Known but Unknown

The Gantt Report

By Lucius Gantt

      No matter where you are in the world, you probably have heard of a Black man or woman that has been described as an “activist”.

You might not know them because they are not likely to hang out, socialize or mess around. You may have been told to stay away from activists because the imperialist press and other so-called major media are reluctant to call these brave men and women activists. Instead, newspapers, TV and radio stations, politicians and others with titles and so forth might refer to activists as rabblerousers, troublemakers, radicals or extremists.

A dictionary definition of “activist” is “a person who campaigns to bring about political, social or economic change.”

People that know activists very well are law enforcers, employers, contractors, elected officials and officers of the courts.

In other words, in most cases, if you are a community activist, you are known but unknown.

In the neighborhood, you know about activists, but you don’t really know your community activists.

If a media devil calls an activist a problem, you might call them a problem. If a politician says someone that stands up and speaks out is someone that can’t be controlled, you might say people that are unafraid to tell the truth are people that can’t be controlled.

Our people must begin to describe our own community members!

Don’t act like you don’t know that during slavery days, house Negroes called field Negroes rebellious, difficult and threatening.

In 2021, things are not that much different. The “modern-day house Negroes” still think one way to get love from Black community oppressors, exploiters, closet klansmen and neo-nazis is to talk bad about the brave and courageous men and women that will never give up the fight for equal rights, justice, equal opportunities and equal treatment.

Now, let’s not get the activist situation twisted. Sooner or later, people that want nothing to do with community activists will run to the activist when they get fired, when they get brutalized, when their votes are denied and suppressed or when they get turned down for home or business loans.

“Who can I call?” is what some people ask that don’t know the person in the community that will stand with them, stand up for them and speak out for them.

The men and women that want nothing to do with marchers, protestors and freedom fighters will run to SCLC and run to the NAACP when the modern day “massa” turns on them.

Stop thinking that government and elected officials will put passage of police reform or voting rights at the top of the legislative page.

Freedom for the enslaved and oppressed has always come from the bottom up rather than from the top down.

Whatever battles your community is facing, the neighbors that are always on the front lines are the community activists.

Get to know your community activists, encourage them and support them. The stones that you have refused will one day be your community cornerstone! Jesus was an activist who was caught and killed by Biblical days policemen and politicians but more people claim to know Jesus now than people who knew Jesus when he walked the earth.

Again, you know of them but you don’t really known.