All posts by Dr. James Thomas Jones III

African-American Males, African-American Men, Black Males, Black Men

Are Black Men and Black males (of all ages) engaged in a Civil War?: The Case of Excusing the Issuing of some “Act Right”

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On January 15, 1991, famed rap group Gang Starr released their legendary album, Step in the Arena. It is no overstatement to say that Guru and DJ Premier’s contribution to Hip-Hop culture still reverberates at the present moment. Some music outlets went so far as to call the album “the greatest Hip-Hop album of all time.”

For our purposes, the most memorable song on this classic recording is titled Just to Get a Rep; Guru draws mental pictures of individuals seeking to gain a street reputation through various criminal activities and underhanded means.

After watching one of the most vicious yet deserved whippings in recent memory, this particular song came to mind. At a Memphis, Tennessee, mall, cell phone footage captured a pair of young African-American males harassing a self-described “grown-ass man.” As the video unfolds, the “grown-ass man” attempts to ignore continuing harassment from an African-American male who repeatedly informs all within hearing distance that he is “Piru,” a statement highlighting his gang affiliation. This Black male also notifies everyone of his intention to get a rep by beating down the “grown-ass man.”

This Black youth soon learned that it is unwise to push a “grown-ass man” past a certain point. As shown in the video footage, the lesson doled out by the “grown-ass man” onto this lost young African-American male was, in a word, epic.

After viewing the bountiful amounts of “act right” delivered to this youngster, my mind wondered what does it mean when Black youth challenge men who traditionally would have served as their mentors as they attempted to reach manhood status. The video offers a most unfortunate downward spiral of the relationships between “grown-ass men” and the youngsters who aspire to take their place. Unbeknownst to far too many rudderless Black males, the roadmap they are using to arrive at manhood is warped, illogical, and non-sensical. In many ways, this young man and thousands of others have no idea how to make the enormous leap from being a Black male to becoming a Black man; trust me when I say that I know far too many retirees who never made this transition. Unbeknownst to so many of my race, being a male and a man are two very different things.

Anyone with even a passing interest in saving Black males from the snares and traps that capture so many of them daily must ask themselves the following question. Where do these young Black males learn life philosophies and behaviors that serve neither them nor their community in the short or long term? One does not need to search far to find Black men who can attest to some form of intensely negative interaction with Black males of varying ages who believe that hyper-aggressiveness, disorderly conduct, and promiscuity are synonymous with manhood.

In this space, I have frequently mentioned a civil war occurring among different classes of Blacks. I must amend that statement. We must settle a dormant conflict between Black men and Black males before Black America can move forward. Of course, those Black males who are little more than irresponsible boys in adult bodies belong to the latter group.

While most of my counterparts eagerly rush forward to chastise Black women who refuse to take the necessary actions to regulate the behaviors of Black girls in adult bodies, they rarely address Black males. Many of them are willing participants in behavior that sits at the core of Black dysfunctionality. This hypocrisy guarantees that succeeding generations will be socialized to continue one of Black America’s most unfortunate traditions, hyper-masculinity, and disorderly conduct from Black males toward all that they encounter. At the present moment, it is difficult to argue against the assertion that for far too many Black males, the more vicious the behavior, the better.

I will tell you the truth. A part of me cringes at the sight of Black men beating down Black males, as recorded in the video mentioned above. However, a weary part of me viewed the corrective action that the “grown-ass man” in the footage handed out to the young Black male as a necessary evil to bring back some semblance of decency to Black America. We used to term such conflict as a person receiving “some act right.”

In the end, I guess that we can excuse the doling out of some “act right” because desperate times require desperate measures. And these are certainly desperate times.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

 

 

African-American Girls, African-American Males, African-American Men, African-American Women, Black Girls, Black Males, Black Men, Black Women, LABOR

No Reported Income?: The Dire Economic Plight of so many Black Millennials and How We Can Address It

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One of the most repetitious yet bemusing moments that repeats itself in my courses occurs after I cover the indispensable contributions of Civil Rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston’s fight for racial equality. Despite common misconceptions, Houston, not his protégé Thurgood Marshall, matters most mightily in the buildup to the historic Brown v. Board of Education (1954 & 1955) decision. The Supreme Court decision began the process of ending racial segregation in American schools.

