400 YEARS WITHOUT A COMB 1973- 2023

It is important to me that I clarify one thing, plantation racism wasn’t the focus of the first three books of the 400 Years series. Neither was pride. It is a good thing to educate someone for the sake of personal or general awareness, however, that was not what inspired my father to write 400 Years. After many months and days of examining the original book and the subsequent two that followed, admiration fueled by educated curiosity, I came to the conclusion, that Willie L. Morrow was onto something much deeper. It was more about AFRO features combined with the American disease of self-hatred. The psychological illness that became ugly scabs and semi-open lesions, drove him to ask, “How can thousands of years of balanced selfhood become devoured in just a matter of 4 centuries?

The modern agitated Black American, and those who consider themselves of color, have resorted to activating their rage and powerlessness against an unidentified ghost who refused simple and obvious solutions. The exhaustion of living day to day, Black Americans, while exhibiting physical exhaustion, continue to battle on, swinging their intellectualized concepts and remedies that should be common sense and human decency.

Even with a seat at the table, dialoguing about how to coexist in the world becomes harder and more insane as we entered the twenty-first century. In the next 400, AFROPHILIA dismantles racism bit by bit and pushes its antiquated terms and words into the 21st century. The plantation by its very definition and function was for those who were stolen, thus planted and forced to bare fruit; made to stay in their place.

My father refers to the inferiority complex as a result of European’s inhumane mistreatment of African human beings as the bases of the first 400 Years book. What Black people do not recognize is that prior to the westernized enslaver’s savagery, Europe worshiped African physiognomy. So, where did the idea come from for creating a cover-up ism based on color?

AFROPHILIA delivers bright-eyed illuminations that skin color is merely a clue to what actually was and is going on. Without lowering my humility, as the author, I choose to refrain from language that degrades all Europeans. AFROPHILIA allows us to face the fact that we encountered a faction of Europeans that were highly triggered and hyper-focused on their survival.

AFROPHILIA does not deal with why this occurred in certain populations of Europeans, AFROPHILIA does not digress in that direction. We keep the focus on the locus of the countenance of African humans when encountered by those factions of Europeans that were eventually directed to set up shop in the Americas.

I differ from my father in that I examined the mental illness of the victimizer. My father gave a historical account of the experience of dwelling in the energy of a “White” race. His 20th-century brilliant work was more about the result of that engagement. But neither work is to prognosticate the future of Blackness or Afroness. That will eventually be governed by mother nature. Like akin to the Queen Bee of a hive, she will naturally determine by natural means who deserves to breathe.

AFROPHILIA is Critical thought

When the business of managing the symptoms of social and economic inequity becomes more profitable than having productive healthy populations, it is plain to see that power’s main job is to hype the threat ratio of the needed change. Power then naturally proceeds to lower the pain ratio if things were to change. But of course; it depends on the perspective of those who feel threatened!

For example; Critical Race Theory. The opposition raises the threat ratio in order to lower the pain ratio that race in America has caused. So, in order to show that dealing with Race is good, reconciling and talking about race will then cause more disruption than racism itself has caused.

The first 400 Years artifact of federally sanctioned oppression and enslavement from 1619 to 2019 through the vehicle of “Afro Hair” isn’t written with a European culprit; a villain if you will. Black folks “Hair” plays both the villain and the victim. Both nuance and indifference; a source of nuisance and shame. America forgets that while our first 400 years have been wrought with the utmost suffering, it has always been the sufferer’s responsibility to cope as if there were no oppressor, no one really at fault.

Afro hair, as thorns in America’s side, for many generations, had to be hidden. Afro hair or Afroness is still perceived as it was centuries ago. Strangely, today Afro-curly hair persons have more experts, but the Black hair care industry has no expertise. My reasoning for writing AFROPHILIA, The Next 400, will impress upon the reader, that AFROPHILIA must be instilled in a child so much, that it is tamper-proof. Why do I say this? Just in case, some relative, mother, or father, answers this question like this: Why did you require me to cut my hair, was it because I liked it? They answer, NO! “It made it easier for me to deal with.” This type of response lacks affection and allows distortion of the self to grow.

Crying racism, in the 21st century, is so declasse at this point. Most politicians, (on any level of government), professors, clergy, or law enforcement aren’t afraid to address it. Many Americans become warm and fuzzy with the word racism until you add the “T” to the word.

Within the original 400 years series, Black Americans deal with a plethora of what I call mental illness. That is what my father was writing about. Frankly, Black Americans talking about slavery without truly talking about the mental illness of the enslaver is pointless.

50 years later, every facet of social ills such as racism, and sexism has been a part of the American experience for all Black Americans. The conversation of Black Americans on the subjects of isms still remains obsolete, frustrating, and quite the blame game.

While my father’sn400 Years Without A Comb, tells a story of inhumane conditions, however, more importantly, as the heir of this great work, in my continued legacy, I speak about the enslaver and the mental illness of slavery’s antagonist.

