(ThyBlackMan.com) “At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. ‘But suppose God is black’, I replied. ‘What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?’ There was no answer. Only silence.”
– Robert Kennedy
What does it mean to be a black man in America today? Does he have a singular identity, or does he wear many different hats; perhaps too many? Does he speak a certain way? How does he dress? This question, no matter how one bends it, is as pertinent as any issue in the black community has ever been. I 
for one believe it to be the most important at the moment because of some alarming trends that I see prevailing among our young men today, as well as old ideologies that continue to pervert their sense of responsibility, nobility, originality, and leadership. These trends or, as my father would say, cultural traps that our young men are falling into are scattered all over this matrix like snares waiting for the silly, unsuspecting rabbit to hop right in. Most are hidden in dark corners where one cannot readily see the peril ahead, but some are brilliantly hidden in the light of day. These are the most dangerous because they come with small distractions that take away from how obvious they are. Remember the movie, the woman in the red dress, the second time Neo looks at her; he is staring down the barrel of a gun. We as black men have been face to face with this same gun for years, but the woman in the red dress is a genius. Always ten steps ahead, she changes her look, her smell, and even her beliefs all in a determined effort to keep us from completely realizing our original manhood and the responsibility that comes with it.
In the case of the black man and America, the woman is in a shabby red, white, and blue tank top, black leggings, a pair of pink Jordan X’s, over sized jewelry dangling from her ears, wrists, and neck, eyeglasses without lenses, and her lily white skin is covered in tattoos that range from Peanuts characters to lines from Kerouac’s On the Road. When she agrees or finds something cool she simply says, “Swag”. Her smell is the sweet, care free, attention grabbing scent of social media. It has taught us how to beg for attention, forsaking all sense of dignity and respect. But don’t be lured in by these pheromones and get too close black man. Stay in your place. Stay quiet and humble. It isn’t cool for you to be outrageous; unless of course you practice her religion. She gave it to us not long after we arrived in chains, physically bound to one another. And in another stroke of genius, she threw on us the idea that we could not possibly be unique in any way, or able to depend solely on ourselves as opposed to a man, who by most accounts, was actually God incarnate. And with this, it became ok for us to cry uncontrollably and scream and shout “Jesus!” every Sunday in order to receive blessings from heaven above.
So you see, Miss America or the Woman in the Red Dress, or the woman I’ve created in the lines above, has made it her objective to emasculate the black man since her inception. Her religion has thrived in the black man’s mind, keeping him slave to a weak and submissive mentality that manifests itself in almost his every word and deed. Furthermore, I believe that her brand of Christianity has contributed, if only slightly, to the rise of homosexuality among black men. How? I haven’t quite put my finger on it but I’ll soon figure it out. Perhaps this Christian God does work in mysterious ways. Either way, just as this dogma was not ours originally, it was never in the original man’s nature to desire another man.
Her scent has taught the black man to act out for fame and all the wrong reasons. With the atom bomb of social media, first Facebook and now Twitter, dropping on society and rendering it helpless much like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the black man has fallen in line and learned to sit at a computer screen hurling insults and showing off his ignorance. He has somehow gotten the nerve to ask everyone in the world to follow him yet when he says or does something regrettable, he admonishes or even dismisses the people for taking him too seriously. The black man on Twitter wants all the attention and none of the responsibility that comes with it. Why? Because he has no idea who he really is.
And finally the look of her has morphed into a tempting, irresponsible façade that encourages the black man to believe that he is without a true purpose, that nothing matters except acquiring wealth and status, and that he should only concern himself with what could possibly affect him in a direct way. The black man went from sagging his baggy pants to sagging his skinny jeans. He went from wearing clothes that were too big and brooding to wearing everything with a European cut and with as many bright and mismatched colors as possible. And we all know that with the outfit comes the implication of a certain lifestyle. In this case it is a reckless one that encourages excess; one invented by rich white kids with too much time to waste. This bohemian way of living belongs to a coward, someone afraid of life’s challenges and obligations.
What I am trying to say, what I have been saying, is that through Christianity, social media, and the hipster culture of irresponsibility the black man has allowed himself to be emasculated and stripped of his identity in a land that he was never welcome in to begin with. He has fallen into these various cultural traps and become a clown who, ironically enough, is still far more influential on mainstream white America than white America itself. But he has allowed himself to become a follower who hides behind an ambiguous religion, technology, material gain, and witty rap lyrics candy coated in a sort of devil may care gangsterism totally antithetical of a time when black people were rebelling and fighting with the right goals in mind.
Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone said that it is ok for women and children to be careless but not men. Not only was he right, but this sentiment is extremely applicable for the black community inAmerica.
Enjoy your life. Have fun, especially while you are young. But you have to know balance. Every once in a while look in your soul. Observe the world around you and then look at your hands. Think about how they can build instead of destroy. Think about your heritage. Learn who you are and where you come from.
Black man, you are great. Light leaps off of your skin wherever you go. So have some dignity and recognize the responsibility that comes with your nature. Don’t let them continue to steal your identity. Find your way back to originality. Black men, lets find our way back to being kings.
Staff Writer; Jeremy Tate
To learn more about this talented brother feel free to visit; Return of the Black King.
One may also purchase JT book which is entitled; Heaven and Hell and Eating Too Many Lemon Heads.
