What’s Going On?

I think of Malcolm X every day and the messages he left for us concerning the black community. He said to a people, he called Afro-American’s, who he loved so dearly that “You have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, and run amuck.” I often wonder what he or any of the mighty soldiers, who fought and died during the struggle for the most basic of human rights, would say if they could see what has happened to the people they love, fought and died for trying to give them hope.

From my vantage point, I think they would feel like they died in vain. I would also say, at the very least, they would be ashamed of what they would see happening to in the black community today. It saddens me, and maybe you too that most of contemporary African American’s seem to have forgotten what the struggle was like and the sacrifices made by so many.

Frankly, these new Negro’s, now called African Americans have failed to teach our young people the true history of how horrible it was to be treated worse than a dog. Worse yet, there are those who are of the opinion that “We have overcome.” NOT! What has happened is that the movement the “our ancestors” championed, so successfully, has divided us. We support everyone else’s issue and cause instead of our own.

The problems we face, by and large, are not because of the choices people make with respect to one’s beliefs, rather the problems black people face is because we are black. People of color rank at the bottom of nearly every category, be it health, education, unemployment, and poverty. Unfortunately, this group does hold the dubious distinction of being first in the categories of murdering each other and incarceration!

Yes, the community has run amuck! Black men are being feminized, and our women are being emasculated. It is to the point that we see men openly dressing as women and proudly flaunting themselves. Little boys confused acting like girls. Black women are acting like “men.” However, the more serious concern is that blacks are killing each other at a higher rate than the “Klan” and have convinced themselves its hip and cool.

The high school dropout rate is atrocious. For example in the city of Baltimore, nearly three-quarters of students who enter high school do not complete. Our children have no respect for you, me, or themselves. Nearly every black man or woman has had some interaction with the justice system and any interaction with it is a negative interaction.

Before integration, the black family was the envy of all other culture, in spite of the wretchedness of Jim Crow. Children out of wedlock were minimal, we married, and black marriages survived. The family was the most important aspect of life and our community. This is how you build a nation and the future. Today, nearly eighty-percent of black women are unmarried, and most have children out of wedlock. Men neglect their off-springs and belittle black women. So what happens to the village and the family?

Marvin Gaye asked a profound question many years ago. He asked, “What’s happening, brother. I want to know. What’s the deal, man what’s happening?” I want to know what it is – what’s happening?” I’ll say as Dr. King said in his last speeches, “We have some DIFFICULT DAYS AHEAD.” Marching and praying is not the answer; it’s time to wake up! And that’s my thought provoking perspective…