The historical record indicates that in the decade following Brown, American institutions (schools, businesses, colleges, etc.) took small steps toward relinquishing many of the vestiges of American-style apartheid. Unfortunately, for the sake of truth, the damage done to Black America’s economic infrastructure as a result of desegregation is rarely discussed. The historical record indicates that Civil Rights leaders shortsightedness relegated Black America to economic subservience.

The consequences of moderate Civil Rights leaders’ decision to exclude Nationalist voices calling for economic self-reliance are impacting us to this moment.

One needs to look no further than the present economic plight of many Blacks for verification of this assertion. The dire economic prospects of a significant portion of Black America demonstrate how important it is for Black America to possess the ability to employ themselves by circulating the dollar amongst themselves. Consider for a moment that recent U.S. Census data indicates that 973,209 millennial Black men have no reported income. I am confident that with the damage that the Black Male brand has undergone over the past decades, many will shake their head at this information and say, “the brothers have got to do better.” Yet this is not a problem exclusive to Black men. The same Census data reports that the plight of millennial Black women is not much better as 707,625 of them are in the same predicament.

The above data would not be as devastating if America were not a Capitalist nation. Even the Wu-Tang Clan told all within earshot that Cash Rules Everything Around Me (C.R.E.A.M). There is no room for a reasonable debate that within Capitalist America, those who possess money wield absolute power over the economically marginalized.

What makes this reality more dangerous for Black men is the relatively standard demand that others expect them to occupy the role of the primary provider in their household. If financial stability is a prerequisite to having a family, the absence of a reliable, substantial income has banished 973,209 millennial Black males to the realm of being inconsequential in Black America’s advancement. Let’s be honest about this matter; the inability of the aforementioned Black men to access capital through “legitimate” means weakens Black America today. It curtails its future potential because Black family’s matter mightily.

When one considers the myriad obstacles, particularly previous entanglement with the American criminal justice system, that stand between Black men and gainful employment, it is time that Black America busies itself developing entrepreneurs and small business owners. The historical record indicates that any reliance on Whites to employ the “hardcore unemployable” in our midst is bound to fail miserably. Turn inward, my people, develop businesses and patronize them as if your life depends on it because it does.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

RACE

The Unforeseen Political and Economic Ramifications of Blacks Swirling their Racial Identity

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Truthfully, I can’t pinpoint where my belief that self-conception is crucial to politico-economic allegiance began. It could be that politicized parents raised me. Maybe it was reading Marcus “Mosiah” Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois’ calls for Black folk to turn inward and take care of their own, or perhaps it was my grandfathers’ examples as “race men.” My belief that self-conception is a significant factor in politico-economic allegiance will never change.

The above statement is why I find US Census data indicating increasing diversity in how they self-identify so concerning. Census reports report that those reporting themselves as only “Black or African American” have declined over the past two decades from the 2000 US Census. In 2000, 93% of people self-identified as Black. Nearly two decades later (2019), that number dropped to 87% of people reporting as Black or African American, non-Hispanic. In the 2019 Census, 3.7 million (8%) reported as Black and another race, usually White, while 5% self-identified as Black Hispanic.

In a world where there is strength in numbers, the decision of some Black folks to swirl their racial identity is troubling as it signifies a shift in self-conception, the most significant factor in where one’s politico-economic loyalties rest. Now let’s be clear about this matter; I do not deny that the DNA of other races courses through the veins of Blacks; one needs to look no further than the various hues and colors that adorn our beautiful people for verification. Of course, this process began with the rape of stolen African women forcibly deposited in the Caribbean, Brazil, North American continent, and all points in-between by a host of European exploiters.

This already diverse supply of stolen Africans produced a unique cultural identity that facilitated their loose agreement that they were neither African nor European; they were Black. A term that surpasses being a mere descriptor and has transitioned into a political statement.

In time, SNCC organizer Willie “Mukasa” Ricks would mesmerize young Black activists by debuting a Black Power slogan in Greenwood, Mississippi, during the continuation of James Meredith’s March Against Fear. Radicalized segments of our community have always rallied around Blackness. Please do not think that I am unaware of the propensity of some twentieth-century Blacks to exoticize their Blackness by claiming a distant Cherokee grandmother whose DNA contribution explains why they have “good hair.” Yet, even they understood that they were Black, and that’s where their politico-economic allegiance laid. Even the most exoticized Blacks with hazel or blue eyes, fair skin, and flowing locs understood that they remained inextricably linked with other Blacks.

