WYCLEF, BLAKE: Victims of Poor Black Male Image?
Let's cut right to the chase, here!
No people has even needed more PR work than Black people and certainly BLACK MALES are at the top of that list... The problem is, Blacks are afraid of Black retaliation when they utter the TRUTH. Case in point, Bill Cosby. The problem is how do we deal with the fact that Black American males have a poorer image than, arguably, all other human beings living in the United States, and that includes Mexicans and terrorists. It is a rather sad case that touches my heart dearly. YET, most Black celebrities hardly mention it until they are affected by it. I know that I have been a victim of the image portrayed by other Black males as a child... PROFILING really MEANS that one fits a certain profile (e.g., young, Black, thuggish, hip, etc)... one looks like other men that are being looked for because of links or potential links to criminal activities. But, so many Black men, including yours truly, have been victims of racial profiling. The term did not existed until the great Johny Cochran made it well known. It's amazing what one word can do for society.
So, in WYCLEF’s case, was it a case of Mistaken Identity or Racial Profiling?
Both WYCLEF and James BLAKE are Black celebrities of African descent. Wyclef is Black Haitian, and Blake is the result of the union of a White Mother and a Black Father. They are both “GOOD & COOL DUDES!”
If you say “Mistaken Identity” you’re correct, and if you said “Racial Profiling” you’re also correct. However, the end result is the same. Both of these gentlemen who happen to be of direct African ancestry would not have been stopped had they NOT fit a specific profile.
I wrote an article about BLAKE’s situation a year or so ago. But I am writing this article from a different angle. In WYCLEF’s case, he did the right thing and complied and stayed alive to tell his story… so did Blake. But so many Black men are shot because they NEVER learned to respect authority figures, and thus showed no deference to the Police.
Admittedly, both sides may assert a rather solid argument:
WYCLEF or BLAKE: I was simply being profiled, and technically, however you look at it, such a statement remains correct.
POLICE: I was just doing my job, which involved stopping and frisking those who fit the profile of a criminal that is being looked for.
So, where do we go from here?
What is Brother WYCLEF saying that differs from what all Black men have said before?
What is our Brother saying that James Black did not say?
Of course, the fact that it happened to them make it slightly more relevant. However, it is something that has been happening to countless Black males before… I feel that WYCLEF my countryman was asking the World to feel sorry for him for discovering that he, took, is treated like other Black men, just like OPRAH did when she was told that she couldn't afford a purse in Europe. I feel that those Black celebrities are out of touch and don't realize that inequity with one Black person is inequity with all Blacks and a race at large.
Thus, why haven’t any celebrities of any race stepped up to the plate to actually make a peaceful discussion out of it?
Has it now become relevant because it happened to WYCLEF as opposed to JAMAL from the local “hood”?
The main issue is that BLACK AMERICAN MALES have induced others to see them in a negative light, and therefore whenever something happens, they happen to easily fit some NEGATIVE PROFILE. My point is that, if you constantly put yourself out in a negative light out there, others will not only see you in that light, but also others that may happen to look at you. I have been exhorting Black males to step up to the plate, complete with their own style and talent. For instance, the Asians are not great at everything, but they focus on the things in which they are good, work ethics (which is self-evident in their restaurant ownership and China-town-like areas), academics, and other opportunities. Black males need to focus beyond sports and focus on their artistic and scientific creativity, while learning to fare better in the modern forms of community building.
This is what I have always called a “lack of Black equity”. There are far too many disenfranchised Black men out there, and so many that it is enough to nullify the accomplishments of many genius men who happen to be Black.
Black men have to step up to the plate, by being community builders and organizers; stopping the “Baby Momma Drama”; stopping the killing of other Blacks over stupid reasons; and actually stopping to pretend that they know something, when in fact so many are more ignorant and stupid than they can imagine as victims of a society that saw no value in them for the most part after the end of slavery, and with their replacements with machines during the industrial revolution. However, many other Black heroes/geniuses have countered that as well to some extent with their very behavior so that society will say that not all of us are lazy bastards.
The advent of new technologies will probably do the same to low-skilled blue-collar workers who currently work for minimum wage in the future. Once technology renders people obsolete, they either go from not making money to making money, or from not making money to becoming disenfranchised. Society will have to be careful in its creation of future “Black American Like” entities, because in not so doing, it will have created MONSTERS!
Last week’s South Shore Rampage/Shooting on the South Side of Chicago spoiled a March in which murders dropped city-wide when four were killed in a restaurant shooting and a pregnant woman was shot to death nearby, and two others were slain. MY QUESTION for BLACK AMERICAN MALE THUGS is as follows…
HOW WOULD YOU HAVE TREATED ANOTHER GROUP IF IT HAD CONVEYED THE IMAGE THAT YOU ARE CONVEYING TO SOCIETY ABOUT YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS?
I am creating a neighborhood Thug Rehab Program to target the CONSCIENCE of such “broken” men. When you KILL another human being needlessly, it may make you a KILLER, and may even give you a rush, but you have just not only become a killer, but have also entered further entered into the GATES OF HELL. There is a Black elder that I communicate with about the South Side who I call “UNCLE MICHAEL” who works in the Chicago Loop area, and when I talk to him, he often seems to shift most of the Blame of the failure of BLACK MEN to step up to the plate.
The next time you meet a THUG who respects you, tell him I said, “WAKE UP, My BROTHERS… because you are MENTALLY-ENSLAVED and self-destructive”… Feel free to have them contact me at: Recruit@RapidGigsPlus.com and I will refer you to the right approach to deal with their shortcomings and anger. Because you can kill a million people to make you feel like a man, but a Broken Boy will always remain a Broken Boy as explained in my Broken Black Boy (BBB) Syndrome article.
Dr. Pete Lorins is the Chief Editor of LorinsPOST.com. This article was sponsored by LORINS.biz
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