*African Americans are on the way out.
We are out of style, out of line and many of us are out of our minds.
And I suggest that we go further out. Until there is nowhere left to go.
It’s like learning to swim the hard way. You get thrown into the deep end of the pool and you learn that once you touch bottom, there is nowhere else to go but up.
We are almost at the bottom.
We are confused and harried, turning in circles because we have no real direction.
We are without a compass, without a consistent methodology and without our own true North. We have no center.
We appear to be rebelling against the dark and the light, the cold and the hot, against motion and inactivity. Many of us are rebelling against the revolution and revolting against nothing, yet many of us claim to be revolutionaries.
None of us can be either Malcolm or Martin or Huey Newton. There is nothing else. There is Jesse and Al Sharpton, and there is President Barack Obama, but the former two are charlatans and the latter is maligned by the confused who want to chastise him, but fail to have a Plan B.
And we don’t even want a Plan B. Our true thinkers and doers are so few and far between that we can’t even coalesce around any real movement. The confused angry morons try to chastise the thinkers for thinking.
We have so little faith, trust and love for each other that we are not only unable to do business with each other, we are having difficulty establishing and maintaining relationships and we are even having difficulty having conversations.
Look at some of the Internet tomfoolery, where at the end of reason, morons hurl insults to pretend to be “edgy,” when really they are just mean idiots with no checks and balances. And then those of us with reason are pressed to play nice.
Things are ugly and no matter how we couch them, there is not much beauty in our plight or our direction.
Other people have a theological center, a cultural center and something from which discipline and world view are constructed, which in turn, enables them to create a future by laying down a blue print.
Our problem is that we have none of that, but we pretend that we do.
Individuals pretend to be “warriors,” “kings,” “queens,” and “revolutionaries,” but do nothing warlike, revolutionary, royal, noble or worthy of being followed. We refer to what once was, yet pay little respect to what it took to exist that way. It’s like trying to build a house of cards on sand or building a sandcastle with manure.
Many cheered when Bill Cosby told poor Blacks that they were horrible human beings. They said “Amen” when he told those poor Blacks about their poor behavior that lead them to poor conditions. But what he didn’t do, and what none of those who cheered him will do is to talk about real solutions from the ground up.
Kwame Toure, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael said “Capitalism will come to confuse us, causing us to concentrate on the form and so miss the essence.”
Black Americans are concentrating on the form–focusing on what it looks like: Blacks with decent jobs, laughing Negroes on television, Oprah and Bob Johnson with billions, and shiny things. Yes, shiny things. Blacks get five dollars and spend four on a truck, some cheap jewelry and some “nice clothes,” and Cosby is a fool for saying that it is only poor Blacks because even Puffy wants to be ‘hood rich, which is why the confused jackass just changed his name to Diddy Dirty Money, when it should be Diddy Damned Dumbass.
The boy needs Jesus.
We all need him, or someone to save our souls.
But we know it won’t be the churches.
They are too busy building megachurches while still employing mini solutions for the communities they suck dry.
We are so focused on what we look like that we have missed what we could be. We talk about “us” making more money, but “we” do very little by way of long term empowerment for “us.”
Magic Johnson should be the norm, not a media marvel and not one more Black woman should claim to be looking for a man on her financial level, unless she has one million in the bank. Liquid. Unless you have one million, you don’t have a level, you have a job and you talk too damned much and take too much pride in what you are probably about to lose anyway.
There is no infrastructure and no nucleus to our community. We are like dandelions after you blow the tendrils away, blowing through the wind without being connected to anything.
That which we claim as our culture is a bastardization with the most diseased aspects of our mis-socialization substituting for culture. The waste product of our heritage has become the new legacy. Rap artists who claim to be revolutionary by calling each other “Nigger” in public and tacitly urging other races to use the word are clear examples of this.
You can’t even have collective intelligence if you don’t have a base from which to move forward.
The Asian paradigm is excelling at technology. There is a default setting to excel in math and science. It’s a stereotype, but they roll with it, and make the best of it for themselves.
Jews are about making money and being thrifty with the dollar. You’ve heard the expression: “’Jew’ him down to a better deal.” A stereotype, but a paradigm that keeps that community in the Black (pun intended).
