All posts by Dr. James Thomas Jones III

African-American Women, Black Girls, Black Popular Culture, Black Women

Why Do So Many Black Women Like Keke Palmer Refuse To Grow Up?: Yet Another Sign of Black Cultural Dysfunction

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I am sure you’re privy to the recent brouhaha between Keke Palmer and her boyfriend, Darius Jackson. If you are one of the fortunate ones that somehow sidestepped the latest episode of “Black folk sure know how to waste some time,” let me bring you up to speed.

During a trip to Las Vegas, Keke Palmer and her girlfriends attended a performance by R&B superstar Usher. Adorned in a see-through ensemble with a bodysuit beneath, Palmer was called to the stage by Usher. Video footage shows Usher serenading Keke as she twirled around so that everyone in the building could view her hind parts while being cheered on by her entourage. When footage of the adult behavior appeared on Twitter, Mr. Jackson, Palmer’s boyfriend, responded with what most consider a controlling message of toxic manhood via Twitter that read, “It’s the outfit tho…you a mom.”

Of course, those folks that rushed to the defense of any Black woman, regardless of her antics, criticized Darius Jackson while reminding him that he was merely a boyfriend, not a husband. In response to the vociferous criticism from those who encourage the continuing devolution of Black women and Black culture, Mr. Jackson offered the following rebuttal.

We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is. This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.

I found this young man’s response compelling and reasonable for someone attempting to navigate the myriad obstacles that usually derail Black families. Yet, this essay you are holding in your hands was not caused by the much-too-public spat between Keke and Darius. Raena Boston, a social activist for Black women’s rights, was the catalyst for the words you are reading.

According to Boston, Darius Jackson is not a dutiful boyfriend seeking to build a family with Keke Palmer, the mother of his newborn child. Unbeknownst to Darius and every other sensible Black man, he is “setting the terms of a woman’s existence.” In yet another moment of incoherent psycho-feminist babble, Raena Boston trespasses across adulthood, parental obligations, familial structure, and manhood in one swoop; it is pretty impressive when viewed through such a lens. According to Babbling Boston,

There’s this idea that once a woman becomes partnered with a man, it’s almost like that’s the beginning of the death of herself. And then, once you have kids, it’s game over. You’re just in the service of your husband, in the service of your children. You, as a person, cease to exist in a lot of ways.

In many ways, Boston’s statement reveals the illogical belief that neither adulthood nor the birth of children should alter the lives of Black women. Millions of well-adjusted, sensible, grown Black folks disagree with such foolishness. Boston could not be more wrong in her rhetorical flourish; ask any responsible Black parent, regardless of their gender.

Boston is unaware of the age-old wisdom that once children arrive, your time as a free-wheeling person without an ounce of responsibility ceases. The failure to understand such simple matters that have served as guides for civilized people for centuries is stupefying.

Although this is not a gender issue, one does not need to look far to find dutiful fathers who have worked nearly to death to serve their wives and children. The same goes for women who have sacrificed all in the service of their husband and their children. These sacrifices are what adulthood looks like.

I pray that someone informs Keke of this crucial information before it is too late. I’m sure this message will not arrive from the likes of Raena Boston or the legion of grown boys and girls who are so enamored with the utter foolishness they enjoy to the detriment of their spouses, children, and the larger community.

It is time that Black parents, regardless of gender, get serious about life because a perusal of any census data proves that they are the only one’s out here playing in the high-stakes game of life. While others are building wealth and a legacy for their children, far too many “grown” Black folks remain committed to little more than what the Notorious B.I.G. called “party and bullshit.”

Sit your ass down and instill some semblance of self-esteem in your children so that they will not need to seek it from a public that will view them as pitiful people without purpose or a sense of self.

To all the parents stung by my words, it is time to stand in front of a mirror and tell yourself the following mantra until it is drilled into your foolish head. “Your time is up, you old bastard.”

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2023

 

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African-American Girls, African-American Women, Black Girls, Black Popular Culture, Black Women, Hip-Hop Culture

Black America We Have A Significant Culture Problem: Essence Festival 2023

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I am old enough to remember when Essence covered the diverse nature and multiple issues of Black women living in a white man’s world. Essence went further in their coverage of Black women than merely printing beautiful pictures of them; there was no beauty of the week centerfold within the pages of Essence. I recall the presentation and discussion of substantive issues impacting Black America and Black women. When one desired exposure to the multi-faceted nature of Black women, Essence was mandatory reading.

