(ThyBlackMan.com) All of us have heard the cliché that talk is cheap as well as actions speak louder than words. Yet far too many African Americans are simply talking about, complaining about and meeting about what is happening to our people. Recently the Metro Atlanta Crime Commission unveiled a comprehensive, strategic, nationwide plan to end police brutality. But even as we told people about it, their slave-minded thinking kicked in. Some attacked it without ever having read the plan. Others told us what we needed to be doing. And yet others who say they want real solutions did not even want to hear the plan. So I asked each of these sleepwalkers “what are you doing to change things and save lives“? Our problems are much larger than police brutality but I use this example to illustrate and expose dangerous mindsets that have infected our community and our people.
My point is simple. Those who tend to criticize, refuse to listen and learn or reject plans they have not even read are those who tend to be part of the problem instead of being part of the solution . Closed minds represent fear, ignorance and slave-minded programming but seldom enact real solutions. And this is not just the case in our community with the issue of police brutality. This is true in almost every area where African Americans could step in to solve much of our own problems.
Stop waiting for someone else to bring the change that
needs to happen. You wake up, step up, stand up, start up, speak up. Make it happen. Yes YOU!
Too many of our people would simply blame someone else as the entire cause of the problem then expect the very people who deliberately caused the problem to be the ones to have an epiphany and fix it. Others simply want to criticize solutions yet offer none of their own. And yet others want to share ideas but make excuses and fail to get up, go out and implement their own ideas. Finally, others contribute more to the problem by being fearful, reluctant, ignorant and ambivalent than they would ever contribute to the solution. These are the roadblocks and destructive, divisive mindsets we face when tackling problems that impact the African American community and they must be purged from the minds of our people.
Some of the problems in the African American community are self-induced and others stay in place because we are helping them stay in place and cause damage.
African Americans with self-sabotaging, self-destructive and/or selfish mindsets fail to overstand our relationship to each other and how the whole is affected by and no greater than the sum of its parts. You are your brother’s keeper and what one of us does most certainly impacts all of us. Failure to realize this will open the door for our people to be prime candidates of Cointel Pro directly or indirectly, formally or informally, covertly or overtly and intentionally or unintentionally.
Government counter intelligence programs against our people have never stopped and they move forward even today with the help of technology as well as far too many of our people. Inside our movements to bring victory, equality, achievement and advancement to our people there are perpetrators, enemy agents, double agents, saboteurs, spies, informants, sell outs and opportunists – and in coming articles I will tell you how to spot them. Many of them are even on radio and television and you know them by name. But that’s another topic for another time.
So what are you doing to bring about change in our schools, our communities, our police departments, our local government, our prisons, our judicial system, our families and amongst our people? If you have to ask what you could do, that is a clue that you do not know and that you are likely doing much of nothing. Clearly it is true that for evil to thrive, good men (and women) simply have to stand by and do nothing. If you want things to change, as Michael Jackson said, try “starting with the man in the mirror“. And if you are not willing to wake up, step up, step out, speak up and be a vessel of change, you have no right to complain when the problems, attacks and social ills come knocking on your door.
If you are not doing something to be a part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
How we treat, support and correct our young people brings about change. Refusing to support negative artists and images in concerts or on CDs (Nikki Minaj, Kanye, Jay-Z etc) brings about change. Turning away from the stereotypical poison such as the degradation of our women (strip clubs, prostitution etc.) and the emasculation of our men (Tyler Perry, Will Smith, Martin, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Terry Cruse, Empire etc.) is turning towards becoming a vessel of change.
Choose a side because if you do nothing, you have chosen the other side.
Turning away from drugs that cloud our minds (weed) when we need our minds to be alert, awake and aware now more than ever is stepping up to be a vessel of change. Don’t be a zombie. Speaking out against the problems within our community on radio, TV, social media, spoken word and articles like this one is stepping up to be a vessel of change. But we cannot afford to be too busy being entertained by basketball games, video games, fake housewives of somewhere, reality shows and concerts to stand by while our people are annihilated. Turn off your entertainment and turn on your proactive mind.
Do what you can do but do something to change something, somewhere. And simply giving to your church so they can go do it for you is a poor excuse for your proactive contribution. We cannot ever hope to win the battle without if we will not even begin to fight the battle within. Share this message with everyone you know. And if any of you want to know what else you can do to help, contact me at atlantacrimecommisssion@yahoo.com
Staff Writer; Marque-Anthony
