Black Male Equity/Image: There "Ain’t No" Rising Until we all Rise Together…
YUP… the great Maya Angelou, poetically and prophetically said, “YET, I still RISE!”
"You see", the Black man's fate was SUPPOSED to have been secured as non-human when he was brought on this land AGAINST HIS WILL, CHAINED like an ANIMAL and like a slave...he was not supposed to amount to anything other than PROPERTY, CHATTEL, a profit generating human-like organism (at which time the model of a human-being was that of a Caucasian man)... in short, one that could be exchanged in the streams of commerce to create profits... YUP, nothing other than a FRACTION of the White man who owned him here, and arguably financially this is still the case today. HOWEVER, FREEDOM-wise, the poised genes of Black souls had RISEN, AND when Dr. KING, a mentally-emancipated Black man learned about the story of the First Black Republic (my homeland of Haiti) which was led by Black males who triumphed over the mightiest European/White army of that time to get their independence, he combined such a fighting spirit with Ghandi-like concepts of non-violence to proclaim "LET FREEDOM REIGN...and finally the former Black slave became a free man/woman, well at least PHYSICALLY. BUT, undoubtedly, HIS genes fought to morally-educate their former ruthless and inhumane masters, and even miraculously managed to crawl up to the highest post of the land that once enslaved him by becoming its Commander-in-Chief or President.. There is a GOD, and this my friend is AMAZING STUFF! But truly, many didn't like that, and as much as I support TRUMP neither did he. It was a moral victory for Blacks and Whites alike. America ought to be proud of that. Even many Black conservatives voted for the first Black POTUS. I would have voted for him too had I been a US Citizen at that time. Amazing stuff. I'm glad to have witnessed it all.
Anyhow, Mother Angelou's soul spoke to mine tonight, and asked me to be strong in my mission to educate bamboozled minds, and fight fearlessly for what I see as INEQUITY, but do it MY WAY because the other ways that have been used have not been necessarily as effective as they should have been. I felt her mission, and pain, and hope. Her spirit has been and continues to be to appeal to the souls of mankind and utter the truth in an undeniable manner. She lives on through many of us and I felt her presence tonight through my role model Doug Jackson and other Black male "besties" like, Patrick Pierre, and some others like Aldyn Brutus, Alfred Hyppolite, Osiris Sesenaya, Filton Joseph, Ellis Horsford, Ceus Joseph, M. Rasheed, Anthony Lewis, Darryl Forbes, Paul Lyncee, Charles Pamphile, and even a Black female fighter, Zen Walton, and even felt love even through many of my White friends who have loved me so perfectly (e.g., ASR, Reed Sawyer, Dino Scaros, Nick McGowan, Julie D., Christina, P., Tammi v.H. etc.) to name some. I have no elder relatives left per say, deceased mother and incapacitated Father, and deceased Aunt (another Mother figure)... so, such people are MY FAMILY., my support system, and the souls of folks like Maya permeate through most if not all of them.
MOTHER ANGELOU, I love you, and I AM UP TO THE CHALLENGE!
But, in person, my question to the lovely and wise Ms. Angelou that we all miss so much would have been, “ARE WE ALL RISING (UP) TOGETHER?”
First of all… I need to have a radio show and I will SOON, PERIOD! Secondly, I will need powerful sponsors and Almighty God has already secured them… my understanding has gotten to a level at which it has to be shared with humanity at large. I have been called and told so by so many that I can no longer be stubborn. Most importantly, I’m READY!
I stand on the shoulders of Black male giants… Doug Jackson, I love you. Richard “Dick” Parsons, What a guy! thank you! Dr. Bill Cosby, thank you! Dr. Cornell West, what can I say? Dr. Martin Luther King Jr; Malcom X; Marcus Garvey, Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines... and many more... I'm so lucky to live in more peaceful times... they did their work in rather more turbulent times, yet modernly, the work is invisible, and rather deceptive... YEP, I love those men... I think about them EVERY DAY... I FEEL THEIR SOULS... I LOVE THEM ALL!
