew. There are only two ways to be a Jew, according to Orthodox Judaism; either your mother is a Jew or you become a Jew through conversion. If you asked Paul whether he was a Hebrew, what would he tell you? Yes, he was a Hebrew; he said he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Philippians 3:5 reveals that Paul was a Jew by birth. If you asked Paul if he was a Roman, what would he tell you? Yes, Paul stated that he was a Roman, and when the man who was questioning him said that with a great price he had bought his citizenship, Paul stated that he was born a citizen. Therefore, Paul did not acquire his citizenship; he was born a citizen of Rome (Acts 16:37, 38; Acts 22:23-29); he was as fully Roman as he was a Hebrew. This whole issue of saying whether you’re Black or “White” tells a child to choose his or her allegiance between one of his or her parents. That is the most unfair question to ask a child; which parent will you declare your allegiance to?

As I explore and discuss this mess you’re going to see that if one of your parents is German, and one is Black, you’re both German and Black. You’d be considered a Black German. Because you have some of the paternal traits of a Black and you have some of the paternal traits of a German. Honestly, you have inherited certain things from both of your parents. Why should you have to choose? You shouldn’t have to choose. The reason we are put in a position to choose is the whole distinction of one color being better than the other and wherever it would benefit you, like Paul used his heritage to his advantage. If folks needed to know that he was a Roman, he was a Roman. If folks needed to know if he was a Hebrew, he was a Hebrew. But if Paul were to be asked whether he was a Hebrew or a Roman, I am sure he’d say, “I am both”, because he did not deny being either. To some folk, that may just blow their minds. How can you be both? Because you have genes from both and you need not be ashamed of either. You need not be ashamed that you have German genes. You need not be ashamed that you have Black genes. You need to thank God for who you are because God knew that you were going to be born. And it’s not by accident that you were conceived by a German and a Black or from a Chinese and a Black. It’s not by chance and we should never be brought into a situation or an attitude of having to choose. God could care less who, you marry, as it pertains to ethnicity, because He has made all nations of one blood. When all is said and done we all came from one: Adam.

So if a person has a Black parent and an English parent, if you call them English you’d be correct; if you called them Black, you would also be correct, from God’s standpoint. Because as far as God is concerned they have as much of one parent as they have of the other parent in them and should not be ashamed of their lineage at all.

Therefore, The first thing that ‘Blacks Must Do To Succeed’ is understand that we are not Black because of the darkness of our skin, but because Black is a nation. Why is this important? This is important because Blacks are the only people who do not have a national identity. We either identify with a country or a continent. Because of this Blacks have been divided where ever we have lived and failed to be a financially or political force, even when Blacks are in the majority. If we think as Blacks and work together, we will accomplish much, but we must see ourselves as Black Americans, Black Canadians, Black Jamaicans, Black Nigerians, Black South Africans, I think you get the idea. In order to do so, we have to fully embrace Black nationhood. We need to also understand that family is the basis of nations. If we have no concept of family, we will have no concept of a nation. As long as the Black family is torn apart, disrespected and not held sacred, there can be no Black nation. This is an understanding Blacks must have if we are going to succeed.

The second thing that ‘Blacks Must Do To Succeed’ is to graduate college or university. Today a post-secondary education is more important than ever for a successful transition to the workforce or to operate a successful business. Continuing changes in the Western economy have made it more difficult for individuals with only a high school education to find high-paying jobs. Our most recent data indicate that individuals with a bachelor’s degree or higher earn nearly twice as much as those with only a high school diploma, and their unemployment rate is less than half the unemployment rate of high school graduates. As parents we must take responsibility in teaching our children that graduating college or university is not an option it is a necessity for enabling Blacks to succeed.

The third thing that ‘Blacks Must Do To Succeed’ is learn how to manage money and to create wealth –making money work for you through investment, real estate and business creation. Also to escape welfare and poverty we must also support Black Business and Organizations with our money, so that they can provide jobs for our children, so that we no longer have to be dependent on other nations to provide us with jobs. This is one of the major why Blacks have the highest unemployment rate. We need the mindset now to be business owners, property owners and investors, to learn how to make money work for us, so that our labor and money will be used to profit us and not other people.

How Blacks Can Succeed Front Cover

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Many of the things mentioned in this article and more are dealt with in detail in my book “How Blacks Can Succeed In The Americas, The Caribbean, Africa Or Anywhere Else”. www.soyoumaysucceed.com

Biographie : Gary Mwentin Hibbert is an ordained minister. He has been an international speaker, an author, a mentor and an activist for socio-economic justice for over 15 years. His speaking engagements have included Churches, radio, television, high schools, colleges, universities, prisons, financial seminars, as well as social and political forums. His speaking engagements have been to audiences in Canada, USA, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. He has done extensive work in the federal correctional institutions in Canada, as well as developing a leadership initiative to effectively reduce the rate at which Blacks are dropping out of High School. These 15 years of experience were instrumental in the writing and publishing of ‘How Blacks Can Succeed in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa or Anywhere Else’.