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Yes, Black People: Don’t Buy Into the Great American Myth.

February 23, 2014 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Politics, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) One of the biggest problems that we have in the Black community is how we allow ourselves to be portrayed in the media. There tends to be a blanket profiling of Black people by the media as little more than dysfunctional hood rats with a few functional Black people sprinkled in for the sake of appearance, but as aberrations.
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But the fact is, the truth is just the reverse. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the vast majority of Black people in this country are middle class or above. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US’s 23 million businesses, and 47% of Africans Americans own their own homes. So the kind of dysfunctional Black people commonly being portrayed in the media are a minority of the Black community, but they are a highly vocal, flamboyant, and inordinately publicized minority.
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If White people were portrayed in the media in the same way as Black people, we’d think that the majority of White people were barefooted Hillbillies. So if you’re a Black person and reading this article, simply look at your own situation, and that of your family and friends. The chances are overwhelming that you and your close associates are living at a level comparable to the average White middle-class individual. The same is true of myself, my family, and virtually all of my friends.
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So the Black community is doing itself a huge disservice by just sitting back and allowing ourselves to be portrayed in this distorted and negative fashion. It sends the wrong message to our children. When they sit around for hours on end watching the antics of Lil’ Wayne and others flaunting the very worst of who we are, it sends the message to our young people that they have a moral obligation to be stupid in order to demonstrate their Black pride. They’re, literally, being instructed in what it means to be Black by sources other than ourselves. They’re being taught that being Black means wearing pants saggin’ off their asses, engaging in reckless and irresponsible behavior, scarring their bodies with ugly tattoos that can prevent them from obtaining employment, and giving priority to chasing “bling,” momentary pleasure, and superficial trinkets over pursuing education, knowledge, and investing in themselves as individuals.
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If we’re tolerating these things in our homes, we have no right to complain when the rest of society refuse to hire us, and profile us a superficial and irresponsible idiots. But the fact is, we’re not only tolerating it, we’reblackpeople making people filthy rich by supporting an industry that thrive on producing videos that are nothing short of ten minute commercials being circulated around the world saying that the very womb of our culture are sluts and whoes who are only good for abuse, and that Black men want everything out of life but a job – and will do anything to get it.
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That’s not who we are as a people, but that’s the way we’re being portrayed. That’s who our young people are looking up to, and that’s the way the rest of the world sees us. So if we allow this to continue, whose fault is it when the rest of the world believes their lying eyes? No wonder unemployment is so high among Black people. I wouldn’t hire anyone like that either – would you?
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So the Black community needs to come down on the media like a sledgehammer, and stop them from slandering our community. We also have to start letting our children know, in no uncertain terms, that stupidity’s not cute. We can’t start to disseminate that message too soon, or too early in a child’s life, and since kids tend to gravitate toward those things that they’re rewarded for as “cool,” it’s not enough to simply address this issue as individual parents – we might as well be spittin’ in the wind. We have to address this issue as a COMMUNITY.
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We’ve got to let BET know that if they want the community’s continued support, they’re going to have to change their call letters to stand for Black Excellence Television, and their programming is going to have to reflect that. We have to make it clear to BET, MTV, and the rest of the media that if they want the support of the Black community that they’re going to have to air programming that’s consistent with our agenda as a community – programming that reflects manhood as having the character to face and defeat adversity, and strength as being tender enough to sooth the wounded feelings of a baby girl.
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But in order to do that, we need an organized community, and a big obstacle to that is the self-serving poverty pimps among us who benefit from our suffering. We’ve got to eliminate these people. These are the ones who are primarily responsible for the plight that we currently find ourselves. When Martin and Malcolm were alive, the only thing they wanted from the White man was for him to leave us alone and allow us to live our lives in peace. My grandfather had a little verse that reflected their attitude. He used to say, “The only thing I want from this whole damn nation, is a pretty little wife, and a good foundation.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but in that one little verse he was teaching me the meaning of life – and he had that, and more.
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But after the death of Martin and Malcolm, the poverty pimps swopped in to try to take their place, but both their philosophy, and their agenda, were much different. They convinced the Black community that we couldn’t make it on our own. they convinced us that we were incapable of such a monumental feat. They told us that we needed the White man’s help to move forward, so it was incumbent upon us to hire them as our official emissaries to the White man. That was in the late sixties and early seventies. But since that time, the “emissaries” have all profited greatly, while we’ve been sitting on our hands suffering, whining, and begging for the past forty years, and still waiting for the White man’s response.
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So it’s time to bring the poverty pimp hustle to an end. We don’t need one voice speaking for millions; what we need is millions speaking with one voice. And we need to re-embrace our self-esteem, and begin to recognize who we are, what we represent, and the dignity of what we’ve managed to overcome.   
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In spite of the fact that many of us have been dragged through the pits of Hell, we’ve managed to come out the other side as well adjusted and relatively well educated individuals. And while we’ve been forced to engage in a 100 yard dash where our White counterparts were spotted 25 yards, we’ve still managed to remained competitive. So the fact is, adversity has made us MORE, not less.
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So don’t buy into the great American myth. Yes, there are Black people who are struggling and at the bottom of the heap, but there are also many White people in that very same condition, and in spite of having every advantage in life. So if you’re Black and middle class, you’ve remained competitive with your White peers in spite of the fact that you were forced to wear lead boots during the competition. So you have much to be proud of – and not just the superficial pride of having Black skin as James Brown suggested, but a genuine pride in what you’ve accomplished IN SPITE of your Black skin.
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Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores. So I know who you are and what you’re capable of, because I know who I am and what I’m capable of – thanks to you.