It is not easy to educate others. most people are naturally resistant to ANY CHANGE. There will always be mediocre minds that will attempt to sabotage one’s message. There will always be SILENT SO CALLED FRIENDS. Dr. King once said, "in the end, we will remember the silence of our friends more than the actions of our enemies". But, realizing the existence of such minds in advance is the only way to surpass their distractions, fight on, and leave the World a far better pace because of it. It is a STRONG MAN’S mission folks. It is not for the boys, certainly not for broken boys. Don't try to do this job unless you're INSPIRED FROM ABOVE, driven and TRULY passion about THE CAUSE.
Every day, I help one or two young Black males RISE UP are we still mentally-enslaved? I educate their spirits, wake their giant souls up, and when they least expect appeal to their greatness, and I must say that I have felt optimistic lately... Only we can self-emancipate from mental slavery; and in the context of the above-mentioned article the message has been well received, and the future appears to be promising for Black men. We are not monolithic...the message is getting across. I have felt the LOVE of my BROTHERS and I am THANKFUL TO ALMIGHTY GOD for the mission. In short, we don't have to think just alike to love each other. In fact, the diversity of our thoughts and views can only help us.)…
You see, a Black man is special. As the ORIGINAL MAN , he is transcends it all, and even when he is at the very bottom, he can achieve greatness because of his originality. But, Black male equity/image will not change until we all start loving each other no matter what schools of thought or areas from which we emanate.
I’m there… I LOVE ALL BLACK MEN… the thuggish ones, the intellectual ones who disagree with others just to disagree (disagreeables), and even those that disagree with society at large or the societal reject, those that love me, and those that hate me. I have talked to people that fall in all of those categories. Some of the THUGS on the streets are the kindest and most pure-hearted people I have ever met. And some of those CEOs in the boardrooms are nothing but SCHMUCKS. Don’t judge a book by its cover folks. I LOVE PEOPLE IN GENERAL, but I have a special love for MY BROTHERS, even those that seem to be UNLOVABLE are still loved by me. TRUST ME.
Why? I understand how EQUITY works.
You see, if most of us are despised, than every single one of us IS! If most houses in a neighborhood are viewed as “Crack Houses” then even the best mansion in the World will not qualify the neighborhood as even an average one…
We do have a lot of Black male geniuses (mansions), but as of today, their equities are affected by the image that society has bestowed on the original male of humanity.
Again, Maya Angelou, poetically and prophetically said, “YET, I still RISE!”
Her poise and wisdom surpass race, and her spirit transcends even the most racist hearts…and UNTIL WE ALL RISE TOGETHER, the equity or image of Black male will continue to be sub-par. Far too many Blacks are RISING ALONE... and far too many of us have disenfranchised each other. We leave FOR GOOD and NEVER RETURN HOME! It is STUPID and RECKLESS AT BEST.
Again, Black equity, is analogous to having a beautiful residence in a run-down neighborhood. The latter will either have a value that will be substantially-affected by the run-down homes, or the run-down homes will have a higher value because of it. But, for the most part, people will just say that it’s a “BAD NEIGHBORHOOD”.
In many of my articles I mentioned my first article titled the Broken Black Boy (BBB) Syndrome… If it takes a village to save a child, then it takes a super village to prevent a Black boy from becoming broken in a society that nearly expects him to be broken. But, the problem is, the Broken Black Boy (BBB) will become the Broken Black Man (BBM) and the BBM will not be able to head a decent family, and with broken families there is nothing but Broken Black Neighborhoods (BBNs), and those very neighborhoods are the manifestations of society’s bestowment on the image of the Black male.
Only LOVE can so cure. Black boys and young men need strong and positive Black male role models… not someone who will talk about racial wars and create more hatred. But someone who will appeal to their natural greatness and ego as the ORIGINAL MAN… it’s in us; I see it and feel it every day. NO ONE COMPARES to the originality of a Black man.
The same people that will try to put Black men down today will end up copying them tomorrow in one way or another. While history and society might have made Black men their stepping stones; and while White males with inflated egos might have felt too insecure to leave more door open and make more effort in minimizing lack of positive portrayals of exemplary Black males who have transcended every bad image that has been portrayed about the Black man, SOMEHOW, we’ll CONTINUE TO RISE if we continue to love one another DESPITE ALL ODDS.
