BLACK PEOPLE MUST REGAIN OUR OWN VALUE SYSTEM
An Introductory Reflection for Tonight’s Discussion with Metamorphosis
Every culture that has survived the storms of time did so because it held tightly to its own value system — the moral compass, spiritual code, and communal ethic that guided its people through adversity. For too long, however, Black people have been navigating the world using someone else’s map. We’ve measured our worth by foreign standards, judged our beauty by borrowed ideals, and pursued success through a system that was never designed for our collective empowerment. Tonight, we’re peeling back the layers of this conditioning, and we’re asking one crucial question: What would it mean for us to reclaim our own value system?
This conversation isn’t just philosophical — it’s existential. When a people lose their value system, they lose their center. They become reactive rather than proactive, consumers rather than creators, divided rather than unified. Our value system once placed community over competition, spirituality over materialism, and truth over illusion. It celebrated the rhythm of life — cooperation, family, integrity, and respect for elders and ancestors. But through centuries of colonization, enslavement, and cultural manipulation, those values were systematically attacked, replaced, and repackaged.
The late psychiatrist and revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon, in his groundbreaking work Black Skin, White Masks, dissected the psychological scars that colonization left on the Black psyche. He revealed how the oppressed often internalize the values of their oppressor — how we begin to see ourselves through alien eyes and judge ourselves by alien standards. Fanon understood that liberation is not just about removing physical chains but also mental ones. Until we define beauty, intelligence, morality, and power through our own lenses, we will remain caught in a cycle of dependency and self-doubt.
To reclaim our value system means more than reviving old traditions; it means reconstructing a new cultural foundation that honors our ancestral wisdom while adapting to modern realities. It means rejecting the lie that European validation is the standard of success. It means creating media, education, and family structures that reflect our principles — not those designed to keep us docile or divided. It means rebuilding trust within our communities, recognizing the sacredness of our relationships, and protecting our children from toxic programming that distorts their self-image.
Metamorphosis will lead tonight’s discussion with the insight and passion that always provokes thought and reflection. Together, we’ll explore Fanon’s teachings and how they apply to the modern struggle of identity, mental freedom, and self-definition. This is not just about theory; it’s about reclaiming control of the moral, cultural, and spiritual codes that shape our daily lives.
Black people across the globe are at a crossroads. Either we continue to live under the weight of borrowed values that devalue us — or we begin the sacred work of rebuilding from within. The choice is ours. The time is now.