The deal is that they go all the way in.
We are on our way out.
Darryl James is an award-winning author of the powerful new anthology “Notes From The Edge.” James’ stage play, “Love In A Day,” opens in Los Angeles this Spring. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.
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So anyone who “chastises” this shill, warmongering, right-wing azz-kissing president is “confused?” Not hardly.
Sorry, you sound confused to me.
While I do concede other groups have more clarity mentally-speaking about how to capitalize in this society, I don’t think any other group of people have more of a “theological center” than do Blacks. Wrong diagnosis imo. You throw a lot of fatalistic, scary words at the issue with your usual dark perspective, and that is okay because a lot of what you say is valid.
But here’s some food for thought. Not just Blacks are in trouble–this whole COUNTRY–this whole hemisphere is in trouble. Leadership is nil or corrupt and people like you call those who call it what it is “confused,” laypeople feel disempowered and helpless, unnecessary war looms at every turn, and people are still drunk off the two-year old koolaid fed to them in 2008. This kind of trouble knows no color or ethnicity. Sorry, to be the bearer of [even worse] news. *sigh*
You are absolutely right. I agree wholeheartedly . . . EXCEPT
“Magic Johnson should be the norm, not a media marvel and not one more Black woman should claim to be looking for a man on her financial level, unless she has one million in the bank. Liquid. Unless you have one million, you don’t have a level, you have a job and you talk too damned much and take too much pride in what you are probably about to lose anyway.”
That comment is absolutely foolish. You don’t have to have one million to be at a certain “level.” And why just one million? Why pick that figure? My pension plan is not far from that, and I can tell you that in today’s economy, a million is just not that great. I make over six figures and I am at a certain “level.” No, it’s not a million, but it’s a certain “level” nonetheless. And, desiring someone who makes as much or close to what I make . . . and not someone who works in McDonald’s is not foolish. No self-respecting woman in today’s world wishes to support a grown-ass man.
PREACH!!!
Gotta go look at my 401K now and give it a good once over.
Working towards my side hustle too. We as a people have largely gotten away from that and we have to bring it back. When damn near all of us had a side hustle, our day job was just for the benefits. Well, now benefits are easier to get separate and apart from a job working for “the man.” We really do have to have our own businesses and start doing damn near everything within our own communities.
And, as for Cosby getting up in the faces of the poor among us — they know what the hell they need to do. It’s 2011, if you don’t know by now, that’s your problem. I’m done with you!
PLEASE read this when you get a chance. PLEASE. http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/does-black-president-owe-anything-black-community
Snippet: For the first time in generations, a presidential election campaign saw virtually no demands from the Black side of the electorate. Two years into Barack Obama’s term, a code of silence remains in force. “Are we so wrapped up in the symbolism of a black president that we can’t hold him accountable to the demands of a community that voted for him upwards of 97%?” And why this peculiar behavior by Black people? “Other communities don’t give up their right to make demands on political leaders they vote for.”
Does the Black President Owe Anything to the Black Community?
by Kamau K. Franklin
“Did the black community give up its rights to make demands because the president is black?”
Recently I read several articles from black intellectuals, pundits and politicians whose goal, it seems, is to inform black people that Obama is not the president of “black America” but of “all America.” Therefore, they argue that we should not expect him to do anything “special” for the black community. A byproduct of this is to let us know that any sentence that has the words “Obama,” “black” and “demands” – except if it states “Obama demands Black people…” – is a no-no and you will be branded with the number one insult in the black community (besides being labeled a snitch): “a hata.” I have great respect for some of these authors because of their history of work in our community. Yet there are other writers that think that if they stand next to two or more black people, they are in the ghetto and need to make a move before some gang shit happens. However, they all insinuate that to make demands or to criticize Obama makes you a hata. I would rather be a hater than a fool; the President owes the black community, not the other way around.
Okay, for those who just don’t seem to want to get..
The reason why we, Blacks, have not taken Obama to task on Black issues is because if we do, we know deep down inside that our asses will not see another President of these here United States that resembles us for probably at least another 100 years! It’s going to take the third or fourth Black President of these here United States before we can even think about going there. Sad but, it’s true. So, stop already!
