(ThyBlackMan.com) Staten Island, New York. Ferguson, Missouri. Sanford, Florida. Heck, Detroit, Michigan, Baltimore, Maryland, my current home city Atlanta, Georgia and my beloved hometown of Brooklyn, New York. The initial three cities and their accompanying states are in the news due to the deaths of Black males who were unarmed and unjustly killed. The former four are cities and states with large Black populations and thus issues of race and equality that still rear their ugly heads even during the 21st century. At 36 years of age I totally understand that I grew up during a different generation-the ’80’s and early ’90’s-so the way Black youth represent themselves today is not supposed to make 100 percent sense to me. Got it. Good.
What tends to get my goat is the way young Blacks in particular (NOTE: the word Black or it’s plural form will always be capitalized in all of my writing) treat themselves today. When i say “young” I am referring to the age groups between 13-25. People young enough to travel back and forth to school by themselves everyday, listen to their own personal choice of music, watch the movies and dress that way they want. Back east or as people down south call it “up north”, I have witnessed young people go to and fro but not at the same pace as they do down south. Not looking the same way they do down south. Why is that? I vividly remember during my youthful days growing up in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn on St. John’s Place between 5th and 6th Avenues, respectively, having a lot of pride in my appearance and my education. In my neighborhood and in my family and friends that grew up with me on my block.
Selling drugs on the street where our mothers, fathers and in certain cases grandmothers and grandfathers lived was unheard of. We cared about where we lived and more specifically in regards to this essay, how we
lived. Our music, the music of my generation where I came up was rap. All day, every day, up and own the street I lived on and at the park where my friends and I played ball. The rap was positive, it was uplifting without being embarrassing. Public Enemy’s ‘Fight the Power’ gives me goosebumps till this day. Chuck D and to a lesser extent the group’s hype-man Flavor Flav made me proud to be Black. I felt like it was my obligation to conduct myself like a gentlemen soldier in the war against stereotype and ignorance.
Today I hear rap songs that barely seem to be in English let alone uplifting and positive. I would be the last man living that would stand in the way of ‘gettin’ money’ but if it meant looking, acting and sounding like a clown then I guess I’ll just be in the way.
Our television programs were much different, not just in appearance but in racial scope and significance. The Cosby Show for example may have been a slight exaggeration-a doctor and a lawyer living/owning a Brooklyn brownstone-but nonetheless a very power and inspiring image. This image a different one than what the ’70’s equivalent-‘Good Times’-used as a representation of black family life. Though a good show, ‘Good Times’ tried really hard every week to show project life as destination rather than as a launching pad. Using more footage on basically surviving rather than a Black family thriving. Today we have more Blacks as prominent characters on reality television shows like ‘Love and Hip-Hop’. Unfortunately the shows and the networks that air them-VH1 for example-are successful in displaying buffoon-ary on a nightly basis to huge ratings.
The ’80’s and ’90’s shows preached equality and via education (‘A Different World’ for example) today shows sell sex and greed to large applause. Where are the role models for todays Black youth on a mass scale? It’s easy for this writer to tell young people to log on to this site or to read Black writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic. Television is still king of what’s happening now (no pun), what people see on their televisions at night still have a huge impact on what they wear the next morning, how they walk and talk. Imagine if we had as many Black scientist, doctors, lawyers, astronauts (See CBS’ Extant on Wednesday nights to watch Halle Berry play one. Hurry up though, the show looks like it’s on it’s last legs.) and police officer as prominent characters on television? What impact could that make on a larger scale instead of just T.I. and Stevie J?
I live in Atlanta and make it a habit of watching the local news every night despite how much of the coverage is focussed on criminal acts by young (and old) Black men in and around the city’s perimeter. Too many times for me to count there are pictures and video footage of Black people committing crimes. (NOTE: my attention is focussed on the Black experience thus it’s not important to point out the number of white criminals displayed on my television screen.) My goal as a journalist is to point this out and then provide a solution.
Solution:
Wear your clothes the way they are supposed to be worn. That goes for gentlemen and ladies alike. The appearance you project is 50 percent of what you’re going to get out of an experience. Compare walking into a bank with a shirt and tie compared with a pair of jeans down by your knees and a dirty t-shirt. There is no comparison regardless the fact if the suit and tie guy is broke and the sagging jeans guy is a millionaire-the better the appearance the better the initial reaction be you Black or white. The main difference is that WE have to start all of our endeavors with a bit more polish if we are to ever be seen as equals.
As an American I believe every citizen has the ability to succeed. As a Black man I know that I have to work harder for what I believe I deserve in regards to my profession, my home, my family’s success, happiness (whatever that may mean.). Ultimately I want to see my people, the next generation in particular, become proud examples of the Black power and progress. The argument that we have made so much progress from 1619 when we were brought over here by our oppressors is ridiculous. Of course we have made progress from being enslaved. Who the hell hasn’t? Every number is higher than zero. That doesn’t make it a whole lot. This generation has a perfect example of what hard work can ultimately lead to. Of what a solid education-public or private-can potentially lead to.
The President of the United States is a black man. The United States of America where generations of Blacks were enslaved, beaten, raped, robbed of both their pride and their history for hundreds of years. He is your guiding light. Why not chase him? Maybe because it’s going to be hard. Maybe being a rapper or wanna-be tough guy is much easier. Or cooler to tell your friends. Heck, if you think that’s too far fetched, can’t really relate to a man living in D.C. from Hawaii. Understood, how about becoming the mayor of a city of over five million people. Atlanta has a Black man in charge too, Mayor Kasim Reed. Enough with the excuses, in the immortal words of the Goodie Mob and Outkast (Atlanta natives both); Get up, get out and get something….with Black pride.
Staff Writer; Donnell Suggs
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