Black Men Becoming Extinct, Must Be Saved

Black men have fought in wars, risked their lives for their families, raised their children, and been leaders – even president of the United States, although President Obama has more in common with White male Ivy League liberals than most Black men.

Actually, President Obama doesn’t have much to say on behalf of Black men, unless he’s telling us to be better fathers.  “[African American fathers] have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men,” Obama wrongly stated (unless he meant that most don’t live with the mother and child), contradicting a 2007 study by Boston College social psychologist Rebekah Levine Coley.  Her study, as well as others, found that Black men not living with their children were more likely to visit them than any other race or ethnic group of men.

Which is pretty funny to me – yes, funny.   Why?  Because practically every Black man I know, despite their socio-economic status, takes care of his kids, and goes through hell and high water to see his kids when he’s not the custodial parent.

The “Black absentee father” myth is not much different than the “there are no good single Black men” myth that Essence and Oprah like to celebrate from time to time, when they’re trying to speed up the growing tide of Black women running to date and marry men of other races of men.

Go figure?

If you listen to many Black women or the mainstream media, Black men are nothing but deadbeats, womanizers, and strip club-hopping jail birds.

When about seven percent of a population makes up over 50 percent of the prison population (yes, don’t believe the lies that say less), racism is at work – and putting in overtime.

Well, while perusing the Black website circuit, I came across a marine ad that kept popping up every time I clicked over to another page.  This is when something occurred to me: the ridiculousness of Black people encouraging their sons to go serve in the military (actually, it’s a bad idea for anyone, except the rich — it’s time for their sons to serve).  I suppose if a young Black man has no other options after graduating from high school, the military might be a good option for some.  But, in general, with so many of our sons in prison or dying from gun violence due to their associations with drugs, gangs the accompanying crimes, and their being targeted by the criminal justice system, we cannot afford to put the rest of our young Black men in harms way; they already have to worry about the police killing them.  There is no need for it and we let our politicians, as usual, convince us that we need to go to war on a regular basis, at least once every decade, so we end up destroying other country’s infrastructures, killing thousands (some estimates say over 100,000 of Iraq’s people died by the time the U.S. military was done doing their “job,”  and causing thousands of our own young men to die.

In the case of Black men being targeted by the criminal justice system, being the last hired and first fired, dying younger from health issues, and being racially profiled in every aspect of life, it’s apparent to me that the government should be declaring Black men, period, no matter what age, an endangered species.  Black men should be receiving a full-ride to college, tuition paid in full, homes, and jobs paying at least $60,000 a year.

But that would be too much like “right” for Americans, of all races, to stomach, despite our free slave labor.

But let’s go a step further:

Every Black man should also be able to attend a monthly meeting in which a room full of Black women will take turns walking up to the front of a room  and give a one minute presentation on why he, Brotha Homey, should date her.  After all the women speak, be it for one to two minutes, Brotha Homey will pick 10 women to date during the coming month, and if he finds one woman he wants to marry, he’ll stop dating.  And if he does marry the woman and she mistreats him, he will be able to divorce her within in a month of filing for divorce.

. . . And then I woke up!

But, really, Black women are doing pretty good these days; they’re attending college in greater numbers than Black men, buying houses, enjoying being glorified by the Tyler Perry’s of the world, and even raving about dating and marrying White guys now.

In fact, many Black female writers on television, on blogs and websites ignore Black men in their writings and discussions and feel that they have no use for them.  I mean, some Black women are so insane that they even act afraid of Black men they don’t know.  And you thought White women do the purse clutching, head-turning, and dodging when they see a Black man approaching.  Think I’m playing, watch them – doesn’t matter if you have a suit on or a baseball hat.  Too many of them have bought into the mainstream character assassination of the Black man.

You see it on their faces, most of them are angry and dismissive.  The problem is, however, their anger is nothing more than a result of, mainly, their poor dating choices.

So the world needs to find another pastime, other than bashing Black men.  The bottom line is that there’s a Racism problem going on here and Black men are the target because they are still the most feared human beings (and, yes, we are human beings, despite what many say) on the planet.  Maybe someone needs to remind the cavalcade of Black women running to the White guys of this.

You know, we are still their brothers, uncles, grandfathers, fathers, and sons.

About admin 173 Articles
My name is Walter Hilliard III. I have a B.S. degree in Public Administration and a Masters in Psychology (specialty in Media Psychology). I’m currently seeking publishers for a book focusing on Black Self-Destruction and two inspirational eBooks, having already published a multitude of articles in several different newspapers and magazines over the years. I’ve been a head basketball coach on the high school and college level, and taught success classes at a private college, created numerous community and college programs focusing on leadership, mentoring, college awareness (for inner-city kids), and employment and training. And I have worked as an employment and training manager, family therapist, behavior specialist, college retention specialist, juvenile detention center treatment supervisor, and a contractor, facilitating relationship and marriage education groups for couples. The purpose of Universal Soul Power is to confront negative media messages about African Americans, proliferate positive messages about the Black community, and inspire all those who are part of the universe, but especially African Americans, through my inspirational writings. The truth is that most African Americans haven’t lost their Spiritual Souls, yet (although some of us behave like we’ve lost our minds), but we have lost our “Soul” — that NewRhythmandBluesyContemporaryHipHopSoul that allows us to be compassionate, productive leaders who recognize what really matters in life and live our lives beyond fad terms like “Swag,” instead embracing more fulfilling concepts like being Calm, Cool, and Collected, and knowing what they are all about: being your “growing self,” dancing to your own Life Drum, in tune, on beat, unfazed by fear, and leaving the world a better place when they move on. Now dat’s Real Soul, and dat’s whatum talkin’ ’bout! Walter L. Hilliard III

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