The recent performances of Megan Thee Stallion and Janelle Monáe at Essence Festival reflect the diversity found among Black women regarding how they choose to present themselves to a world whose amused contempt and pity rise with the risqué nature of the presentation. At the same time, the alluded performances have resurfaced an essential issue among Black America regarding what a Black woman should be and should do. It can be reasonably stated that Black women have never been monolithic in any facet of life. This rich diversity of thought, dress, language, and public behavior has unfortunately forced a conversation that sadly ends in the conclusion that there is now a vocal minority population that can no longer be considered a credit to the Race regardless of the evaluation criterion.

In a long-forgotten comedy special, Chris Rock made the shocking statement that a Civil War is occurring in Black America between Black people and Niggas, and Niggas have got to go. Although I would like to cite the recent performances of Megan Thee Stallion and Janelle Monáe as the catalyst to a significant split regarding public decorum, morality, and sensibility among Black women, the truth of the matter is that those issues have been gradually worsening at an increasingly rapid pace for decades. Somewhere along the way, many, certainly not all, Black women have abandoned Black America’s cultural norms and chosen to violate our ancestors’ age-old advice to not go out and “show your color.”

One needs to look no further than the response that artist India Arie’s reaction to the performances mentioned above that, including a twenty-woman twerk fest from festival attendees at Meg’s invitation or Janelle Monáe’s idiotic decision to bare a pasty-covered nipple to the disappointment of Black men, women, and children attending the Essence Festival. Arie issued the following constructive criticism in the wake of the performances.

Is everything for KIDS? No, is everything for EVERYBODY? So when we as a culture make something like this mainstream, it shows a lack of discretion and discernment.

The response that the above comment received from a vocal minority was telling due to its wicked, horrific, and unceasing nature. Supporters of the public twerk fest and unnecessary display of nudity dismissed India Arie’s criticism as irrelevant and out of touch with the times. Undoubtedly, a significant segment of our population celebrates the devolving culture threatening to bar Black success permanently.

This championing of socially unacceptable brutish behavior among Black women and girls is proving to be a significant threat to Black America’s existence. One needs to look no further than the manosphere to encounter Black men expressing frustrations regarding the absence of marriageable Black women. Many alluded men have reacted to the declining numbers of what they deem suitable Black women by searching foreign lands for a lifetime mate.

The most frightening aspect of this matter is that the decline of marriageable Black men and women is an unprecedented threat to Black existence. However, there appears to be no way of stopping this cultural devolution that ultimately results in Black women celebrating their status as bitches, hoes, and baby mommas and Black men as uneducated, inarticulate thugs, absent a modicum of discipline. Unbeknownst to those who are reveling in copious amounts of ignorance, their Black contemporaries disapprove of their flawed value system and display a penchant for leaving them behind as they build lives worth living.

In time, the developing gap between an educated class of responsible, forward-looking Blacks and a have-not class will be too vast for the latter group who have chosen to twerk their way through life when they should have been working to cross. Fortunately for future generations of Black America, the formula for creating a life worth living remains available if they desire it. If not, they should seek out their tribe and be prepared to “throw that ass in a circle.”

We need Black men and women to do better!!!!!!

Immediately!!!!!!!

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2023

 

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African-American History, AMERICAN HISTORY, RACE

This Land Is My Land: Reflections On Patriotism and Black America

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As a historian whose studies have focused on the African-American experience, Independence Day has always been a date that causes tremendous reflection on my status within this nation. My perspective is heavily influenced by the undeniable contributions of my ancestors to the founding, development, and operation of this nation shared with the populace that James Baldwin termed his white countrymen. Of course, this matter is problematized by the long history of racial attacks from marauding whites whose foremost priority was placing a selfish claim on America.

I do not doubt that if most of my white countrymen were given a truth serum, they would state America belongs solely to them. Despite a mountain of evidence displaying the indispensable contributions of Blacks, most whites will never be convinced otherwise. Unfortunately, most of my Black countrymen agree with their counterparts that this is a white land they do not want to claim even a tiny portion of.

This refusal of Blacks to claim a sizable portion of this nation that is as much their birthright as their white countrymen provides a keen insight into the general psyche of far too many Blacks. For some inexplicable reason, most Blacks have tended to behave as if this is a white man’s land, allowing them to dictate their status in the land for which Crispus Attucks and the Massachusetts 54th died. Simply put, my Black countrymen have been far too willing to be subservient to a white population whose priority is to rule.