I use the terms MY BROTHER, MY BROTHER very often with Black males… not because I want to be cool, but rather because I empathize with the plight. We have to be almost great to join the clubs. We have to be BETTER in almost every category to catch the attention of those who control the most prosperous nations on Earth. This should never be the case and it is in of itself a SIN, and racist as best.
Now, the latter should never cloud our judgment… we should not have the false impression that any political party is the party for Black men… HOWEVER, we can be incidental beneficiaries of the confusions that will emanate therefrom.
Many have misunderstood my support for the TRUMP message on political-correctness and his challenge of the Status Quo. While TRUMP is an older White male who undoubtedly has biases against not just Black males at large like many White males and some Blacks as well, and even displayed biases against the first “Black President”, his presence will help accomplish three major things:
Show to America what it’s like to be stereotypical (how ugly things can sound).
Demonstrate to America how political-correctness can mask/hide our true tendencies and intents.
Poke a big hole in the giant balloon of being political-correct just for the sake of being politically-correct.
By OFFENDING almost everyone and telling them who he felt they were, because he COULD as an OLDER RICH, WHITE AND PRIVILEGED MALE, and get away with it as a MEANS to the END of becoming POTUS, Mr. Trump poke a GIANT HOLE in America’s HYPOCRISY against almost every one of its citizens, particularly its top two second-class citizens, namely, WOMEN and the BLACK MAN.
What he did could have only be done by a RICH WHITE MAN. Imagine Obama saying the kind of things that TRUMP said… LOL LOL LOL… I’m literally laughing out-loud about what the end of his career would have been like as Mr. Obama had to maintain nearly a perfect image to become POTUS, while MR. TRUMP just had to be a fearless, contentious, and ANGRY WHITE MALE who said things as he saw them. Imagine how ANGRY Obama would have sounded to most Whites had he even been half as animated as TRUMP was, and of course his chances of wining would have been slim to none.
However, his ANGER was vicariously expressed through those that felt frustrated. And no one is or at least should be more frustrated at America than a Black man. And perhaps women and minorities at large are a distant second and third.
You see, we have an EQUITY PROBLEM here. We lack “BLACK SKIN PRIVILEGE”. The only type we get any kind of privilege is when we get hand-outs through quota programs like “affirmative action”. However, that alone will never change the IMAGE that others have of us.
We need a different agenda. I applaud people like Bill Cosby and others who did so much work for Black male image. We cannot allow our differing views and “DIVIDE AND CONQUER” to divide us as a people or to stop us from LOVING each other. I have been loved by some amazing Black men, including my Father, Doug Jackson, A. Brutus, Patrick Pierre etc. These dudes always remind me of how INTELLIGENT they believe I am by reminding me of what I have accomplished and what I can accomplish with my God-given talents. One of my main missions in life is to do the same to EVERY BLACK BOY and YOUNG MAN who will have crossed my path on whichever media they will have so encountered my message.
Yes, I can be an enigma to most. And often I appreciate controversial figures who challenge the status quo. It is not because I agree with them entirely; rather, it is because AT LEAST they are saying that things are NOT as good as they should be for some of us.
It is good to protest and use our rights to free speech. HOWEVER, it is much more potent to educate, plan wisely, and create GIANTS that will STRATEGICALLY implant seeds that will EAT AWAY from GIANT DILEMMA OF BLACK MALE DISENFRANCHISEMENT. Far too many of us are treated in an equitable way… Far too many of us have NO REASON to maintain a positive image because MANY OF US just GAVE UP and felt that it no longer matters.
My message is that EVERYTHING MATTERS. HUMAN LIVES MATTER… and of course BLACK LIVES MATTER as well. However, it is more potent to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, than to EMOTIONALLY UTTER EMPTY WORDS that will not even touch the souls of those who created the SYSTEM to begin with. After all, until WE learned from how TRUMP insulted such folks to get to the top, we will NEVER ascend to them top OURSELVES!
We cannot be politically-correct, just to be politically-correct. Yes, far too many WHITE MEN are confused, ignorant, and rather inept on the issue of race. HOWEVER, I have met many White men who are more receptive about the topic than even many Blacks are.
