"There is no Shangri-La!"
Nathaniel Spain Chism was my dad’s name. He was a full-fledged member of the Chicago Carpenter’s Union, an ace carpenter who retired successfully with a full pension from that union. Like any parent, particularly, I believe, parents of pre-1960s America, he had a ton of little sayings that he’d tell my brother and I, as responsible parents will do, ad infinitum. They were life lessons that, for certain, I definitely benefited from. One such saying was, “You judge a man as he comes to you.” Obviously, he meant that one not pre-judge anyone.
And in my book, Uncle Tom’s Uncle, Second Edition, I explain, in detail, how my conscious application of his saying about non-judgement directly helped me throughout my 53-year work career. For instance, I never assumed that every single White person was racist. So, when I sought employment, or when I opened up my own business, I was never crippled by fears of racism, of so-called “White supremacy,” of so-called “structural White Supremacy,” or any of that. In short, I was not paranoid.
As I mentioned in Uncle Tom’s Uncle, I obtained a contract from a law firm and had never been in business for the services I offered. Yet, the first time I sent out business letters, I was contacted by Lawrence W. Korrub & Associates Law Firm, in Chicago, and obtained their business for my independent company, TextMaster Word Processing, that I had created and ran out of my home. As regards a wage-earning job, I was never fired by “the White man.” The only person who ever fired me was a Black man from The Congo [See my article, Black Lives Matter (But not in The Congo).
Azelma Dolores Chism was my mom’s name. She too had a slew of little sayings that she repeated, ad infinitum. One such saying was, “There is no Shangri-La!” When I became a “stomp-down,” hardcore Black nationalist back in 1968, rattling off the popular sayings of that time,
”Power to the people!”
”When the Revolution come!”
”Africa must unite!”
”Black Power!”
and attempting to “teach” my mother that she should be a “revolutionary” and that she should “stop wearing the White man’s wigs,” and that, “This is a NEW DAY!” and that in this “New Day,” Black people were all [every single one of us—of course] going to become united again [again??!!], she would simply look at me and say, “There is no Shangri-La.” I would stand there, frustrated, wondering why my mom was “so brainwashed.” As the years went by, I witnessed Shangri-La dreamers suffer tremendously when they finally woke up and realized that…well…There is no Shangri-La. As the old saying goes, “Live long enough and life will make a lie out of you.” But not out of your mom.
This article is a warning. It’s a warning that, by this time in history, I would have thought I would not have to make to Black folks. But certain recent events pulled my coat that it was important to issue this warning.
In our history in America, we have been beset by Black con-artists, self-serving Black preachers, self-serving Black politicians, from the 1920s all the way up to today. Sweet Daddy Grace, Father Divine, Prophet Jones, Reverend Ike, Umar Build-That-School Johnson (the school still ain’t been built, despite all the money he’s collected from Black folks over the past thirteen years or so), scandals surrounding Patrisse Khan Cullors [BLM], Shalomyah Bowers [BLM], Xahra Saleem, [BLM], and other BLM people.
I invite you to read a book written by my now-deceased sister-in-law, whom I consider a big heroine, Mahaleyah Goodman, who, for 30 years, was caught up in a cult that was founded by a Black American, Ben Carter, who changed his name to Ben Ammi Ben Israel, now deceased, popularly known as Rabbi Ben Ammi. The cult is known as the African Hebrew Israelites, or The Original African Hebrew-Israelite Nation of Jerusalem. Amongst themselves, they also called their group, “The Kingdom of God.”
Mahaleyah’s book is entitled, Israel’s Secret Cult: The incredible story of a former member of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. I refer the reader—especially young Black readers—to that book because it reveals what can happen when people are looking for their Shangri-La. As she says in the following video:
“In my opinion, is it a cult? Absolutely. It is a Satanic cult…Now, we already know that there’s rampant pedophilia going on there. We already know that there’s all kinds of molestation that’s going on there. The boys and the girls are being molested. We already know that there is rampant promiscuity going on in The Village…In my opinion, this particular cult demoralizes, in a Satanic way, the women and the children to an extent to where now it’s really like the last nail in the coffin….The [so-called] Kingdom of God, as far as I’m concerned, has been updated, and, just like any kind of software, you can now call it The Kingdom of Hell.”
Here’s a 2-part video production in which my brother and his wife, my sister-in-law, Mahaleyah, after having cut themselves from the cult, proved, using Marcia Rudin's 14 Common Characteristics of a Cult, that the African Hebrew Israelites of Dimona are a cult, and, as Mahaleya’s book and videos reveal, a dangerous cult):
Black folks: Beware of cults. Beware of groups that will play on your racial emotions to con you into giving them [BLM] money to build your paradise for you. Just follow the guidance of Mamma Cheese, as we called our mom: “There is no Shangri-La.”