Dallas Texas One of the more interesting places that Rasta Ôs have emerged is Dallas Texas. Texas is one of the most religious areas in the western world. Texas is a place where Christianity dominates the social life a great number of people. Texas is also a place that has a great amount of discrimination of African people and this is probably one of the reasons that Rastafari has emerged in this area. Rastafari first came to Dallas 20 years ago. Most of the first exposure to Rastafari came from Reggae music that became popular in that era. It is not know how many RastaÕs are living in the area, but at a recent Rasta event to celebrate the birthday of Haile Selassie I over 500 RastaÕs showed up. Most of the Rasta community in Dallas is African Americans who looked for answers through the Black Panther movement, or Nation of Islam, and other African churches, and were left felling empty. A Rasta by the name of Moore is a good example of this. Moore spent much of his life looking for answers. He turned to the Nation of Islam and felt more oppressed than before. Moore is now a Rasta and his outlook on life has improved very much for him. ÒIt been a rough life, but as Rasta, weÕve got to keep onÓ(Jones pg. 4). This quote of Moore shows how Rastafari helps him get through his hard day-to-day life. RastaÕs in Dallas face many of the same problems that other RastaÕs face. Like most other RastaÕs living throughout the world, they face the problem of smoking their religious herb, Ganja. Despite this the RastaÕs in Dallas hold Nyabinghi rituals on every full moon in the Dallas area. The RastaÕs in Dallas try to help their issue of Ganja use by helping the community fight other drug problems in the city. RastaÕs come to the anti drug rallies that the Muslims of the area held and by doing this the RastaÕs hoped to show that they where not pro drug. By showing that they wanted to help the drug problems the RastaÕs hoped it would help them to legitimizes their ritual use of Ganja. RastaÕs also face discrimination of their religious style in Dallas. The son of Rasta Moore, Jameel Moore was suspended from his school for wearing his crown in his sixth grade elementary school. The school officials suspended Jameel because they said he was violating the school rules that prohibit the wearing of hats. The Moores disputed the ruling arguing that the crown was not a hat but a ÒCultural HeaddressÓ, just like the yarmulkes is to a Jew, and a turban is to a Hindu. The issue was dropped when the school scared young Jameel so much that he had to swallow his pride and agree not to show his faith and not where the crown. Another case of RastaÕs harassment by authorities is the case of Carols and Dana Jackson. The Jackson are a Rasta couple that tried to improve their run down West Dallas neighborhood. The couple bought up run down homes in their neighborhood and renovated them. During the renovation of the homes they painted pictures of Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie on the walls of the homes. They grew vegetables and purchased animal to be raised on the area for means of self-sufficient survival. When the couple began to hold Nyabinghi sessions they where sighted for code violations and eventually arrested for possession of marijuana. The women in this Rasta community of Dallas Texas seem to be treated much better than Rasta Women throughout of the rest of the Rasta world. Although they are not seen as equals, they are part of the Ganja smoking rituals and are not forced to stay at home like many other Rasta women are throughout the world. This is probably a reflection of the low intensity of the Rasta community of Dallas. It is also mostly a result of the surrounding that the Rasta woman are in. The way in which woman are treated in Dallas Texas is much better than how women are treated in Jamaica or Ethiopia as a whole. In general, Rastafari culture in Dallas Texas is much less intense than it is in most other parts of the world. These Dallas Rastas do not seem to have the desire of rebellion that most other Rasta feel. Many of the RastaÕs are part of the legitimate economy, pay taxes and have legitimate jobs. This is partly because it is very hard for the Rasta to survive in the informal economy in Dallas. The Dallas Rasta seems to be one of the most relaxed, least rebellious, and least motivated to help bring Babylon down. The reason for this is most likely the level of oppression in the area is much less intense than it is other places. Another reason for the lower level of intensity is the large separation that Texas has from the African world. Texas does have a large population of people of African decent, but these people do not feel the same oppression that black people feel in other places such as Jamaica. A third reason for the low intensity is that there is not a large following of RastaÕs in the area, which would effect how intense their lifestyle can be. Rastafari in Dallas is more of religious movement than it is a social or cultural movement. In both Jamaica and in Ethiopia it is a major cultural movement. The Dallas Rasta is much less intense than the RastaÕs of Ethiopia. This does not mean that the RastaÕs of Dallas are not RastaÕs. What it does show is how RastaÕs can differ throughout the world. This is not different from people of other faiths. Every religion has people that believe in the religion at different levels. A good example of this is in the Jewish faith. There are Jews such as the Orthodox Jews that believe in the religion to a very strong degree and then there are people of Jewish faith, such as the Reform Jews that follow the religion to lowest degree. Therefore the Twelve Tribe RastaÕs of Ethiopia could be compared to the Orthodox Jews, and the RastaÕs of Dallas could be compared to the Reform JewÕs. Despite the differences that these two RastaÕs cultures have they still share the basic principles of Rastafari. The first and most important of these principles is their love and worship of Haile Selassi I. Second, they want to fight the oppression of the black man. Third, their hatred of authority and preaching down of Babylon (although this is felt to a lesser degree by the Dallas Rastas). Fourth, their ritual use of Ganja to reach clear thought and to connect to God. A fifth connection is their appearance wearing their hair in dread locks and having unshaven faces. The last and most important connection is their love for the world, and their desire for the unity of man. The purpose of this paper in discussing RastaÕs in very separate environments was to show Rastafari in way that shows how broad the faith is. By showing RastaÕs in the their most extreme form, the Twelve Tribes that live in Ethiopia, I was able to show how serious RastaÕs can be. On the other hand by showing RastaÕs in the much less intense culture of Dallas I was able to show that the religion is not always so radical. The paper also showed that RastaÕs exist all over the world, from Africa to Dallas. The point is Rastafari is everywhere, just like oppression is everywhere. There is always positive thought (Rasta) where there is negative thought (oppression)
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 00:41:36 +0000
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