Why African Americans Are Going Backwards.

by Staff October 22, 2015 7 Comments News Opinion Relationships Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) In the 1800’s African Americans were in the congress of the United States. African Americans even owned slaves and/or indentured servants (no I am not bragging about that). By the 1920s we had Black Wallstreet, the most successful business community circulation of the dollar that has ever existed in this country among any group. In the 1940s Harlem was just like in the movie Harlem Nights – African American class, status, wealth and to a point, financial independence. But how then do we get from there to where our communities are now? High dropout rates, infidelity, drug abuse, prostitution, theft, “black on black” crime, incarcerations, divorce rate increases, dilapidated neighborhoods, low self-esteem and self-sabotaging behavior all have invaded and infected the African American community like never before. But why?

The first reason is because each generation has less and less proactive, productive participation. We have made the excuse that we are too busy. We have become complacent with a $40,000 annual salary, a house and two cars – presupposing we have arrived. We have gotten mentally fat and lazy. And it is getting worse every generation.

The second reason is because our community has largely redefined what success looks like. We have become infatuated with King celebrations and commemorations instead of launching our own dreams and visions. Does anybody else have a dream? Too many African Americans accept comedians (Bill Cosby), godless talk show hosts (Oprah), trashy young women (Nikki Minaj) and rappers who call us nigga (Jay-Z) as role models. But none of them are going to pay your bills.

TOO MANY OF US ARE IN DENIAL AND SO USED TO DARK IGNORANCE THAT IS SEEMS NORMAL

Ironically, none of the above are successful in family, honor and integrity all at once – only financially. Looking at and admiring the wrong thing causes many of our people to set the wrong goals, follow the wrong people and emulate the wrong behavior. Our people spend far too much time living vicariously through blow up dolls like the KarTrashians, the fake housewives of where ever and athletes who end up broke, divorced or passed out in whore houses. African Americans, in many cases, are not mastering reality – they are trying to avoid it. Enter marijuana use and addiction, neither of which ever solved any problems.

The third reason is because so many of our people misdirect their energy and efforts into activities that make us feel good but take us nowhere. This is what comes after reason number two above. Entertainment has taken center stage and our people have to have it as if it is a drug. The choir in church, the play, the game, the concert, the video game and the music all stimulate our entertainment center of the brain while our intellectual center gets dull and goes dormant. Thus reason number 4.

The fourth reason is because our people have allowed themselves to be “dumbed down” without even knowing it. This is directly related to reason number three and part of the natural progression thereafter. Our heads hurt when we are required to think on a higher level or face the truth in the mirror. We shy away from reading a book unless its “facebook“. And we don’t want to know who won the presidential debate because we have to watch the game or the hip hop awards. Just as in the movie They Live, we have been lulled to sleep and turned into zombies. Is it any wonder that in 2011 the CDC put out a zombie control plan?

The fifth reason is because our people have accepted that the corporate plantation or the federal government are their only or primary means of survival. How would you survive if you lost your job tomorrow? Every election many of us hope for a President who will walk on water, wave a magic wand and fix our lives. Generations of our people before us could not rely on those agencies or institutions and thus had to rely on themselves and each other. But as soon as desegregation hit, the power of our dollar and our support for each other migrated out of our community like a rocket. Now we hardly own anything in our own neighborhoods and the Asians have the businesses we should have to help our own communities.

EACH GENERATION CARES LESS ABOUT THE COMMUNITY, THE FUTURE AND THEMSELVES

The sixth reason is the loss of accountability in the African American community. Our people of today largely fail to realize we are all connected and what one does affects many more of us. We won’t tell our little cousin to stop stealing TVs because we are too busy trying to get one from him “for the low”. We have accepted the deterioration of our morality and our spirituality and roles have become lost or confused. Our men don’t know what they are, how they should act or who they should desire. Our women don’t know how to be ladies instead of “gettin money“. We neither participate in our children’s schools nor push their education. We don’t check their homework anymore, help them with it or sit down for dinner as a family. Instead everyone claims they are too busy. The Xbox and Playstation are raising and programming our children and parents are either not paying attention or participating as a part of the problem.

THESE ARE ONLY A FEW REASONS OUT OF MANY

Have we made progress? Yes. But a man who looks like us in the White House is hardly enough and that is not the ultimate sign of progress. Do the statements I have made include every African American? Certainly not but far too many of our people are included. We have a shortage of leaders and our people make the mistake of staying frozen until the next one arises. But your leader is in the mirror and you make things happen for you and your family. You, not the church, not the government, not the corporation. Herein lies confidence and self-sufficiency. I am not leaving out God but He does not have to pay your bills and live your life – you do.

You have been given everything you need to survive, excel and thrive if you would just wake up! No more excuses. It is not hopeless and you are not helpless, if you only wake up!

