THE STORIES OF BLACK MEN: January 2015

ON MARTIN LUTHER KING’S LEGACY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BLACK AMERICAN MEN TO THEIR COMMUNITIES:

Kings legacy reaches beyond the millions of Black American men whose passion and suffering his own reality was closest to as a Black American man himself. Today black men in America must honestly ask themselves if they have kept his prophetic teachings sacred living lives exemplifying their principles… have they maintained family and community integrity laying a firm foundation for generations to come...To many who have striven to uphold King’s dream it may appear as if many black men have died unto their responsibility for the perpetuation of peaceful humanitarianism becoming social, ethical and moral corpses… We must all ask ourselves if it is possible that this is true and commit ourselves to honestly answer that question. The black community is dying fast, this is not a prediction or probability it is a grim reality. As resilient as black people have been to slavery, racism and literally one form of oppression after the next there is a real physical limitation that any people can endure and for black people in America that fateful time appears to be already behind them, what is left are shreds of an embittered struggle now lost now won now lost... The Black American community has long since deteriorated beyond all reasonable recognition as a functional and cohesive community, what is left in it's place is a corrupt and confused shell of bravado and forgetfulness. To say black people in America must confront issues they have conveniently ignored such as black on black crime if they ever hope to become strong enough to survive let alone combat external racism is an understatement but a truth every other race and ethnic group is clearly aware of except Black Americans. If this is not self-induced blindness what is?

Black on black crime is an internal cancer preventing the black community from moving forward, in order to move forward black people must eradicate drugs, crime and ignorance from their streets and homes, they must make it clear to criminals returning from prison into their community that they will not tolerate the furtherance of violence and crime and demonstrate their communities ability to have criminals who challenge their rules returned to jail thereby allowing their families, children and business to thrive. This means that the black intelligentsia must step up to the challenge ending their ivory tower isolationism, they must seize control over the black community replacing spurious icons manufactured by a profit driven media caring nothing for the stability of family and community life or for the great legacy of black peoples in this country. If the Black cannot do this they will certainly fail as a peoples and even Dr. Kings magnificent dream will not suffice to resurrect them! It is historically difficult for the black community to absorb and process this kind of criticism because they have an autonomic response to the abuses of racism dealt to them over many hundreds of years. So I offer this sober message deliberately presented as a real and perilous landscape so that it will wake black men up and not sugar-coat the issue, (if there is any), of their failure to rise to Dr. King’s challenge! Therefore, I say if any black man fails then all black men have failed! That sufficiently raises the stakes bringing all black men into full responsibility… I say this lovingly but know that my eyes and my heart see a grim picture and I do not know if real possibility that the black community can revitalize itself because hope and actuality are two very different things!