From Babylon to Timbuktu, I'm wishing...

"I wish I could change how the world see's and portrays African Americans. sometimes its different and we all aren't portrayed a certain way...but sometimes its just a shame and frankly embarrassing... and people don't separate that... they see all black people in just that one way, when in reality that's just a few. and for some of us its glamorized to be that way. It's a shame and I wish it wasn't...but it doesn't seem to be something we can really change.. I wish that we knew where we came from... Our history and who we really are has been hidden from us for so long... Ask any person where they came from... they would say Africa. Africa is a continent. They couldn't tell you where in Africa it is that they were from... It's just sad.. and though I say this... I still don't know myself... I need to know.. and I'm going to find out... I just wish there were more of us that wanted to know and find out... that didn't want to be a stereotype..." I wrote that as a post to a topic on TFS in the 'rants and raves' section and thought I'd like to continue the thought. If it wasn't for Person I'd have never thought about it and i wouldn't have ever been writing this post in the first place. I mean I've always thought about how we were seen and how I wish that I could change it but I'd never thought about where I really came from x3 and If you'd asked me even just a few months ago I would most definitely have said Africa. ...Ya know I'm glad that I know Person...sure do learn a lot from him! Learn a little bit more about myself too... Person explained to me many things about where we come from, that I, myself chose to believe. But when I tried to show my brother a new thought, he claimed that I believed everything Person told me and that what he said was not true. Here is where I disagree. I choose to believe what I want because .. its what I want to believe in. I don't want to be made to believe that I have no purpose. And I don't want to have my history taken away from me. And there is accountable information about this too, which I am going to be looking more into on my own. Oh and for the record there may be a book written and filled to a million pages of the things person says that I don't agree with or believe in. But when I mention out loud the few things that I do believe, I get labeled to not have an original thought or bone in my body. I just wish that my brother and others would hear this side and look into it for themselves too. It's a book called "From Babylon to Timbuktu" and it's not at all long either - check out its information on Amazon.com ... Its just that... its really obvious that we've been made to believe that we have no purpose. Everything about us has become hidden and almost nobody wants to uncover it. We were made to be so ignorant... it was taught to us that reading was bad and we shouldn't do it and now there's a stigma around it and not too many people are into reading.... OK I'm done with this rant and ramble... i started it like an hour or two ago and keep getting distracted so I've lost my train of thought and don't care too much to get back on it.