(ThyBlackMan.com) An examination of American Reconstruction reveals that southern plantation owners foremost fears revolved around the erosion of a biased and opportunistic Southern culture that supported their wealth and political interests. Southern aristocrats understood that it was their oppressive culture that was more important than their wealth. It was the maintenance of their cultural priorities that held the key to their longevity.
These southern gentlemen would rather destroy the nation than discard their cultural priorities. It is this emphasis on culture that offers the greatest lessons for present-day African-Americans. Unfortunately, the importance of culture is consistently ignored by self-professed “race men and race women.”
In regards to the linkage between cultural priorities and racial uplift, some of the most poignant commentaries emanate from famed comedian, Chris Rock. We must remember that it was Rock who aired a significant portion of Black America’s dirty laundry when he stood before millions of fans and declared that there is “a civil war going on between Black folk and Niggers. And Niggers have got to go.” Although millions of older blacks cringed at both the word use and the fact that Rock issued his shocking assertion before whites, younger educated African-Americans applauded the famed comedian’s words as they supported their own beliefs.
Make no mistake about it, Chris Rock’s piercing observation delves into one of Black America’s dirtiest pieces of laundry. This stinking garment represented the fact that there is a segment of Black America that has repeatedly proven that the only thing they enjoy more than anti-social behavior is denigrating those offering reliable forms of racial uplift such as educational opportunities.
Even the most politically progressive blacks have observed that there seems to be social, intellectual, and cultural poverty that has infected those that Rock maligns. According to Chris Rock, “Nothing makes a nigga happier than to not know the answer to your question.” The statement mentioned above is frequently addressed behind closed doors by African-Americans who have secured some level of educational success.
One is hard-pressed to argue against the contention that the blessing and the curse of culture are that it does not change immediately; it gradually alters via subtle changes that are indiscernible to the unobservant. Once the alluded to changes become discernible, significant change has already occurred.
It is impossible to identify a single villain in a process that has rendered many African-Americans hostile toward intelligence. Make no mistake about it; this is where a portion of Black America resides. Consider for a moment that African-American children who excel inside of the classroom are branded as ‘acting white’ by their classmates. Although impossible to pinpoint the moment that this unfortunate denigration of education began, a great reasonable starting point is an examination of contemporary “ends-justify-the-means” economic formulas that justifies any and everything as long as it is profitable in the end. This message is piped into African-American homes via ‘reality television’ shows on a continual basis that lead those absent an understanding of black culture to believe that the anti-social behavior and antics they consume to be the personification of blackness.
The adoption of a cultural framework and value system that makes the pursuit of money and material goods the ultimate goal serves as the pivot that causes many African-American problems. It is this pursuit of money that serves as one of the foremost causes of the ‘dumbing down’ of Black America. Materialism frequently leads one to a position of wallowing in an ignorance that begets a lack of politicization, that begets, economic ignorance, that begets poverty, which reinforces the initial step in this devilish process.
The alluded to priorities has manufactured a group of blacks whose sole priorities are the pursuit of and consumption of material goods to the detriment of not only themselves but also future generations. It is this population of individuals whose pursuit of the adornments of material success without the presence of any substance that Chris Rock term Niggas. And unbeknownst to them, the vast majority of the globe, particularly law-abiding African-Americans agree that it is time for them to go.
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.