Hello All:
The overwhelming response to the passing of Dr. Frances Cress Welsing into the realm of ancestor/angel, has been one of shock and sadness.
The response has been both global and visceral and instantaneous. Though she was not a "super star" in the artistic sense of the word, she was a super star for Black people, in her definitive stance on what racism and whites delusion of supremacy meant to us as a people.
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| Dr. Frances Cress Welsing is now an Ancestor/Angel |
A physician and a behavioral scientist by education and trade, and a pediatric specialist, Dr. Welsing was able to take the Kenneth Clark studies to a whole other level, by studying, not the victims, but the perpetrators themselves.
Dr. Welsing became famous for her
work the Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation in
1974.
I read her first book - and like so many of my peers, was totally blown away by how indepth she had gone into her analyses. We were waiting for the whites to come out ot the woodwork from somewhere and blow her away, or try to discredit her. And that did happen, in a sense, because Howard University did not renew her contact - they were "upset" about the controversy she caused and how it might impact the school. (Proving, if they can't get you directly, they have other options - I know I don't need to carry that statement any further; no do I?)
I met Dr. Frances Cress Welsing in 1991 (or 92) at the Congressional Black Caucus. She was a panelist on Racism. At this juncture, I no longer remember who was on the panel with her, since I was there specifically to hear her views and gather knowledge.
The room was packed, the Isis Papers had just been published, but had not gotten into wide circulation, so many were not familiar with it. In fact, she continued to refer to the Isis papers, and recommending we get the book for a greater understanding of some of her statements and analogies.
I think the only thing I did not agree with her on was the fact that women should wait til they were 30 to have children, and men should have achieved a specific economic level - I remember saying to her: "If we waited for that, we'd be even more of a minority than we are now." We all had a good laugh at that statement, but I asked her why she felt that way.
Her response was (paraphrasing): "Our current family status is in bad condition. Many mothers are not raising their children appropriately. Children are not being well educated because the parents are not - and they don't know enough to demand appropriate education. By the time she is 30 a woman could have a well established career and still be of child bearing age, so if there is no father figure in the home, she won't have to struggle, and will still be able to provide the child with whatever he or she needs - emotionally, financially, etc."
I responded that the one reason it wouldn't work is because nature has designed human beings to bear early in life - and also, we all know that if you waited for the rich to have children, there would be nobody left on earth. " We had a laugh over that as well - but in the back of my mind, I remember thinking, how sad it is that we, as a people, still have not moved to the level that we can actually be self empowered, and self motivated and actualized - that we are still - in the 20th Century - victimized (little did I know then that the 21st Century would be even more heinous in some ways).
We have had so many sages like Dr. Welsing, come forth and try to wake Black people up. Try to get us to move, individually and collectively, in a way that we are no longer under the heel of the oppressor.
The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors explored the symbols and systemic practices of White supremacy and revealed the psychological dynamics of racism. The Isis Papers also explored the Black family structure, AIDS and the crisis of Black male and female relationships. In the Isis Papers Dr. Welsing wrote: “The whole of white culture is designed to say that whites have [certain] qualities. Everything possible is done to demonstrate this. First, you have [only] white players, then Blacks come in, but a white has to be the quarterback. Western culture has to project white supremacy. When Blacks succeed athletically, whites are forced ‘up against the psychological wall’ because white youngsters are ‘brought up to believe a white has to be superior’.”
Dr. Welsing was born March 18, 1935 - she was 80 years old when she made her transition. One of the former students of Howard University sent me an email about her passing, stating:
"Dr. Frances Cress Welsing has made transition to the next life. I was a student at Howard in the early 70s when she published her “Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation.” She was then a professor at Howard and would come to my dorm (Meridian Hill Hall) to meet with us monthly and discuss her theory. Howard didn't like it, but we loved and supported her. She was a strong, focused sister who did her research was not afraid to tell the truth regardless of the consequences. I'm sure she was a child of Sango, baba mi, because of her strength and courage to stand for justice and to expose the truth about our situation as African people. She was undaunted in her quest -- a powerful warrior queen. Those who don't know who she IS, need to find out. Every person of African descent needs to read her very important book. TRUTH! May Olodumare and the Ancestors bless and accept her soul for a job well done.
Frances Cress Welsing, Iba'e Tonu." Mariln Kai Jewett
The fact is that many of her theories of white delusional supremacy are in evidence right now - and they have gone into hyperdrive survival mode - witness the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act; of the Congress holding the US hostage so that a Black president cannot complete his agenda for saving the US from outside vultures; or the egregious excessive force and viiolence on the part of the police departments across the US, leveled at Black people (male and female); and the continued attempts to emasculate Black men. These are not "conspiracy theories" as some would try to couch them, but conspiracy fact, active, alive and well and in practice in the US, Brazil, parts of Europe and other parts of the world.
If you've not read the ISIS Papers, of you've read it quite some time ago, and need a refresher, I'm including the link to the PDF in this blog. Mind you, this is not a quick and dirty read - this is not a sound byte - this is an in depth analysis - and should be read fully. If you can, get the book - you might want to mark some pages - because you need to be learning this and then teaching/sharing it with others.
This is not meant to set up a system of paranoia - or of the kinds of mindless conversations I hear Black people parroting all over the place where we tend to say, "If it was a white person, they wouldn't do that...." NO, THIS IS A WAKE UP AND LET'S MAKE THE PARADIGM SHIFT TO SELF-EMPOWERMENT WE ARE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT, BUT NEVER IMPLEMENTING. To know the truth is wonderful; but to put it into action IS LIBERATING AND EMPOWERING.
And that's what Dr. Welsing had in mind when she wrote those two books. She was looking to give us the tools we needed to take the chains off or brains; to unlock the stranglehold they have had on our minds and to begin to think, be, do, have for ourselves whatever it was we needed.
So let's don't just mourn this powerful, positive BLACK WOMAN - let's learn even more and now make it real, right now. Let's make sure that we know which ISIS we're talking about - not the Isis that is a denigration of a great Egyptian Goddess that has been corrupted by the propaganda machines of the delusional supremacists; but the Isis who is the true Goddess in us - and when they make reference to Isis - make the correction - verbally and spiritually - we have to begin counter attacking all their perjoratives.
Dr. Welsing gave us a tool to begin the re-consruction and resurrection of Black people. Pick it up and work with it.
THIS IS THE LINK TO HER BOOK - ISIS PAPERS - IN PDF FORMAT
http://urbanartiphax.com/ebooks/files/The%20Isis%20Papers%20The%20Keys%20to%20the%20Colors%20-%20Dr.%20Francis%20Cress%20Welsing.pdf
To the family of Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, and all of us who admired her - my condolences. Peace Be Unto Her; and our ongoing gratitude for all that she did and tried to do to liberate Black people.
Stay Blessed
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria
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