Thursday, March 28, 2024

Flawed Manhood Constructs Are Having On The Lives Of Our Young Males.

December 3, 2022 by  
Filed under Opinion, Relationships, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) For some reason, I have been having conversations with a trusted friend regarding what he terms “cultural constructs”; a fancy way of saying how black men view themselves. As is so often the case with such matters, God placed the perfect example of this malady in front of me to consider.

Let me preface this posting with an admission that I have changed from the educator who made repeated overtures to black males who openly resist the educational process. On-lookers would have termed my actions a stubborn refusal to allow these young brothers to fall by the wayside. Even when faced with obvious evidence that not even the engaging materials I shared in my African-American History courses was capable of interesting these individuals, I continued to engage and encourage them toward an engagement with academic subjects.

After the alluded to discussions over “cultural constructs” I more fully understand that many black males resistance to educational endeavors flows from a flawed understanding of what a black man ought to be and to do.

Two decades of experience teaching informs my belief that far too many of the black males sitting in my classes arrived with a flawed understanding of black manhood. I believe that it is this flawed understanding that serves as the primary catalyst behind their dour expectations. This gloominess routinely prevents their travel along a path capable of illuminating their minds and significantly improving their lives. Instead of being buoyed by the limitless possibilities that education provides, I have repeatedly witnessed many black males undercut their futures in disingenuous ways.

I remember the day several years ago when it became obvious that one of my male students had no interest in securing a quality education as it coincided with a favored lecture that discussed the linkages between declining central cities and the arrival of hip-hop culture. This particular topic is one of my favorites as it allows me to discuss Parliament’s lyrics that what we are witnessing are “Chocolate cities and vanilla suburbs” as well as the classic Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five song titled “The Message.”

The moment that I stepped into the class, it was obvious that one male student’s unpreparedness was not only deliberate, but also a ploy designed to communicate his lack of interest in any facet of learning. There is no greater sign of a young person’s declaration of war against education than the unmistakable aroma of marijuana wafting around him as if it were an aura. As if that were not bad enough, this particular student rolled a chair into the classroom in an obvious attempt to be disruptive and avoid sitting at a desk; I guess he reasoned that there was no need for a desk as he had neither a pen, pencil, or piece of paper to take notes. This young black male’s hostility to the educational process was not tempered by the reality that a robust discussion of hip-hop culture and African-Americans sat at the center of my lecture.

It was obvious to me that somewhere along his path in life, this young man developed a belief that it was him, not myself or his peers who were representing what a black man should be and ought to do. This individual’s decision to enter and exit the lecture hall at least five times prior to falling asleep in his seat were additional overwhelming evidence offering deafening commentary regarding his resistance to the educational process, regardless of subject matter. Decades of teaching have convinced me that such individuals are beyond my reach.

Let me be absolutely clear, I am not an apologist who denies the impact that discrimination and institutional racism have on African-American males, however, I also am a proponent for personal responsibility and the seizing of opportunities as they present themselves. Although the antics of many of my black male students are befuddling as they appear to be conscious attempts to work against their best interests.

My reflection on this issue has led me to the understanding that they are nothing other than prisoners held within self-imposed walls that hold their innate genius and vast potential hostage. Were I provided the opportunity, I would implore such individuals to re-examine everything that they think that they know about black manhood and re-consider their illogical understanding of what a black man ought to be and ought to do. It is in that space that they will find the initial steps toward liberation as a black man in this nation.

Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III

One may also connect with this brother via TwitterDrJamestJones.


Comments

2 Responses to “Flawed Manhood Constructs Are Having On The Lives Of Our Young Males.”
  1. john smith says:

    The Ghost of Colin Kaepernick

    By John Burl Smith author of “The 400th From Slavery to Hip Hop!”

    Sport heroes today come in all sizes, shapes, colors or genders and Brittney Griner is only one example. However, there is another story being kept out of the headlines, which the news media has dismissed as unimportant. This controversy involves Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones which I highlight in “The 400th From Slavery to Hip Hop!” I preference my premise with this statement, “White and Black people can experience or observe the same situation or event from the same position, at the same time and under the same conditions, yet come away with two totally different perceptions or entirely different scenarios.” The controversy is well known and is a situation white people have denied the relevance since they created it, beginning when the first enslaved African touched North American soil. Free Africans have been denied choice and voice since the first African was kidnaped and carried anywhere.

    I was impressed with the way LeBron James addressed the controversy and I agree with his approach. Today white people continue to minimize their role in this saga, even blaming the Black victims for not being able to change the situation white people created and enforced with a rope against any Black person who dared object to the condition forced upon them. American history books do not detail the facts of what white people created and enslaved Africans were forced to endure. Enslaving white people did not want their children to know how and what they did to accumulate the wealth they inherited. Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin is currently engaged in an effort to continue hiding the truth about slavery and what white people did to create and enforce slavery. Again, the point of the Jerry Jones controversy is he is someone who has benefitted enormously from the slavery system in America, which his parents were part of keep slavery’s descendants locked on the bottom of that system, so they could not compete against white people. These facts are well known, even though white people kept such facts out of history books, the reality is before everyone’s face, even if white people refuse to open their eyes to bear witness to their parent’s handiwork which gave them the great life they are living.

    Back when Colin Kaepernick first kneeled (9/1/2016) to highlight the foregoing history I presented, white people went berserk and Jerry Jones was a leader among declaring, “I will bench any of my players who take a knee!!!” What would have been the response in the press, back then, if the photo of Jerry Jones attending the rally of white protesters, trying to stop Black children from receiving the same education white children were receiving? My question is what process did Jerry Jones undergo that scrub his mind of the racist hatred he received at home? Why Jerry Jones was there misses the whole point of why Black children had and still have to face white protest preventing them from receiving what the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 gave them?

    Jerry Jones, as other white Americans, has never faced any opposition getting access to America’s bounty. Their entitlement not only gives them access, but their access, gives them the right and ability to deny slavery’s descendants access to what white people cordon off as part of their white privilege. This is why Colin Kaepernick kneeled and Jerry Jones rose up to take part in Kaepernick’s lynching, as he and his parents did in Little Rock. Back then they were revered and received no blow back but were cheered and affirmed that day at the protest against integration. Black people do not look at the child Jerry Jones was then, we look at the man he has become, and how he has used white privilege to wield power to limit, even destroy any Black person’s access or opportunity he chooses. That is the lesson Jerry Jones learned at that protest and the world has his picture to show he did not miss school that day. So he learned his lesson well!!!

    “The 400th From Slavery to Hip Hop!” takes readers back to before the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to show that the wealth Europeans and Americans enjoy today began with slavery. The Jerry Jones of the world live lives based on the stolen bodies of Africans; hence their wealth is a stolen legacy. White people may be able to keep these facts out of history book, but they can never keep this knowledge out of slavery’s descendants’ minds.

  2. ROBERT C. MITCHELL says:

    I’m trying to think hard on this, but, to my recollection, I never met a young black male disinterested in his education if his father is in the home and leading the home.
    The huge elephant in the room of the black community’s dysfunction from education to the hideous crime rate is correlated to the lack of nuclear families. Period. This is never spoken of. We are in full rebellion against God.

    Check bid. I said we.

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