The next generation for 400 Years Without A Comb, as the storyteller, my mission will be to call things by their right name, and somehow move us in another direction. To reach the mountain top as MLK Jr. stated is presently not important to me, but shifting us out of the valley of the shadow of death; this, must become our eventual destination and reorientation.

400 Years Without A Comb’s next generation, is AFROPHILIA debuting in April 2023 in magazine form. It will also debut as an exhibit as well. AFROPHILIA will be my greatest work because it demands us to talk about the highest form of love, which is “Selfhood” of self and others. I approach racist dynamics as illusions. It actually doesn’t exist, in my opinion. AFROPHOBIA is actually the root of the problem. Psycho-agitation and Emotional-aggressions are at the root of this global inhumane edifice.

How will Black folks talk about their hair, today, tomorrow, and beyond? AFROPHILA asks us to bite into our African cores, to critically think, and to feel our way back into the first world of our planet.

The importance of our Philia reconciliation is to reunite us by means of a sibling-like Affection for our counter-parts blackness and then with a mother’s affection for our own Afro existence.

AFROPHILIA, as the highest form of love, asks what is required of the heart in an unprojected nothingness. A Philia needs no initiation. It needs not be sustained by the outside world. It needs not be called anything, it knows not why it loves, and it certainly does not ask.

To change the energy of the social illness we call Racism, to a phobia, is the new Afrofuturistic way to dialog about being Black, Afroid in a pronoid Afrofuturism. The real conversation can now begin. I never understood why African descending people never questioned words that turned into isms in the first place. Isms has no emperor, and certainly, if there’s no emperor, the emperor himself can’t see he has no clothes.

African languages have no references for such low vibrational babble, the question then becomes, what good is it to talk about domestic abuse without discussing the abuser? Gun violence without the shooter? AFROPHILIA brings the bath so to speak, of the Aquarian Age, corners the enslaver, and identifies their phobia.

So as I fly around the world as my father did, creating this new dialog about the Next 400 years maybe, just maybe we won’t need a black history month, but everyone, every human being can celebrate their own AFROPHILIA.

To be AFROPHOBIC is to be antipathique. The key here is to remember the conversation is no longer about the content nor the context of anyone’s character nor the result of power oppression. AFROPHILIA deals with the generator of Affection, thus in contrast deals with the phobicity and the oppressive natures within the creator; that creates affection or cannot.

What’s been missing is not having to be barraged with constant cathexis on racism. To keep asking see-saw, questions like, Why do white people do what they do? Or why do Brads and Beckys turn into Karens? It is simply void of Affection; nakedness in the Garden of Eden; Phobia vs. Philia.

Every human being on this planet started within the Afrocentric cradle of humanity, some still strongly have it in their chromosomes and gene expression. And then again, some don’t. But the don’ts must grip the peril of their disdain for those who do. Their transgressions must be dealt with and examined as unnatural human emotions. This is how we treat AFROPHOBIA, this is how we treat those who commit crimes against others on the bases of appearance. Phobias kill, that’s a fact.

The first 400 years, developed unimaginable success and prosperity for Black American entrepreneurs, so much that it seemed black women and men could not miss. It is inevitable to be rich if one endeavors in the Afrocentric beauty industry. We also had some of the most profitable formulation innovations and Afro trends within the 1619-2019 period. The Y2K Natural Movement; one of the worst turning points for black hair legacies, nouveau brand owners totally ignored legacy altogether. It’s the oddest thing, to see African-descending people move outside commerce legacy without their inheritance…

“Like, who does that?”

We then went on a complaint campaign saying we have little to no opportunity to participate in white beauty marketplaces; this is a symptom of mental illness. The C.R.O.W.N Act is another oddity, in my opinion. The deconstruction of workplace discrimination already had game-changing and historical references. Inclusion had already happened. Inclusion was already a fact. Why would there be such a legislative push when the pentagon, had already done it? This is what happens when the next generation of Black entrepreneurs move without investigative education such as CRT. The argument is never to approach the result of such a circumstance, then leave the onus on its victims. Clearly, there are individuals who understand the deontology of a thing, meaning there’s causation or intent. Which means there’s a creator’s role in creating the condition. It is the status quo to hold those accountable, and they’re the ones who are morally obligated to change it. This is usually gaveled down to a fee, a statute, or a penial code connected to a fine or punishment.

In 2023 we are no longer without a comb, and yet today, we are without our own comb manufacturing industry. As an heir of the California Curl company, I still am proud to still manufacture my father’s Afro comb molds, which are the only manufactured Afro combs with a black man’s name embossed as the trademark.

Dr. Willie Morrow, the great man, and father filled my cups for many years and still continues to. Legacy is the key to wealth, power, and prosperity. Just think some I went to the press with my dad to publish 400YWAC some 50 years ago. Wow, how time has flown.

One thing is clear, AFROPHILIA will address all of these subjects with data, insight, science, and care. The goal is for humanity, the Afro-diaspora to bloom, evolve and honor the nativity of our great beginning.

AFROPHILIA will be an exhibition and digital presentation.

AFROPHILIA will be a quarterly magazine print, with weekly digital news content. Available on sdmonitornews.com on March 2023

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