A student's stuggle for equality

He's a proud young man. With his experience and education he is challenging old ways and leading the fight to change them. For himself and his race, Mwanza Major represents a new generation of young black people who are determined to have the same rights afforded to whites.

Looking into his eyes one can see all he is about: strength, intelligence, hardship and defiance. When he speaks, his words hold wisdom and power, rage and frustration, truth and conviction.

Darrel Brown, Major's friend for 13 years, said it simply.

"What he says is for real," Brown said.

Born in San Francisco, Major, 24, a Muslim from birth, started college when he was 17 years old. He followed in his uncle's footsteps and went to Morehouse College.

Defying his high school counselor's implications that he wouldn't make it in college, Major stuck it out. Facing financial difficulties, Major left Morehouse and went to SF State. He said he hated State because of its lack of a peer-support system, and left after one semester.

After another attempt at Morehouse, Major said he dropped out because his financial package fell through. He then decided to take some time off. For the next eight months Major said he worked, "hung out," and read a lot of books. He learned about his history; the Black Panther Party, Egypt, Ghana, Castro and Cuba.

"The book that opened me up was the autobiography of Malcolm X," Major said. "Then I started to question the treatment of black people in America."

In December of 1992, Major re-enrolled back at SF State.

Major said he sees opportunities for his people, now all they have to do is seize them. The first step he said, is unity.

"We got played a bad hand and the sooner we realize it the better we'll be," said Major, a student in the black studies department. "Waiting for someone to give you rights is an oxymoron. We must have unity amongst the black community. Unity is the foundation, we have to have a strong foundation, then we can build up. Then we can sit down and discuss where we go from there."

The Million Man March on Washington D.C. was the first time since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s televised marches the black community showed they could unify in unheard-of numbers.

It was called a day of atonement by black leaders. The media downplayed the event and lambasted its main organizer, Major said. He was there, and it was everything the black community could hope for and much more, he said.

"Thank God, it was about time," he said. "It was unbelievable. The situation that black men are in made them obligated to go. It wasn't about (Louis) Farrakhan, it was about us. There were handshakes and hugs among people you didn't know and would never see again. It was black love, straight up."

However, as big a step as the Million Man March was, it is one among many the black people will have to take, together, Major said. His struggle is just a continuation of the struggle of his father and mother, of their parents, and their parents' parents. Major was born into struggle and knows nothing different, except the need for change, he said.

"This struggle, it's eternal, it's always been and always will be," Major said. "Wrong can only last so long before it becomes right. I have no doubt in my mind that I'll make it, but I want all my people to make it.

It's a lot that needs to be done in our community, in our minds."

According to Oba T'Shaka, chair of the department of black studies, Major comes from a distinguished family.

"He (Major) comes from a family of political activists and scholars," T'Shaka said.

Major's father was a member of the Black Panther Party. His grandfather, Reginald Major, wrote two books and was a teacher at SF State, Major said. His grandfather was also leader of the San Francisco civil rights movement in the 1960s.

"(Mwanza) is a person with scholarly skills, involved in the liberation of the African people," T'Shaka said.

Major echoes these sentiments, but with defiance.

"I'm African, not African American, I don't have the same rights as whites. I'm about freeing black people, and if you don't like it , so what," Major stated. "Even with civil rights we're still on the bottom rung. If black people are liberated, everybody is, because we're at the bottom. We have to have one goal, the freedom of our people, in America and world wide."

Major said a majority of the blame for his communities' problems rests with the white people. All one has to do is turn on the 6 p.m. news and white America is telling its viewers blacks are killing each other, or selling drugs, or are bad parents, he said.

What they aren't shown is what is being done in the black communities to solve these problems. Major sees his communities' problems as a result of white racism. People are hard-pressed to separate the issue of equality into black and white, but for Major it's as clear as a blue sky.

"Black people are not the problem, it's the white ideology," he said. "It's ingrained at a young age, it's almost a natural thing, the white ideology. Not all of us are in gangs or sell drugs, that's a myth, but we're treated like we do. It's an image the media portrays to the public."

There have been many attempts made by the American people to combat the injustices the black community faces, one of these is Black History Month. This month was dedicated to heighten the awareness of the black community.

To Major, Black History Month was made by white people, for white people.

"What the hell is Black History Month anyway," Major protested. "I never heard a vote in our community. Black History Month is a fiasco, there was no self-determination. Why is it the shortest month? If February is Black History Month does that mean the other 11 are white history? White people commercialized Black History Month."

Major also points out the media portray black history as only concerning the civil rights movement and slavery, but there's so much more.

"Show me African history," Major said. "Kings and queens, inventions and languages."

Major will be the first to admit there is good and bad in everyone. What he wants to see is more good come out of the black community. What he doesn't want are "crumbs," the analogy he uses to sum up white people's attempts, through "little" programs, to help the black community.

"No longer are we going to wait for the crumbs from your table," he said. "We want to make our own table, so we can have our own meal."

According to T'Shaka, Major is a creative writer as well as a creative thinker. He also said Major was a leader in his community. Major said he is involved in the youth committee, Bay National African American Leadership Summit.

NAALS was a result of the need to have a follow up to the Million Man March, Major said.

"Every black person has to see themselves as leaders, because if we have only one leader, what happens to the movement when that person is eliminated?"

[ Golden Gater Online February 29, 1996 ]

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