(ThyBlackMan.com) Anyone who has spent time around black folk realizes that when it comes to be offended, the level of anger that results from the transgression is largely determined by the offending party’s identity. Put simply; all offenses are not addressed equally by black folk.
When one considers the physical brutality, pervasive disrespect, and economic exploitation that blacks have endured at the hand of “whites” for a moment, it should be clear that there are a plethora of ineffective responses that blacks implement.
Within inner-city areas that have yet to be gentrified, data proves that the primary victims of violence are black. Of course, the 
identity of the perpetrators of such violence falls in two categories:
(a) blacks
or
(b) law enforcement officers. At this moment, I am compelled to ask you, the reader, to fight against an irresistible tendency to defend “the boys in blue” as if this is a covert attack against them. Please abaondon such unproductive knee-jerk reactions and accept the reality that tenuous relations between blacks and police officers is a standard fixture in Black America.
In many ways, it is reasonable to expect that a cocktail of economic poverty, marginal social status, and the absence of hope would eventually produce a black populace whose worldview is best characterized by Cedric the Entertainer. The famed comedian summed up the alluded to philosophy as one of “I wish a Nigga would.” Put simply; there are large segments of Black America who answer their marginalized status with a stern and readily available rebuke. All that the alluded to individuals need is for the offender to be what they consider a Nigga.
To the shock of many, I have never obscured the reality that I hail from a working-class black community that provided me unfettered access to the poverty and ignorance that naturally produces a frightening “me against the world” mentality. it is this mentality that serves as the primary motivation behind the actions of many of my peers. The “me against the world” mentality drives many poor and working-class blacks flawed thinking that their marginal socioeconomic position justifies their life of criminality and social dysfunction.
What amounts to a pursuit of “fools gold” invariably transforms poor and working-blacks into a modern-day Bigger Thomas, the protagonist in Richard Wright’s classic novel, Native Son. The alluded to modern day Bigger Thomas’ spend a lifetime seeking and failing to secure a fair shake from White America. If nothing else, the alluded to population mirrors America’s greedy avaricious ends-justify-the-means economic priorities. Despite what naive blacks and clueless whites posit, these modern-day Bigger Thomas’ are the by-product of a flawed nation, not a curse from a vengeful God.
There is little room to debate the fact that modern-day Bigger Thomas’ remain committed to fending off any form of disrespect presented by their black peers. In their hyper-masculine world, verbal disrespect is worthy of a death sentence.
This understanding of how black men consider both themselves and those around them removed any level of surprise when I learned of a recent occurrence of black-on-black violence in Suffolk, Virginia. It was in this small town that 44-year-old Michael Jermell Hatton shot 47-year-old Tony Jonathan Lundy, a youth counselor, after a robust debate regarding if Halle Berry should portray Aretha Franklin in a yet to be discussed biopic about the ‘Queen of Soul.’
I wish that I possessed the ability to point with certainty to the foremost catalyst behind the absolute foolishness these two middle-aged black men. Is it a lack of home training? Is it a determination by black men to maintain their manhood against other black men? Who really knows where this type of foolishness hails.
One thing is for sure, it is time that such figures be ostracized by other black men and women. We can no longer afford such foolish individuals. It is time that Black America realizes that there are at least two separate populations within our midst. One group are characterized as productive grown black men capable of making decisions from a logical moral compass regarding what is appropriate and inappropriate for themselves and those that they are responsible for and then there is another population who find the above lifestyle reprehensible. It is this latter group that needs to be ostracized from our midst as they offer nothing positive for anyone.
It is time that Black America becomes serious about this process of separating the wheat from the chaff. Although the alluded to process promises to be an excruciatingly difficult one, it is still necessary.
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.
