PRE-1940:
“I believe in a pure black race just as how all self-respecting whites believe in a pure white race, as far as that can be.I am conscious of the fact that slavery brought upon us the curse of many colors within the Negro race, but that is no reason why we of ourselves should perpetuate the evil; hence instead of encouraging a wholesale bastardy in the race, we feel that we should now set out to create a race type and standard of our own which could not, in the future,be stigmatized by bastardy, but could be recognized and respected as the true race type anteceding even our own time.”-- MARCUS GARVEY
AND DECADES LATER:
“I must say that black and white, as forms of speech, and as a means of judging mankind, should be eliminated from human society. Human beings are precisely the same whatever colour, race, creed or national origin they may be." – H.I.M HAILE SELASSIE I (1963)
These are two views which are not amenable to harmonious syncretization. They stand apart and independent which poses a reconciliation conundrum for the Rasta seeking counsel both in the Teachings of His Majesty and the utterances of Garvey. Trying to force these two views together with a lot of duct tape and bailing wire does not produce a perspective consistent with scientific realities about race nor the respect due all people (e.g., as all Homo sapiens sapiens are genetically “mixed” and hence “bastardy” in Garvey’s view). Logic dictates an order of precedence. Perhaps, we can glean useful direction in this from the chronology of their pronouncement or simply from the spirit which each reflects – barring that, I have to defer to the view of the Most High.
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