Brother Malcolm once stated, “Only a fool would allow his oppressor to educate his children.” I want to slightly alter our dear Brother’s statement: “Only a fool would allow his oppressor to tell him when and where he enters this place called America.” Blacks must begin to cease being so reactionary to the political positions and definitions provided to them by their historical oppressors.

Do we not have the mind to think for ourselves?

Must we wait until whites have spoken on or defined an issue before our position is established?

I wonder if the response to the above questions conveys an unwillingness to assert Black independent thought.

The presence of independent Black thought is crucial to understanding that America is as much your land as the whites and any attempts to control Black America’s economics, education, and politics. We must learn to evaluate the issues facing the Race and develop plans to address the myriad problems facing us in the present with a mind of preventing them from shadowing us into the future.

So, sing the following with me. “This land is my land; this land is your land…”

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2023

 

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POLITICS

Not Totally Clarence’s Fault: Why There Is More Blame To Go Around Regarding The Ending of Affirmative Action than Justice Thomas

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I am unsure if anyone with an ounce of common sense is surprised that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the use of Race in student admissions. In a 6-3 majority ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the use of Race in school admissions “violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Most progressives understood long ago that this ruling was inevitable.

It was a foregone conclusion that Clarence Thomas would vote against using Race in school admissions. There is no need to rehash that Affirmative Action was a prerequisite to Thomas’ access to higher education that positioned him for an opportunistic climb to the Supreme Court. Once he arrived on the Court, Thomas displayed an insatiable desire to block the path he traveled for fellow Blacks in a legendary manner. Simply put, Thomas has repeatedly proven to be no friend of Black America.

The most troubling aspect of Clarence Thomas’ position as a Supreme Court Justice flows from his uncanny yet reliable penchant to operate without considering historical context. On the surface, Thomas’s place in the recent decisions that “the color of a person’s skin is irrelevant to that individual’s equal status as a citizen of this nation” is a reasonable interpretation of the 14th Amendment. Unfortunately, his position flounders when placed within a larger context of racial conflict that began in 1619 when the first “half-free” persons of African descent arrived in the Jamestown Colony.

The level of historical illiteracy one must be constrained by to ignore Race as the most influential determining factor in a citizen’s fortunes in this land is astonishing. While it is theoretically correct that “the color of a person’s skin is irrelevant to that individual’s equal status as a citizen…” everything, and I do mean everything, about this discussion changes when the descendants of enslaved Africans enter the conversation. I fear that the present emotional furor regarding the Affirmative Action decision will cause my people to unwisely place total responsibility for the ruling on Clarence Thomas’ puny shoulders because he is not solely to blame for the ending of Affirmative Action.

In many ways, this regretful moment began when Civil Rights Leaders allowed the narrative surrounding Affirmative Action, a non-monetary reparations program intended to repair Black injury caused by institutionalized state-sponsored racial discrimination (Jim Crow, Black Codes, Racial Discrimination, Prejudice, etc.), to expand inexplicably and needlessly cover non-Black “minority groups.” One can attribute this unwise decision to political naivete or an astounding inability to advance Black rights with the necessary seriousness.

During the identity-politic-driven 1960s, multiple groups, from the LGBTQ+ to Feminist groups trained within the Civil Rights Movement, branched off and advanced their political agendas. The historical record shows that they successfully applied lessons learned during the Civil Rights Movement. Regardless of non-Black groups’ propagation of suffering and marginalization, their suffering pales compared to Blacks, the foremost victims of state-sanctioned discrimination from America’s founding.

Black political leaders have often refused to emphasize that Blacks were the only intended beneficiaries of the government initiative during Affirmative Action’s creation. Instead of demanding that the programs remain focused on Blacks and explaining why this must occur, they inexplicably worked to include other groups with no claim to the program. Maybe Black political leaders thought they were being politically savvy by forming alliances with other “minority” groups and collecting political currency to use later. I am bewildered that the above political leaders would vacate one of the few advantageous political positions Blacks have ever possessed. In hindsight, it is evident that this move to include others was a miscalculation as it is a “minority” group that led the charge to dismantle Affirmative Action when it served their interests.

