(ThyBlackMan.com) I write this from a very personal point of view.
Marcus Book Store, the oldest Black bookstore in the country, is on the verge of being evicted from their home and business location in San Francisco. Why? Because some people involved made some bad choices, and because we as Black people have abandoned our community.
I say community, but only in word and not actual definition. We as Black people really don’t have a real community anymore. We have neighborhoods where we live, but no community. Now, even our neighborhoods are being taken away from us. Why? Because we as a people have allowed our neighborhoods to be taken because of our selfish, individual ways. We act like whatever happens is okay as long as it doesn’t affect us, except when something so outrageous happens, like the Trayvon Martin murder. Then we
finally stand together. Why do we always wait for the worst-case scenario to happen before we come together?
Have we become so desensitized to what is going on that we literally don’t care about what happens to our families, friends, businesses, and community? These are some serious questions that need to be answered if we are to ever come together as a real community. I admit I don’t have all the answers, but I do know it starts and ends with us. We can’t continue to blame people outside our community for the things that are happening now inside our community.
Yes, it’s a fact that our problems were initially created by people outside the community, and racism is alive and well, but we have taken those problems and expanded them to the point where it’s acceptable for our daughters to be whores and our sons to be bastards. We now pass this mindset on, from generation to generation. I don’t need to go into details about these problems; they’re talked about on a daily basis.
But instead of working together to solve our problems, we continue to look outside for the solution when the solution stares at you in the mirror everyday. The troubles of Marcus Book Store are a microcosm of a bigger problem. If we care so little about some of our most important institutions, then what does that say about us as a people?
Marcus Book Store was created to house and showcase some of our greatest writers, historians, educators, inventors, and others who look like us. Over the years the family that founded and runs the store has worked with the Black Panthers in the sixties, held meetings for other important groups, and created space for the community, in the days when we really had community in San Francisco, and still do this today. They educated the uneducated, including myself. They easily and eagerly shared their knowledge and wisdom with whoever came in the store to ask them. Those that created and sustained Marcus Book Store have done more things than I have room to write about. You can look them up and see for yourselves the contributions they’ve made to the total Black community in San Francisco, across the country, and across the world.
I put part of the blame for the fall of our communities and institutions on our so-called leadership. They are the biggest examples of selfish and individualistic attitudes. They only come out when the cameras are around or when it’s in their best interest. They continue to tell us to rely on the government as our savior, when in fact we’re the only ones who can save us.
This leads to the fact that we are also to blame for the situation we find ourselves in as a community. I believe and know we can solve our own problems if we only do the thing that brought us out of slavery and allowed us to make it this far. That most important thing is Unity. Our ancestors can’t be resting peacefully knowing that what they fought, struggled, and died for has led us to abandon each other in order to fit into the ways of others outside of our communities.
So what is the solution? The solution is simple, not easy, but simple. We have to start spending more time and money with people who are already solving the problems in our community. Black people are solving problems all across the country. You don’t hear much about them because they’re too busy working on the problems. They’re not looking for the cameras. They rarely get recognition, until someone finally reports about the great things they’re doing or have done in many cases, or we hear that their work is being endangered.
The family that founded Marcus Book Store means the world to me and to many others who’ve had the honor and pleasure to meet them. If we don’t support such people and their institutions, people and institutions who have given their all to make sure we know who we are and what we need to do, then who will? Who will we blame for not supporting the real people who support us? Look in the mirror.
Staff Writer; Terrance Amen
This brother is also author of Black Unity: The Total Solution to Financial Independence and Happiness. For more information, go to http://www.blackunitythetotalsolution.com.