This new millennium effort to self-identify as something other than Black seems much different from prior attempts by Blacks to differentiate themselves. While so many groups appear to be doubling down on their political identity, there is a segment of Black folks that are desperately running from identifying with their kind and thereby forfeiting potential political and economic gains that only come through racial solidarity.

In a land where numbers matter regarding political power and the development of economic might, this secession movement threatens to weaken Black America in unprecedented ways. One can only wonder where this illogical migration away from Blackness by persons that will always be seen as Black by those they desperately seek to join will end.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

African-American Males, African-American Men, Black Males, Black Men, RACE

What a Black Man Should be and Ought to do: A MRCi Panel Discussion

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I am sure that I do not need to tell you that the issue of Race continues to serve as one of the most divisive factors in America. If it can be stated that racial matters are a divisive issue within the nation, it makes sense that it would be problematic within the Black community. So, much of the in-fighting occurring within our community revolves around the issue of Black men and their general failings to be leaders within our community and a suitable provider and head of household. These matters raise the question of “What a Black Man Should be and Ought to do.” The Manhood, Race, and Culture interactive intellectual community took this issue on during a recent discussion. I hope that you find it worthwhile.

Please enjoy the two-part discussion pinned below.

EDUCATION, RACE

Truly A Frightening Time: What Texas Republicans Assault on US History Means for Our Right to Think

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I guess that the passage of House Bill 3979 in Texas offers yet another piece of support to the axiom that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The recent actions of Texas state senators seeking to expand restrictions on discussions on current events and racial matters in the Lonestar State’s classrooms should sound alarms for American educators seeking to illuminate the minds of our youth. Apparently, Texas Republicans believe that the introduction of substantive classroom discussions regarding America’s tumultuous racial past and present will lead to irreparable damage to the minds and self-esteem of White children.

I must give it to Texas Republicans that the intellectual sleight of hand that they are using to fortify historical politico-economic monopolies that were in place prior to John Hancock boldly signed the Declaration of Independence is an impressive charade. Consider the following steps that have propagated a grand educational lie to naïve Whites; a populace with a vested interest in participating in this intellectual injustice.

  1. All parties agree that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is taught at the collegiate level.
  2. Yet, CRT is a catchy and easy-to-remember slogan that must not be discarded as it has significant utility.
  3. The CRT slogan is an Excalibur that Republicans used to cancel all efforts to discuss racial inequities in America’s K-12 schools.
  4. Republicans used CRT to denounce any mention of past and present racial inequities.
  5. The CRT slogan has been used to further morph America’s contemptuous racial past in an unprecedented manner.
  6. Texas Republicans have taken issue with heretofore givens such as
    1. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s., March on Washington Address — an example of Critical Race Theory and must be banned.
    2. Caesar Chavez’s legacy — yet another example of trying to browbeat White children and must be banned.

I am sure that you get the picture. Anything that even threatens to turn a critical eye toward the methods that Whites have used in the past or are currently using to entrench themselves as powerbrokers is off-limits for classroom discussions.

Texas Republicans’ determination to dictate what is and is not permissible in K-12 schools reveals them as dictators seeking to brainwash citizens by crafting educational curriculums that paint them as superior to others. Any resistance to these Nazi-like plans occurs under the threat of economic devastation for already impoverished educators. This is what totalitarianism looks like in its early stages.

If only the verbiage found in House Bill 3979 that “diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective” were applied throughout the course of American education, opposition to the actions of Texas Republicans would be unnecessary.

If the above statement were adhered to, I would no longer encounter undergraduate students who have read The Diary of Anne Frank and not The Autobiography of Malcolm X. If educators were not forced to adhere to a curriculum created by self-promoting politicians with little knowledge of anything in the realm of education, my students would learn that Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is a man of flesh and bone and not see-through. Perhaps my students would realize that James Baldwin is the most significant social critic this nation has ever known and not the missing sibling of Alec, Daniel, Stephen, and William.

As a historian that has studied racial matters for decades, I understand the slick maneuverings of Texas Republicans seeking to extend the unjust reign of their ancestors and therefore have no expectation that they will give one inch to those opposing their tyranny. Their type prefers to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.

Rest assured that they are nowhere near finished with their drive to whitewash American history. If unchecked, these dastardly rascals will continue until American history is unrecognizable. Freedom-loving educators will no longer be a need to assert that figures such as David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Maria Stewart, Malcolm X, and Assata Shakur should be included in history/social studies curriculums because no one will know about their contributions to the world. This is a scary time, my friend, a frightening time for anyone who values their right to think for themselves.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021