In the end, the narrative that the blame for the decline of Affirmative Action must be solely laid at the feet of Clarence Thomas is a false one that allows a host of other culprits to be acknowledged for their role in dismantling Affirmative Action. This was not a good day for Black America as it once again displayed Black political leaders’ comprehensive ineptitude. Yet, Blacks will again fail to hold their political leaders accountable for their failings due to a stupefying political illiteracy that guarantees their marginalized status for yet another generation.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2023

 

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

What the Murder of Tyre Nichols Says About How Some In Black America View Their “Brothers and Sisters” and Why

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Although I have familial ties to Memphis, Tennessee, on my mother’s side, the moment I heard about the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols, I knew that such facts mattered little in analyzing this senseless tragedy. Ironically, my new home, Houston, trumps my connection to Memphis; let me explain. When pondering this tragedy and what it means specifically to Black America, Houston’s Geto Boys offers the most clarity.

The song I allude to is The World Is A Ghetto. The stanza below is lead rapper Scarface painting a dire picture representative of Black life worldwide.

Let’s take a journey to the other side
Where many people learn to live with their handicaps, while the others die
Where muthafuckas had no money spots
And if they did then they ass went insane
When all the money stops
I’m from the ghetto so I’m used to that
Look on your muthafuckin map and find Texas, and see where Houston at
It’s on the borderline of hard times
And it’s seldom that you hear niggas prayin’ and givin’ God time
That’s why your ask my mom pray for me
Because I know that even I gots to die, and he got a day for me
And every morning I wake up I’m kinda glad to be alive
’Cause thousands of my homeboys died
And very few died of old age
In most cases the incident covered up the whole page
From Amsterdam to Amarillo
It ain’t no secret

The world is a ghetto.

Scarface (1996)

Scarface’s lyrics about the perils of Black life, “From Amsterdam to Amarillo,” are a dreadful reminder to Black Men regarding the tenuous nature of the next moment. Unfortunately for Tyre Nichols’ family and friends, they will be reminded of this sobering reality daily.

When I heard that a Black man had been beaten to death by Memphis law enforcement officers, I cringed for several reasons.

  • I could only imagine the violence necessary to beat a man to death. Even Rodney King survived his beating at the hands of Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Theodore Briseno, and Timothy Wind.
  • I feared that this was the latest generations Rodney King incident.

As I considered this moment, the words of Malcolm X emerged from my mental Rolodex. According to Brother Malcolm, during the Civil Rights Movement, America was sitting atop a racial powder keg bound to explode with the slightest spark.

Yet somehow, this moment is different from other occurrences of police violence toward Blacks. Black male police officers delivered the mob-style beating of Tyre Nichols. As a result of this unprecedented occurrence, I have a few questions on my mind.

  • What does this event mean for Black men and Black America?
  • What does Tyre Nichols’s taped beating death at the hands of Black men say about how we view and behave toward each other?

I am sure we can agree on the following. The catalyst for the fatal beating of Mr. Nichols had little to do with the traffic stop. The many socialization issues that provided a smooth path for Black police officers to muster up the adrenaline-fueled rage they expressed via physical violence on Tyre Nichols began long before this night. It started before they became law enforcement officers. The path to the Black-on-Black brutality that we witness and hear daily is rooted in a complex socialization process that every American experiences; it takes root in many.

Although rarely discussed, it is challenging to be reared in America and develop an unbridled love for Black people. Experience has taught me that the following is valid for most Black people. We love the relatively few Black people we know personally, yet harbor levels of a rarely verbalized pessimistic view of others. Let’s be clear: this socialization process produces such significant bias among Blacks that it is not a stretch to term it a form of mental illness.

One merely needs to take a step back and consider the nicety manner that Blacks treat each other. This extreme hatred is expressed via our unwillingness to acknowledge our kind as they pass. The general skepticism Black men receive from Black women when approached for dating purposes. The vicious verbal and physical brutality that Black men, women, and children pour onto each other without provocation, being Black and present, seems sufficient provocation. The beating delivered by Memphis Police Department Officers Desmond Mills, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin, Tadarrius Bean, and Demetrius Haley against Tyre Nichols is a by-product of many things, none of them good.

As the nation mourns what we have become, the onus is on Black America to go beyond understandable sorrow and tears and begin serious action to reverse a socialization process that results in us hating each other, if not ourselves. I will not portend to know the path forward; however, I can tell you with unshakable certainty that what we have been doing lately is not working for any of us.

Increase the love y’all!!!!!!!

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2023

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