I was born and raised in a small segregated Texas town that had white only signs on the primary institution of justice, the County Court House. During my youth, in this apartheid state and city, every segment of society was segregated. Contrary to popular belief, as far as African-American/Black people are concerned, America has never achieved REAL integration.

The concept of integration is a perception and deception of reality that Americans have lived with since the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. I don’t believe that the dominant population ever intended to establish an integrated society. The following are standard dictionary definitions of integration:

1)     The bringing of people of different racial or ethnic groups into the unrestricted and equal association, as in society or an organization; desegregation.

2)   An act or instance of incorporating or combining into a whole.

3)   An act or instance of integrating a racial or other ethnic groups.

4)   An act or instance of integrating a school, organization, etc.

5)   Integration is defined as mixing things or people together that were formerly separated.

6)   The removal of racial barriers in society, providing equal access to all public facilities.

All of the definitions listed above, as it relates to so-call integration in America, are superficial at best and extremely dishonest at their worst. Real integration is when things are put together to form something new.

What African-American/Blacks experienced in America is a procedural assimilation that produced inequities that are imbalanced, condescending, and humiliating form of. Assimilation is:

1)   The act or process of assimilating, or of absorbing information, experiences, etc.:

2)   The process by which a person or a group’s language and culture come to resemble those of another group.

3)   The state or condition of being assimilated, or of being absorbed into something.

4)   The process of adapting or adjusting to the culture of a group or nation, or the state of being so adapted

5)   The assimilation model demands that other groups conform to the dominant culture:

Lets’ be clear, true integration, as it relates to cultures means integrating two or more cultures together to form a new, multicultural society. Based on this definition, African-American/Blacks have achieved neither integration nor full assimilation.

Many races and groups of people historically have experienced different forms Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination and in some extreme cases, Genocidal treatment. In most cases, their physical, mental, emotional and economical pains/sufferings came to an end. In fact, the United States was founded, and its institutions established when Blacks were slaves, uneducated, and differed culturally from the dominant whites population. However; African-American/Blacks are still dealing with the genocide of 1492 in the year 2021.

In closing, integration is America’s greatest misnomer; nevertheless, African-American/Black people are by no means a defeated people because of it. We are proud of who we are and our origin. There is irrefutable evidence that supports the damaging impact of racism and DENIAL of ACCESS upon the psychological, social, economic, and physical well-being of African-American/Black adults, children, and communities. In spite of all of these evils and unwarranted atrocities we have and continue to go through, we are STILL STANDING.

In spite of a system that perpetuates global character assignation of our people, individual African-American/Blacks have excelled, both in the U.S.A. and worldwide against all probabilities. America is a great nation; however, it could and will be better when it choose to use the talents of ALL ITS’ PEOPLE.