STRAIGHT BLACK TALK: WE ARE AT A TIME OF
CRISIS
This Blog came about after I had a dialogue
with a good friend and brother of mine who is a Christian Pastor, which I
have tremendous respect for him and his commitment to black people in which his
work, as well as his service speaks for itself. A few weeks ago the reverend
asked me a very timely and provocative question and truly when he first asked the question I had no immediate answer because the question caught me totally off guard, He stated: “What are we
going to do about our community?” I felt it was a serious and timely question
being posed to me and I equally felt that it was deserving of a serious response (after giving the questions some lengthy thought I emailed the reverend my response and some of those thoughts are embodied in the content of this Blog).
I have always applauded this brother minister for being one of the good
Shepherds that has been active in the black community and who possess a proactive
vision. But I also know that it is tough serving black people and often we have
to love them more than they love themselves and there is no doubt that he
understands this axiom.
By Fahim A. Knight-El
How do we end the cycle of violence
that continues to plague the so-called African American community? There has
been statistical accounts where Black U.S.
military servicemen fighting in the Gulf Wars (Kuwait
and Iraq ) and in Afghanistan were safer being engaged in war than living in the ghettos of America, and
was more likely to be killed on the streets of America
Our detractors and pundits could
rightly argue that we have money and our failure to economically advance
ourselves and people only reflects poorly on our leaders and their refusal to
invest in themselves and reclaim our community. There are many blacks that have
acquired middle and upper middle class incomes and life styles—this much is
true and in their mind they are living the American dream—but own nothing but
debt and are victims of consumerism (if the truth be told this is the poor
example that the black intelligentsia has always left for our people to follow).
There have always been black nationalist self-help groups who preached black
economic nationalism—the Garveyites, Moors, Black Muslims, Hebrew Israelites,
Father Divine, Daddy Grace and many more self-help visionaries had the right
idea about economic empowerment. The black mom and pop enterprises, if we would
have nurtured them properly these type businesses could have transitioned into
major black corporations some 50-100 years later and our economic predicament
would perhaps be different in 2015. These men and groups should have been our
business prototypes because they understood the importance of black economic
sovereignty (Reference: Claud Anderson: "Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America”).
But often they were laughed at and
ridiculed by their own people and dismissed by white people (integration was a
false bill of goods and fifty years later we are paying the price of abandoning
and betraying the concept of black self-sufficiency for civil rights and
accommodation). There will never be a post racial era in the United States of
America until the historical question of white supremacy and slavery is
properly dealt with and justice is giving to the descendents of slaves in the
form of reparations (‘The Book of Negroes’ or ‘Roots’ can never tell and depict
the true impact this tragedy and dehumanization process had on the African
victims and it still haunts the so-called American Negro even today)
(Reference: Nation of Islam Historical Research Department; “The Secret
Relationship Between Blacks and Jews; Vol. 2 ‘How Jews Gained Control of the
Black American Economy).
The educated black bourgeoisie has
always found it necessary to use his learning and training to serve white
America and has always felt his western education rendered him a superior
status and it was beneath him to create meager enterprises and after graduating
from the below prestigious universities and colleges have always looked to take
their talents, skills and intellect to corporate America (to serve master and
boss). Many have even sent their children to some of the best colleges and
universities in America and the world such as to Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth,
Columbia, Stanford, Brown, Claremont Colleges, Duke, M. I. T. University of
Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, etc. They have often believed
and relied on education as being the great equalizer and ultimately the gateway
to success (experiencing the so-called American dream). Yet, many of our people
who attend these ivory towers lose the principle concept of service and become
desensitized and detached from the masses of black people's plight (Reference:
Carter G. Woodson; “The Mis-Education of the Negro”).
But lets not get it twisted here is the
end game—our neglect of the black community have contributed to them becoming
depilated wastelands and we will eventually see these urban wastelands under
the plans of re-gentrification (the new urban renewal language). Those in power have a master plan and it will
involve big developers seizing upon these abandoned prime real estate sections of the
country possessing and exploitative agenda of covertly putting things in place
to revitalize rundown urban America. And when we wake up to the new reality (or
plot) the taxes, land value and cost of living will have become so expensive in
these former rundown urban areas that poor whites, blacks and Latinos will be
expendable—the working poor will be forever pushed out of the cities across America
and only their cheap devalued labor will be needed in servicing the new
inhabitants. The new urban dweller will be white or Asian from the tech sector
armed only with their computers and will be globally competing for markets from
their swank downtown lofts (the effects of corporate outsourcing and downsizing
have created these new global opportunities in which the majority of Americans
do not have the high tech skills to compete).
