(ThyBlackMan.com) There is quite possibly no more hopeful phrase found in the lexicon of African-American men than “I am my Brother’s Keeper.” Within that succinct five word declarative sentence lies an unyielding hope that has bolstered the hopes and aspirations of droves of African-American men at some low-point in their life.
Unfortunately for black men, in the 21st Century this declaration of their commitment to being a solidified force against anything that threatens them or the millions of nameless African-American men that they have no tangible connection to has become little more than rhetorical phrase-mongering.
Let’s be honest about this matter, the vast majority of African-American males harbor some form of “beef” with one another for
reasons that even they cannot articulate. The rage that so many black men express to their counterparts does not have its genesis in any specific offense, rather, it is the payoff of being raised within a society that maligns “blackness” at every turn. Put simply, black-on-black rage is a predictable by-product of being socialized to view “blackness” as an omnipotent negative and an omnipresent problem by an oppressive white media and non-representative educational school curriculum.
There is no room to debate that this socialization serves as the primary context for both the development of a toxic manhood and daunting view of all things black. It is this reality that makes the answering of the important question of “Am I my brother’s keeper?” a convoluted mess. I have found that those who answer this query with a unequivocal “YES!!!!” are completing what amounts to a socially appropriate ‘nicety’ that reveals their failure to correctly analyze this matter. Truthfully, a much better question is, “Do black men consider each other brothers?”
Despite our fervent desire to answer this question affirmatively, the truth of the matter is that it should only be answered on a case-by-case basis as our kind has been infiltrated by a host of individuals who maintain a single-minded priority to get ahead materially, even at the cost of compromising our collective well-being. Consider for a moment the sentiments of the late Tupac Amaru Shakur who cryptically foretold his own demise at the hand of a “brother” in his classic track Only God Can Judge Me. Tupac asserted “And they say that it’s the white man that I should fear. But it’s my own kind doing all the killing here.” As you well know, Tupac is not the only “brother” who has looked down the barrel of a gun that his “brother” was holding for some unspecified reason.
In many ways, those, such as myself, who are holding on to an antiquated collectivist racial construct are operating out of a make-believe black solidarity that has little grounding in either a mythical past or a frightening present. I am not ashamed to relate that my current interactions with African-American males is governed by an all too real caution and well-deserved skepticism; issues that an extremely vocal minority of black males has made necessary.
So although I would like to confidently relate that “I am my brother’s keeper,” I simply can’t. My resistance to fully embracing this rhetorical cliché is a result of my living long enough to realize that Chuck D’s admonishment that “Every brother ain’t a brother” carries significant weight. With the benefit of hindsight, I have begun to view tales of a general brotherhood that glued black men together in past times as little more than a well-spun fable. In many ways, it does not matter if such times ever existed as the present is all that matters.
it is this present moment that leads me to the realization that I am not every black man’s keeper, because very few of them have either behaved as or have the intention of ever being my brother. Unfortunately, the traditions that forged a collectivist racial identity are largely vanquished from Black America and within that ruin lays the reason that “every brother ain’t a brother.”
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.