Comfort and Joy to you on this day that our indoctrinators have designated as the most special day of the year. Now your skeptical about reading this because you know Brother Integral loves to talk crap about religion, aren’t you? No, I’m not here to rain on your parade so you can dismiss this commentary if you do not wish to disturb your comfort and joy. Enjoy your Christmas music, your Christmas trees and opening your Christmas presents. Enjoy your Christmas morning breakfast and later your Christmas Ham and Turkey. Drink, laugh, and enjoy the presence of family you haven’t been in the presence of for a long time. Our indoctrinations tell us that this is the season of Love so we accept it because of coarse it makes us happy.  

Unfortunately, there are many Black people who are not happy at this time of the year for numerous reasons. Outside of poverty, addiction and other mental issues there are people who are not happy because they long to understand the seemingly meaningless reality that they’re struggling to find true joy inside of. Most of them are spinning their wheels in this regard because in order to achieve understanding, which will inspire the personal production of their own states of comfort and joy, they must first understand how they became a part of someone else’s definition of comfort and joy.

Contrary to popular belief, the comfort and joy that most Black people experience at this time of the year are not due to brainwashing. Brainwashing involves changing the thoughts, memories, and traditions of people. Indoctrination involves filling up a person’s mind with specific knowledge. That means that the only Black people who were brainwashed were those who first encountered non-blacks thousands of years ago. Indoctrination then began as a casual thing that occurred through exploring, trading, and living with other races of people. Brainwashing began when foreigners began to colonize and enslave Black people.

When the traditions of people are erased, they will have no tradition to teach their children. This is the clean slate principle better known as “civilizing savages” and all major religions engage in it. Once enough generations of people are indoctrinated (usually three), it becomes self-perpetuating and automatic. Black parents begin to indoctrinate their children into Christmas traditions as soon as they’re born and along with the help of consumerism and popular culture, Black children automatically begin to associate love, happiness, comfort, and joy with Christmas. There is not one black child who doesn’t know all the popular Christmas songs or who Santa Claus is. We take the most pride in singing Christmas songs in our own soulful and unique ways and we imagine Jesus and his Angels smiling down on us as we praise him. Our illusions are now grander than our indoctrinators.

Now that we know how brainwashing and indoctrination works, don’t you think that it’s time we as Black people create our own comfort and joy by creating and celebrating our own traditions? Shouts out to the creator of Kwanzaa and those who practice it. Although it is not considered as an alternative to Christmas, it is a great non-religious holiday tradition that attempts to help Pan-Africanists re-learn and celebrate the traditions that our colonizers tried to erase from our memories.