Let’s not give up on OUR BLACK MALES. America cannot do that. Black men are way too talented, interesting, clever, and just have TOO MUCH “SWAG” for society to have attempted to bestow up it the curse of BAD EQUITY/IMAGE.
Some have expressed fear about TRUMP to me. TRUMP will not break us, his presence will LBERATE US, expose the Democratic Party’s hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of so many White folks who have been hiding the mantle of political correctness. We shouldn’t act like we like each other, we should LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
It has to change, and it will change. I’m VERY HOPEFUL and promise to do my part until I take my very last breath. See, I’m not BROKEN, but I am Black. In America one does not want to be Black and Broken. The latter is a curse. I call the two B’s (B&B). One has to fight, expose the truth without following the status quo. We don’t have to agree with anyone 100% to realize that his agenda will INCIDENTALLY benefit us. NO one truly cares about the BLACK MALE PLIGHT as much as we should anyway. So, why should Blacks hold allegiance to any particular group?
Trust no one; work with everyone, especially if it means enriching Black neighborhoods and minds. I will work with the KKK and any group if it means that it will help change Black Image, and help expose the hypocrisy of those who FALSELY claim to be lovers of Black folks. The latter is exactly why I supported our current POTUS, and certainly not because I agreed with everything he said.
Far too many of us Black folks have rushed to get to Mount Rushmore like Dr. West said of Obama without thinking about the bigger picture. In fact, once we get there, we move to particular neighborhoods and disappeared as Blacks, and arguably many of us will argue that Black is no longer an issue, and that it is rather a class issue. While this is partially true, the rest is mostly “BS”. WHITE SKIN PRIVILEGE/EQUITY matters and there is a lack of “BLACK SKIN EQUITY and PRIVILGE”, and until America changes that, it will not have lived up to its true ideals.
Let’s love folks, and let’s rebuke those who induce us to hate others and each other for whatever reason. I LOVE HUMANITY AT LARGE, but I have a special LOVE for BLACK PEOPLE. I have met some AWESOME WHITE FOLKS within the past couple of years that have induced me to change my mind on many topics. We have to take SOME BLACK on some things. Far too many of us disappear from the lives of our loved ones and children. Yes, it’s OK to be temporarily frustrated; however, it is not OK to self-hate, self-segregate, and self-enslave. The latter is suicidal at best. People are shooting each other out of frustrations. All the leaders leave certain areas and leave them to be run by guys who were broken but chose to fight as thugs. These guys are the new leaders. We need to communicate with them, respect them, and love them just as much. Any man who feels disrespected may at times react irrationally. EVERY MAN deserves some level of respect and no matter how poor he might be, the respect should not be less, and when it is, FRUSTRATION will ensue and bad things will happen.
My Father taught to me to walk with my head held up high. To always place myself in a position to look ANY MAN in the eyes and tell him what I believe even if a gun were cocked to my head. I am not afraid of DEATH, and am a man of great dignity and endurance. Death is our final destination anyway. I’m a FEARLESS Black man. I’m filled with love. I’m handsome, beautiful, super-educated, super-smart, super-wise, and YES, I AM A SUPER PROUD TO BE A BLACK MAN who has learned from ANYONE, EVERYONE, and who understands my place and our place in history as a people better than most will ever realize. I am praying GOD to help me CHANGE THE WORLD and particularly, its view of MEN that look like me for years to come. GOD IS MERCIFUL. May God's will be done! I LOVE YOU MY READERS... I LOVE YOU TOO :) < the Caps only emanate from my own style of writing and THINKING OUT-LOUD.... I write directly from the SOUL in the context of TRUTH and CONSCIENCE)
No one can truly stop us, but if we DON'T RISE UP TOGETHER, we will have ultimately destroyed the BLACK BOYS, MEN, FAMILIES and thus, will have self-defeated. Let the message me one of LOVE, UNITY, and STRENGTH despite ALL ODDS. I LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH (unconditionally).
Dr. Pete Lorins is the Chief Editor of LorinsPOST.com. This article was sponsored by LORINS.biz, a multi-industry consulting firm that provides the following types of services… Management of Law Firms, Medical Clinics, Businesses...Project Management, Sales, Marketing, & Leads Generation...Research & Engineering... It can be reached via www.LORINS.biz