*Last night, I was watching my copy of the very important film, “Hoodwinked,” by Janks Morton. I appear in the film, along with my respected colleagues, Drs. Marc Lamont Hill, Jawanza Kunjufu, Ivory Toldson and Steve Perry.
The film serves to debunk many of the ridiculous myths that black people perpetuate against one another, particularly those affecting black men. For one thing, the film explores the notion that the black male high school dropout rate is nearly half, when in fact, it’s less than 10 percent.
Janks attributes much of the disparity to funny math that comes into play when a dropout is counted as someone who didn’t graduate with his/her cohort. In many cases, black children either transfer to different schools or use a relative’s address to get away from the horrible inner city school in their district. Morton even shows that from 2006 – 2008, black females had a higher dropout rate than African American males.
We don’t want to celebrate anyone dropping out of high school and we certainly don’t want to add to the battle of the sexes between black men and black women. The point is that black men are not nearly as sad and pathetic as many people would like to believe that we are. Many of us are as productive, educated and conscientious as anyone else, no matter what President Obama said about us during his 2008 Father’s Day speech.
I enjoyed and appreciated what Janks was attempting to do with this film. In many cases, we want to believe the absolute worst when it comes to black males. Black men are sometimes treated as the rodents of our society, and no one wants a rodent to survive or even exist. Some black women want to believe that all of us are either gay or running around with white women, and many white folks want to believe that we are all criminals.
I’ve never been gay, criminal or with a white woman, and neither have most of my friends. So, for those who feel the need to project venom toward the image of the black male in America, you must realize that in order to be the creator of this kind of venom, your mind may have been poisoned as well. That’s where brainwashing causes you to hate people who look like yourself.
“Hoodwinked” excited me because when I saw Marc, Steve, Ivory and Jawanza using their vast intellectual skills to protect other black men, I swelled up with pride, like an intellectual warrior standing alongside his brothers waging war against ignorance on the battlefield. Black men have the ability to work together and do great things, whether it’s on the basketball court or in the classroom. When we stick together, we usually defeat all enemies great and small. The key is remembering to fight with our minds instead of our fists.
A new day is coming in black America. With the democratization of media that has occurred via the Internet, films like “Hoodwinked” can surpass the large, white media distribution companies and share messages with the black community that are more accurate to our purpose. We can find out who we really are and share genuine love and support for one another. In other words, we get to define and celebrate the vast potential that lies within our greatness, and we are no longer going to continue to be hoodwinked into thinking that we are inferior. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
Dr. Boyce Watkins
I admire Dr Boyce Watkins and I support the overall points he makes in this blog. But I must take issue with this statement he makes: ‘I’ve never been gay, criminal or with a white woman, and neither have most of my friends.’ Is being gay really in the same category as being a criminal? To me that is a homophobic statement.and unbecoming of a public intellectual of Dr Watkins’ stature and prominence. It is exactly the kind of stigmatization of our black gay brothers and sisters that is at least partly responsible for the fact that we have HIV numbers that are worse than those in some developing countries. Let me say that I am not gay but just not homophobic. And the statement that ‘most of my friends are not gay’ raises a slew unnecessary questions about Dr Watkins. How do you know that? Did you ask them? Is that a litmus test for friendship? Did you know all along that the recently deceased Dr Sally Rider was a lesbian? My point is that we do not need to have all these questions about Dr Watkins. Dr Watkins also lumps black men who date across the color line with criminals but that that is not a life and death issue so I will let that slide. But stigmatizing gays is a life and death issue and I cannot give Dr Watkins a pass on that. And there is no blanket labeling of black men as gay so it is not clear why Dr Watkins is talking about gays in this otherwise excellent article.
The title of the article and its contents are pointedly directed at one demographics…Black women. While I am told that the words in the title are a constant refrain used ‘solely’ by Black women, the only times I’ve actually heard it ‘literally’ was from Black men saying “N Ain’t Sh*t” to express anger or disappointment in someone. Just like the N-word, I think it’s a very bad idea to perpetuate usage of that phrase in effort to force Black women to ‘own’ it much like the oft used “Black women only want thugs” meme.
“Morton even shows that from 2006 – 2008, black females had a higher dropout rate than African American males.”
This line didn’t sit well with me at all. Whether it’s true or not it proves who the writer and filmmaker considers their true competition. I am ‘never’ for any conferences or sit downs to address problems between Black women and men because they are always designed to brow beat Black women into accepting basically any and everything as long as it’s meted out by a Black man. I say let the chips fall where they may. Write ups like this and the ones circulated by Darryl James do more harm than good IMO.
@Obed Norman: Just because criminal and gay are used in the same sentence doesn’t mean he’s equating them. if you read the article, or look any where in the media, you’ll see that such labels are often used to describe black men. There was even a show on ABC and Oprah not too long ago debating why black women can’t find black men to marry and these were some of the reasons given. The author is merely pointing out that all these are myths designed to destroy the image of black men, but there are plenty of evidence to show that it’s untrue.
@MelodyCool: Your point is well taken, however, black men dropping out of high school and not pursuing higher education is often cited and used to put black men down. google it and see how many hits you get. there are even these black women empowerment websites all over the net promoting interracial marriages (which is fine by itself) but they use these statistics to support their claim that blackmen are to be avoided. if people don’t speak up, it becomes the gospel that everyone else would use to preach.
“Hoodwinked” excited me because when I saw Marc, Steve, Ivory and Jawanza using their vast intellectual skills to protect other black men, I swelled up with pride, like an intellectual warrior standing alongside his brothers waging war against ignorance on the battlefield. ”
Kudos to the “brothas” for protecting one another. But, too many of you forgot to protect your women and children.