The minute we go there or the minute he starts paying too damn much attention to us, it’s over and you all know it!
WHAT’S “OVER?” WHAT IS YOUR POINT? That even though you are a taxpaying citizen who helped this man get elected, he can do whatever the hell he feels like without any regard to you???
Miss me with that B.S.
Every time, I hear a black person say ‘he’s not the president of black america, but the president of america,’ it makes me cringe. We are the only group of folks who do NOT capitalize on our power as a special interest group. We are a special interest group and as such, our elected officials ‘owe’ us. Given the fact that 95% of black folks voted for Obama in 2008, he ‘owes’ us.
Other special interest groups (e.g., Latinos, Jews, and Gays) certainly don’t have a problem going to the current administration forcing it to advance their agendas. Nobody calls them on it because these special interest groups are playing politics as it’s meant to be played. But, we lack that focus and fall prey to internecine as usual. We elected Obama to do a job. And just like a CEO at a company, if that CEO isn’t doing his/her job — shareholders have the right to complain, hold the CEO accountable, and call for his resignation if necessary. We need to get beyond Obama’s black face and look at the man’s performance and how that holds up against his campaign promises, economic recovery, improvement in employment, and ending these damn wars. Let’s stop the bullshit please. I didn’t expect Obama to perform miracles by turning water into wine, but I damn sure thought he would be doing better than what he has thus far.
Amen! I liked this article even though I didn’t agree with everything in it but I don’t need to in order to. As for needing Jesus, or as the author said specifically, “We all need him, or someone to save our souls”, uhm, I fully feel that’s one of the major problems on our list. I don’t even think – I mean, I’m not sure~I don’t know – that the author meant it in a literal sense as much as it reads that way…but even if he did, looking for something that is already within us won’t get us any farther up the road; no, we’re guaranteed to keep going backwards. Look, I’m just a man trying to impart truth(s) that I’ve come to experience as such – you won’t find me speaking on anything but what I know, I have no interest in passing around conjecture and speculation (aka, bullsh*t). And what I do know is that whatever we need, we have within and we have to come together on that premise; We don’t need a damn middleman to get us in touch with our Creator, our Source, The Force. The middleman that “the white man” (he) gave to the world, purposely and seemingly at every turn, said himself based on the book he fabricated, that ‘ye are all gods’ and ‘not to worship him’ [sic] but of course he, being the ultimate confuser that he is, also threw in contradictory words that could easily be misinterpreted like ‘I am the way’ and ‘No man enters the kingdom except by me’ [sic]. I’m just saying…how much more evidence do we need before we realize that church, religion and believing in something outside of ourselves is NOT helping (us as a whole), not working and is exactly what those who would rather see us dead (and have killed sooo many of us) want you to do. If he had even a notion that the set-up he devised could help us, he wouldn’t have devised it, and there damn sure wouldn’t be one on every corner – c’mon now! Until the light pops on upstairs and we have our own individual epiphanies (sp) about reality and what it means to be in it, no amount of praying (the wrong way)-paying these suckers your hard-earned tithes-fish frys-building fund committee meetings and conventions
is going to change a thing! Hell, we’ve been at that for over a 100 years and things have gotten worse– it ain’t hard to tell. I already expect some thumbs-down and that’s cool with me, I don’t take it personally and care less about popularity. See, we don’t research our-story properly (formerly known as his story/history), so we don’t remember that many of the (real) people you call giants and heroes today were belittled, slandered and even murdered
in their day, prime example Jesus/Yeshua/Isa, etc. Hey, we know The Way, we only must uncover it – simple and plain.
Part of the problem is women. If you take a look at society, look at what women are doing. Have you ever heard of a Prostate cancer walk? “Every” program etc. that “women” create is for women or the advancement of “girls”. I need not mention Curves, “Girls on the run” etc. Are there “ANY” programs created to advance young men? Or “black” men? Now, they somehow feel justified in dating “white” men? Look at Chili eg. DJ is right in what he says. But as long as women are only out to further things and make things better for “themselves” only, we will remain separate as a race, genders and people. Because now, they are no longer a partner. They have become the enemy.