(ThyBlackMan.com) Black America has had the pleasure of having an African American President over the last eight years, giving young black boys hope that there is no glass ceiling when it comes to reaching for their dreams. They have a positive image in the form of a black male who is family oriented and can be the head of the household…as well as the free world.
What black boys need now is positive role models in their everyday lives, in media, and in schools. With so many black boys (40%) being raised in female-led homes, it could hard for them to keep the hope that there is no glass ceiling and that black men are born to lead.
This country was built on the labor of black men and women, and of course, it left its effect in the minds of African Americans due to the oral history that is still being passed down to this day. The problem with the oral history that is shared among black Americans and beyond is that it never edifies the strength of the black man. What it does is edify the effeminate black man, the black man who was powerless to protect his homeland or his wife and children.
The black man ingrained in black America’s psyche is one of failure to protect his own and one who sold his soul…and people, in order to be seen in high esteem in the eyes of his people’s oppressors.
Today, you see the present day black man in the same light, by his own consent. It seems that the black man still has the DNA to stay tribal…or territorial in modern terms.
What has come from the black man’s genes as a means to keep his tribe together has become gang life and the fighting over neighborhoods in which they have no real ownership. Black men create crews of black boys and men and turn them into street soldiers. What was a disgrace in the eyes of black America (slavery), is now a way to legitimize their street cred. Felons are to be recognized as OG’s and must have respect in the street, while the black man who has assimilated into society and does the right thing, is looked down upon as a ‘square’.
Another issue facing black boys the fact that they are in a matriarchal society that simply isn’t working in their favor. Black women have taken on the historical role of their female ancestors. Tame the boys and take away their masculinity so they don’t be seen as a threat to society. In turn, they’ve created menaces to society; Men who are overly aggressive due to not being able to properly display their masculinity in the female-led household, for fear of getting it beaten out of them, and having the female emotions ingrained in their psyche from birth.
After generations of this kind of upbringing for the black man, there’s no wonder that their statistics are sobering.
According to this website, young black men tend to score below their counterparts in other racial groups when it comes to graduation rates, literacy rates, and college preparedness.
This could be to so many black boys being raised in single parent homes where they only see their mother when they awake, and right before bedtime. Who’s there to teach them how to read and to study or to take their education or broadening of their mind seriously? No one. So they look to other black males who were raised the same way, who indirectly raised themselves and each other and are now adept at street knowledge and how to get over on the law.
You can sit around a bunch of hood dudes and hear their conversations. The conversations are at grade school level, at best, and the conversations often deal with how to get over on the law, how to get back at someone (emotional, not logical response to conflict), degrading women, selling drugs and anything else that is detrimental to young black boys.
These conversations turn into lyrics for rappers to sing about and in turn, inspire a generation to think that their way is the way out.
How are boys going to grow up to become respectable adults with a mindset like that? How are they going to have a good education, when all they know is to rebel and act unruly in class, which accounts for the suspension rate of these boys?
How do these boys then choose to compensate for what they lack? Sex.
Sexual prowess accounts for the single parent rate, as black boys seem to think that they accomplish manhood by breeding with a girl or woman. They feel that they are more masculine if they see their women as prey to be conquered, so they can brag to their friends about it, giving their prey a bad name, which she has to accept. In turn, that girl or woman becomes a mother, probably a single mother…and the cycle continues.
Where are the black men who can show in a non-sexual, non-hyper-masculine way, that there is a way to break this cycle that breaks down black boys before they become adults?
Chicago’s answer is murder. There has to be a better way than to not value black boys at all, however.
The answer lies in black men who are now all grown up with emotional baggage that needs to be healed. The answer lies in them healing themselves and finding answers for the black youth. The black boys deserve better role models if there is constantly a commotion over racial equality within the black race.
Shouldn’t black men stop being hypocritical? If they know that they have emotional, spiritual and physical wounds from their upbringing, why create more wounds for others by not healing yourself before deciding that a bitch is better of well sexed, then left with a baby. That woman has to go through the same thing as their mothers.
Do better, black men. Do better for the sake of the black boys who have no choice but to see you as an elder and role model.
You pretend to speak for all american black when you only speak for a few.
while negating and vilifying the most successful – who are succeeding!, the black women who are always working, improving, seeking to learn more and do better – steadfastly doing the hard yards for family, If you want change they are for sure the best role models.
You’re exactly right, Celeste. EVERY child needs an adult role model to see and emulate, someone to show them how responsible, honorable adults act. I think Patricia missed the point. Black women are strong precisely because young black girls have the adult role models they need, where the lack of such role models makes it much more difficult for young black boys to grow into mature adult men. All upstanding black men need to become role models for some boys, whether their own children or others from the community. Only by starting to raise mature men will the problem be turned around.
If the issue with black men not being real models anymore and leaders has something to do with single women households, then why are so many black women leaders? Why are so many black women starting businesses? Why are black women more educated? Why are 45% of the new entrepreneurs black women over the last 10 years? Who are doing all of the killing of blacks? Is it the black woman or we blame that on the single woman household too, lmfao. How does the black women end up changing roles with the black man who will not go to school, start a legitimate business, will not learn tech skills to take their culture further, cringe at the thought of math and science, (I was a teacher for 11 years and the black boys always asked the girls to do their math work) will not create a product, will not use his brain and creativity to invent something…How is it that these so-called single moms doing it? No one puts a gun to a black woman’s head and say go to school, start this business. No one gives a black woman any money to start a business, BUT it’s the single moms fault that the black men are too lazy to get off their butts and do something outside of trying to be a rapper, a real nig**, ballplayer, and it’s the black woman’s fault, hhahahahhahahhaha…. I WILL DRINK TO THAT..