Staff Writer; Eric L. Wattree
 
More thought provoking articles feel free to visit; The Wattree Chronicle.
 
 

Comments

7 Responses to “Yes, Black People: Don’t Buy Into the Great American Myth.”
  1. Master Kevlar says:

    It’s not about Black or White, it’s about Psychological Warfare, Spiritual Slavery & “Sell outs”.

    1. Be friend a person with Money.

    2. Outshine their political & religious beliefs, by picking up on their body language and word usage, slightly mimick it to build a deeper rapport then flip it to an authoritive, in charge Aura.

    3. Subtly campaign for funding, by boasting of a dynamic harmonious “work ethic” (ethnic). Overdue whatever opportunities, they help you find, gracefully.

    4. When they Love you, Want you around them all the time, make it about money, become too important and busy but always “miss them so much”.

    5. The media was created to oppress people, even Oprah Winfrey Network puts exploits Black people. Why? Because Oprah’s ‘paying audience’ is White. That’s the stuff they like to see. Why? Because the Television & Media were created for Mass Psychology studies, shows & advertisements for consumerism, excessive consumerism causes debt, debt forces you to seek employment, employment keeps you in debt, if you don’t invest properly, debt forces you into slavery. Unemployment makes you beg, begging with a Dominant personality makes you confused, irritable, angry. Then what? You do whatever you can for money and the opportunity to live comfortably but everybody is trained to lust after luxury.

    6. Critize people instead of helping them or Help them, but they will “critique size” you.

    Economics is a tool to oppress people or suppress creativity. If not, everyone would harmoniously ‘trade & barter’ and do things out of the kindness of their heart, but No, it’s always ‘I have to find a way to prove that I am better than you’.

    (This comment is an opinion by the way but you can research any of it to find similar references. I’m black & employed, people just give Me jobs, everywhere I go.)

  2. AmpDefy says:

    brother has a valid Point do your own research on the Stats

  3. CD Smith says:

    I agree with James Davis..I also had problems with “numbers” presented in the article. They don’t add up.

    In regard to critcisms the writer has made in regard to “black” culture in this article, many black conservatives have made the same observations and have been called “sellouts”..

    If Wattree is “now” attempting to be “fair and balance”, there is a God in heaven!!

    If you want to know the people who promote this “culture” watch the all the BET Award shows. You know, the talented tenth…

  4. James Davis says:

    You Do Present Our Situation In The Best Light And That’s Not A Bad Thing!

    However your own statistics betray you. I guess 2002 was the latest data you could find on black businesses. Brother,you overlooked a major occurrence, the greatness economic downturn since the Great Depression occurred in 2008. Your touting of the 1.2 million business ownerships stat is a little overdone. Mr. Wattree, that’s only 5.21% of the total businesses in the United States and that was pre 2008! Update us with stats post 2008 in regard to black businesses and home ownership and your article might have more validity. Additionally, you fail to mention that those businesses in 2002 were primarily single proprietorship type businesses with only one employee. We are according to the last census 13.1% of the population. After five years of double digit unemployment headed into our sixth year with no job creation plan being presented by the Obama adminstration, 2002 seems like a long time ago! And so it goes… http://www.Jobcreationnow.com

  5. CD Smith says:

    The writer’s plea in this article is little late. Black people as a community has attempted to ride on white guilt for so long that now it has become too ingrained into the psyche of political discourse to turn back.

    In other words, we have made our bed and now have to lie in it.

    Lastly, the writer source for his assertions are very unclear.

    Which U.S Census data is being used for this article? 1999-2000?

    “Current” Facts:

    Over the last 10 years, the black communities median income has dropped $20,000 below the average median income. http://blackdemographics.com/households/african-american-income/
    http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb11-157.html

  6. Pat says:

    Very intesting article!

  7. toomanygrandkids says:

    “When Martin and Malcolm were alive, the only thing they wanted from the white man was for him to leave us alone and allow us to live our lives in peace.” That may had been what Malcolm wanted but not Martin. The civil rights movement was not about becoming free from the “oppressors.” The civil rights movement was about fighting and dying to get inside the halls and walls of the “oppressors.” Doesn’t sound like Martin wanted the white man to leave black people alone to me.

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