For example, look at the once thriving
Detroit, a port city and former musical capitol of the world—where the
legendary Motown and Barry Gordy were bright stars shining from Detroit the
Motor City (Reference: Nelson George; “Where Did Our Love Go?: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound”). The city of Detroit Detroit Jackson
It was the Elitist, Hidden Hand, and
the United States Government that destroyed this once powerful blue collar and
automobile capitol of the world. They attempted to scapegoat the labor unions as
the culprits and the problem (the labor unions were good for protecting the interest
of the workers against the conglomerate interest of big business). But they did
not inform the masses that the U.S. automobile industry became the victim of economic
capitalist global interest, which U.S. Fortune 500 companies found cheaper Markets
in Asia (this rendered U.S. labor expendable) and they duped us into accepting downsizing
and corporate outsourcing as the “New Normal” and we witness the backbone of America
become dismantled and destroyed which became an all out assault on the middle class;
this destroyed the blue collar capitol of America. They systematically killed Detroit
Trust me the guns and dope in our community are being placed there systematically by those who are the benefactors of creating social discord and accumulating massive wealth for the Elitist individuals and Mafia families throughout world at the expense of the defenseless poor. The United States Government is the biggest entity behind the covert genocidal plots in the black community (drugs, guns, GMO foods, unemployment, homeliness, diseases, vaccinations, alcohol, etc.); the dope trade is conducted from the highest level of the U.S. Government—they are behind the heron, cocaine and marijuana trade—who else have the airplanes, ships and boats and the clearance to avoid and evade national and international jurisdictions, but someone with unlimited power and resources? (Reference: “Dope Inc:Boston
Trust me the guns and dope in our community are being placed there systematically by those who are the benefactors of creating social discord and accumulating massive wealth for the Elitist individuals and Mafia families throughout world at the expense of the defenseless poor. The United States Government is the biggest entity behind the covert genocidal plots in the black community (drugs, guns, GMO foods, unemployment, homeliness, diseases, vaccinations, alcohol, etc.); the dope trade is conducted from the highest level of the U.S. Government—they are behind the heron, cocaine and marijuana trade—who else have the airplanes, ships and boats and the clearance to avoid and evade national and international jurisdictions, but someone with unlimited power and resources? (Reference: “Dope Inc:
I do think there is an overall disconnect between us and young
brothers (or African American men) between the ages of 13-35 years of age and
its starts with a serious breakdown in communications and our fear and distrust
of them only foster a deeper divide. For example, my sixteen year old daughter
thinks she should be entertaining the idea of dating and a young man who is a
student at her high school was invited to my home by my wife and daughter as an
initial step relative to this socialization process (I cannot say that I agreed
with this idea). So after meeting the young man and having dinner; I covertly
and diplomatically read him the riot act and afterwards he tells my daughter
that having a father and mother in her home was a bit too structured for him;
moreover, he goes on to essentially tell her that he does not have home rules
to abide by and somewhat does not have to answer to anyone (I do know initially
he was residing with his grandmother and later with his mother). It appears and
according to him even at sixteen years old he could come and go as he pleased
with little to no restrictions or having to be accountable to an adult
(definitely unchartered waters for my daughter).
He also conveyed to my daughter that his father was not present in
the home or in his life in which I could immediately tell that he was not
accustomed or comfortable to having to deal with a man and I think this placed
him in an awkward predicament with me, but deeper than that; I immediately
recognized how far reaching the psychological and social pathology of
young African American males (or black) crisis was (I to am a victim of
the same pathology)—not having fathers in our lives, have left many of us abused
and without the necessary tools that entails levels of manhood training and
perhaps this is playing itself out in a destructive way relative to the
high incidents of black-on-black violence that has reached epidemic levels
(equally high incidents of suicide and domestic violence) which is plaguing
Durham in particular, and black America in general (Reference: Naim Akbar:
“Visions for Black Men”).