Staff Writer; Marque-Anthony

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Marque Anthony says:
October 27, 2015 at 1:29 am
Gusto11 you are the perfect and ideal slave, a person who criticizes the plan, idea or analysis to escape the plantation but offers nothing yourself. I have gotten several emails from people who are laughing at you and shaking their heads. On the other hand, look at my numbers.
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Marque Anthony says:
October 27, 2015 at 1:26 am
To Realman2, great points but I keep hoping and helping. One man can make a difference.
To Gusto11, can you read? The solutions are not for me to create alone. Where are your solutions? I have written dozens of articles with specific solutions and changed lives all over this country, thus I don’t have to justify myself to you. Where, again, are your solutions? You are part of the problem, African Americans who complain about those of us out here helping people yet you offer virtually NOTHING.
My name is not fake but you are. A critic with no impact on anything unless its negative. As for John Gault, if you understood the meaning of that name, you would not have made your comments. it went right over your head. Zoom. Thinking you know something but really knowing nothing, wow. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE GUSTO11?
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Realman2 says:
October 25, 2015 at 12:04 pm
For the last 60 to 50 years black america has been going through a dumb down cycle. Anti-Intellectism is, unfortunately, here to stay regarding black America. Until Negroes get serious about education and stop putting other black people down for doing well in school we are doomed. it always amazed me how most black folks looked down on the smart ones by telling them you are acting white, while never thinking that if white equates to being intelligent then being black must be total stupidity and blissful ignorance. smh.
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gusto11 says:
October 25, 2015 at 7:02 am
Great job explaining problems without giving solutions.
Why do you think we have these problems and realistically what can be done on a mass scale to improve them ?
One of the problems is internet activist like yourself who use fake names to hide behind (Marque-Anthony or is it John Gault) who are ignorant of the political, economic, and social conditions which contribute to the struggles of our people. These fake activist also lie about their credentials and achievements for selfish self promotion.
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Marque Anthony says:
October 25, 2015 at 6:43 am
Nicholas I here you and I have had the same experiences. That is because of a slave attitude that we can get over on each other, that we can do just enough to barely make it and that we can charge as much as we can get away with. In order to do business with us, we have to do our best for us as a personal standard. The expectation of self is far too low.
The Seven Black Presidents Before Barack Obama
December 1, 2008
Were There Black US Presidents before? The people thought that Barack Obama is the first black President of the United States. Wrong.
1. John Hanson (a Moor) was actually the 1st President of the United States, he served from 1781 – 1782 and he was black. The new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781 with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation. This document was actually proposed on June 11, 1776, but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777. Maryland refused to sign this document until Virginia and New York ceded their western lands (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land).
Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the country. John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress.
As President, Hanson ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as well as removal of all foreign flags. He established the Great Seal of the United States, which all Presidents since have been required to use on all Official Documents. He declared that the 4th Thursday of every November to be Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today. Even though elected, one variable that was never thought through was that America was not going to accept a Black President during the heart of the enslavement period. Enter George Washington.
2. Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd President of the United States, he served from 1801 – 1809 and he was black. His mother a half-breed Indian squaw and his father a mulatto (half white and half black) from Virginia. He fathered numerous children with Sally Hemmings, a mulatto slave with whom he lived with in Europe.
3. Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States. He served from 1829 – 1837 and he was black. His mother was a white woman from Ireland who had Andrew Jackson with a black man. His father’s other children (Andrew Jackson’s stepbrother) was sold into slavery.
4. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, he served from 1861 – 1865 and he was black. His mother was from an Ethiopian Tribe and his father was an African American. It was told that his father was Thomas Lincoln, a man to cover the truth, but he was sterile from childhood mumps and was later castrated, making it impossible for him to have been his father. Lincoln’s nickname “Abraham Africa-nus the First.”
5. Warren Harding was the 28th President of the United States, he served from 1921 – 1923 and he was black. Harding never denied his ancestry. When Republican leaders called on Harding to deny his “Negro” history, he said, “How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence?”
6. Calvin Coolidge was the 29th President of the United States, he served from 1923 – 1929 and he was black. He proudly admitted that his mother was dark but claimed it was because of a mixed Indian ancestry. His mother’s maiden name was “Moor.” In Europe the name “Moor” was given to all Black people just as in America the name “Negro” was used.
7. Dwight E. Eisenhower was the 33rd President of the United States, he served from 1953 – 1961 and he was black. His mother, Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower, an anti-war advocate, was half black.
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Nicholas says:
October 22, 2015 at 9:29 pm
Black people can not expect to thrive in the world, until we stop leaving the education of our children in the hands of the establishment. They train our children how to be good workers for them and not for themselves or their people. Many of us are quite proud to say we spend $1 trillion a year with the establishment while black businesses fail every day. I recently spent $6,600 with a Mexican plumber after an exhaustive search for a reputable black plumber in my area. What am I suppose to do?
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aj says:
October 22, 2015 at 6:36 pm
THAT IS SO TRUE
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