True to their word, the NAACP will protest the first of many celebrations planned to commemorate the Civil War in Charleston, South Carolina. On December 20th, black America's oldest and largest civil rights organization will once again gather to sing hymns and hold a question-and-answer session focusing on slavery.

While white attendees gather in Charleston's Gaillard Municipal Auditorium to relive the glory days of Dixie, African-American protesters will watch segments of "Birth of a Nation," a 1915 silent film that portrayed Ku Klux Klan members as heroes.

The evening's highlight will be a play reenacting the signing of South Carolina's Ordinance of Secession 150 years ago, which severed the state's ties with the Union and paved the way for the Civil War.

The South Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans, a co-sponsor of the ball, say slavery was one of several issues that caused – but it was not the cause – of the Civil War.

Mark Simpson, the SC division commander for the SCV rejects the claims of black leaders who say the festivities are nothing but a celebration of slavery, and passionately defends his organization's right to idolize their ancestors who died with honor protecting their civil right to be free of government rule.

"We could look back and say (the Civil War) wasn't something to celebrate – about 620,000 died in the North and South," Simpson said. "If you count civilians, you're up to about a million killed in that war.

"Do we celebrate that? Heavens no," he said. "War and death is never something to celebrate. But we do celebrate the courage and the integrity of 170 men who signed their signatures to the Article of Secession – the courage of men to do what they think is right."

NAACP state president Lonnie Randolph dismisses Simpson's claim with bristling indignation.

"The states wanted the right to sell human cargo," he said, adding the public would not tolerate similar disrespect of other minority groups – a Holocaust celebration or an event celebrating the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

"The reason this can take place so easily is we're still suffering the effects of the Confederacy in this state," Randolph said.



Yes we are, Mr. Randolph, but singing "We Shall Overcome" and flaming emotions by watching old Klan footage will accomplish nothing but a mention on the news.

Because while white Confederates may long for the Old South , we, the descendants of black Africans, have continued to be enslaved by shackles of our own making.

I could write an article about how racist, loathsome, and vile these celebrations are, and I have.

However, I find it pathetic that we can protest white Americans treating us as inferiors so passionately, while our own neighborhoods fall in disrepair. Our daughters are dying from AIDS at a higher rate than any other demographic, our sons are killing each other daily, and our schools are consistently sub-par, yet... where's the march?

I would rather see the NAACP march through South Central Los Angeles protesting gang violence than witness another empty production filled with misguided anger.

True the Confederate Army lost, but you know what? So did we. People of African descent comprise the majority of the global population, yet vast numbers of us still have the mindset of a minority. While we can march, riot, and boycott our way to superficial equality, only once we realize that we have never been "less than", will we as a people equal more than the sum of our parts.

Simone de Beauvoir said, "It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for acting."

Our communities are stricken with Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, yet we're still allowing some washed up closet Klansmen to shift our attention away from moving forward, instead continuing to drift in the past. We're too scarred and too scared to face the real demons of apathy, apprehension, and aimlessness wreaking havoc in our communities, and we're the only ones who are suffering. It's past time we realized that if we don't break the cycle, no one will.

If we're going to march, let's march our children to the library.

If we're going to sing, let's take out the "b**ches" and "n**gas" in our music first.

If we're going to protest, let's protest our perpetuation of stereotypes that undermine the quest of equality we claim to seek.

By publicly making an even larger spectacle of these ignorant "festivities" we're falling into the old habit of making the slave owners our priority, when they should be nothing more than an afterthought.

So, I say, let them have their ball. Let them dress up and reminisce about secession and moonshine and cotton.

We have too much work to do in our own communities to even be concerned.