We have recently witness a number of young black male homicides that
have taking place throughout the city of Durham since the New Year of 2015; I
know that these statistics are only a microcosm of the senseless black
homicides or murders that are taking place in Chicago, Baltimore, Newark,
Philadelphia, Atlanta, Little Rock, Jacksonville, Columbia, Los Angles, Houston, Dallas,
Memphis, Washington, DC, Birmingham, Charlotte, Charleston, New Orleans, New York, Gary, Boston,
Richmond, East St. Louis, Camden, Atlantic City, Kansas City, Las Vegas, etc.,
and that is not counting the smaller and rural cities where drugs and gangs are
claiming young black lives just like in the larger urban cities (now,
gangbanging has reached the south). But if these young black men were being
killed by whites and/or white law enforcement officers, our community would be
outraged and there would be mass rallies and protests denouncing these killings
and murders as immoral and reprehensible (we would be shouting racism from the
mountain top and demanding legal intervention on all levels). Yet, I guess the
loss of black lives at the hands of other so-called African Americans do not
warrant a serious call to action from black America and to me this serves as an
indictment on black leadership and it renders most of them hypocrites. Thus,
their silence and non-action renders them lacking in the area of having a true
moral compass, which is a compromise in the realm of being true advocates for
justice and peace (or have we deduced justice down to white on black crimes only).
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) founded in 1909 and stands as one of our oldest Civil Rights
organizations in the United
States
However, I will always stand with my people against police
brutality and racist hate crimes that are aimed at black people, because it is my
duty to fight for our human rights as victims of racist inspired crimes carried
out by police departments throughout America; our demand should always be
rooted in freedom, justice and equality for the powerless and voiceless. But
what appears to be a bit bothersome to me, is that we have become increasingly desensitized
to black-on-black violence and we do not come together with the same rallying
cry and zeal to publicly dramatize what Dr. King called an appalling condition
when blacks kills blacks. We should be willing
to condemn these senseless killings with the highest moral conviction, as when a
white racist kill an unarmed black man (case and point—Trayvon Martin, Michael
Brown, Eric Garner, etc). There should be mass outrage on every level in Durham,
NC and throughout America when these black-on-black homicides take place and
our efforts should revolve around devising and implementing solutions and
strategies to deal with resolving these conflicts—the bigger issue is
addressing poverty—food, clothing and shelter (here lies the root cause of crime in the black community). The government has turned its
back on the poor and, perhaps we do not understand or know that the poor is no
longer a priority and has become expendable (we must revisit the models of
Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington, Elijah Muhammad, Father Divine, etc. and
learn from the bootstrap teachers and stop looking for others to do for us what
we can do for ourselves) (Reference: Naomi Zack White Privilege and Black Rights:
The Injustice of U.S. Police Racial Profiling and Homicide”).
Black men are getting killed by other black men and there are no marches and protest
geared towards holding the black perpetrators accountable for these crimes, which causes me to
start wondering do "Black Lives Truly Matter"; many of these
issues are rooted in systemic indoctrination practices and self-hatred schools
of thought that is found in a system that was built and structured on the
principles of white supremacy (Reference: Jawanza Kunjufu: “Developing Positive Self-Images & Discipline in Black Children”). Thus, our lack of
self-love and community love allows for our young African American men to
engage in violence and criminal activity because often there was no one present
to hold them accountable and they see no value in black life and their
anti-social behavior is a sub-conscious result of a lack of understanding of
their own humanity. They are grappling with the vicious tentacles of self-hatred
imposed in our educational and socialization process in America
They do not respect daddy, mama, teacher, principal, preacher, or
law enforcement and often many black fathers (the root of the problem) a long
time ago have lost respect and credibility amongst their sons in particular,
when they walked away from their families and created dysfunctional family
structures where black mothers are forced to become single parents and young
black boys are forced to lead lives with no male role models or direction. Moreover,
this variable alone places them at a social disadvantage and a prime candidate
for all the things associated with the negative (high incidents of school
dropouts, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, crime and possible imprisonment).
Our mothers have always done the best they could (and many have done a
wonderful job in raising young black boys), but a woman cannot raise a boy to
become a man—certain male dynamics can only begotten and passed on from
male-to-male. (Reference: Jawanza Kunjufu; “Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys”).
There has been a semi collapse of our family structure relative to
hierarchy (God, Father, Mother and Child which is the proper chain of command)
and based on our overall concern of always desiring to be politically correct,
we are afraid to ask the tough questions and mandate even tougher solutions.
And not to do this, only continues to be the ultimate feeding ground for the Prison
Industrial Complex in which the number one commodity is the black man.
(Reference: Michelle Alexander; “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”).
The social scientist and criminologist will not readily admit to
this, but there is a direct correlation between the levels of poverty and
crime; when people are oppressed, it automatically creates disillusionment and
often people turn inward on themselves and go afoul of the law. There is also a
big disconnect throughout America between Police Departments and the black
community—when community crisis arises between the police and the community,
the first thing the leaders bring up is that there need to be a better
system of communication between the police and the black community that
involves community policing (this is nothing but sweet talking jargon
that amounts to symbol without substance).
Some of this decadence is a direct result of the lack of
employment and economic opportunities giving to young African American males
(the disillusionment is systematically orchestrated). This new generation has
been inspired and engulfed in the Hip-Hop culture (the music, clothing, tennis
shoes, the lingo, etc., and for better or worse the bling, bling) and this
appears to be the only magnetic attraction that moves them and yet many of our
age are in denial of this reality. There must be an infusing of culture
dynamics that is able to attract the dope boy and I think the bridging of the
gap lies in our ability to develop models that are rooted in the Hip-Hop
culture and let the conversation start from that point forward—lets have the
conversation about sagging, gangster rap, smoking blunts, the value of
purchasing tennis shoes that cost $300.00) (Reference: Bakari Kitwana; “The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the
Crisis in African-American Culture”).
They are not being engaged in the overall discussions and there is
disconnect between them and ourselves which is evident. How do we locate them?
They are on the street corners selling dope and claiming various segments of
street corners as their territory—many sell dope because this is the only way
they know how to make money, is by street hustling and many are quite aware of
the North Carolina minimum wage of $7.25 per hour—given to unskilled
laborers and to those who lack marketable work skills and education (which keep them and their family as members
of the working poor and at the poverty level—many of these young black men have
the responsibility of paying rent, electric and gas bills, providing food on
the table and in some instances the mothers turn a blind eye to the
criminal enterprise that their sons are involved in because they are the
primary bread winners).
The city that I live in Durham, North Carolina has always been
a black wealth city where well-to-do African Americans of the bourgeoisie
class and persuasion have created generational wealth, but has no partnerships
with the black 'have nots' and they do not use their monetary influence to
create dialogues and ultimately opportunities for the black community. Yes I am
very aware historically of North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, Mechanics
and Farmers Bank, Mutual Savings and Loan and of course the glory of Hayti (the
original Black Wall Street), but this appears to be ancient history because for
the most part they have lost relevance. We do not have to reinvent the wheel—we
can learn a lot from the Jewish model and begin reclaiming our community
by implementing the necessary political, social and economic steps to turn
our situation around (Reference: J.A. Rogers; World’s Great Men of Color”) and (Reference: Steven Silbiger: "The Jewish Phenomenon: 7 Keys the Enduring Wealth of a People").
This will require the faith base community (black Christians,
Black Muslims, Black Hebrews, Black Afrocentrics and all religious people of
goodwill to have an involvement) to assume even more responsibility
of coming together in spite of our religious and political differences to alter
change. If nothing else these crisis have placed the black community in a
state of national emergency (the trauma centers and the morgues
are spilling over with young black men) the pain is there but the cries
have been muffled because we have somewhat become immune to the violence, which
continues to constitute the death of our young black men who are engaged in
this type life style. Nevertheless, forgive me if it sounds like I am restating
the problem, I think we all can agree that the problem has been well
defined and we need all hands on deck to be involved in the solutions;
I admit, I do not have all the answers.
There are those who would rightly argue
that this is insane and definitely serves as being counter productive in
which they will risk their lives for money and for a short lived life
style and simultaneously heap destruction on the black community
for the sake of acquiring blood money. We must call for a stop the killing
powwow and/or town meeting and allow these young black men to tell us how best
can we serve them and not standup dictating to them, it is imperative that we
hear directly from them and take our marching orders from them.
Fahim A. Knight-El Chief Researcher for
KEEPING IT REAL THINK TANK located in Durham NC
Stay Awake Until We Meet Again,
Fahim A. Knight-El
Stay Awake Until We Meet Again,
Fahim A. Knight-El
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