Category Archives: Black Men

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

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.

African-American Males, African-American Men, African-American Women, Black Males, Black Men, Black Women, RELATIONSHIP

Is the High-Earning Millennial Black Male Invisible to their Female Counterparts?

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A convincing argument could be made that Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man is the greatest novel ever written.

I must tell you that Ellison’s unnamed protagonist is “invisible” throughout the entire book for those who have never read this timeless text. Now I do not want you to get the impression that he is see-through as lacking a body; his invisibility results from those around him not being able to see. Everyone he encounters “sees only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination.”

Ellison’s Invisible Man is no different from millions of Black male millennials living without anyone, especially their Black female counterparts, ever seeing them.

While those on the Right engage in public political propaganda about Critical Race Theory, millennial Black men are facing an unexpected opponent. Young Black men between the ages of 25 – 40 have been rendered invisible. Nearly eighty years after Ellison’s brilliant construct, millennial Black men fit perfectly into it.

If nothing else, the familiar cries of Black women regarding the absence of suitable Black suitors are convincing, particularly to those who have never reviewed relevant data. The “Amen corner” that so eagerly joins into any discussion that culminates with the denigration of Black men has never needed any data to condemn their targets. The evidence base is purely anecdotal evidence provided by a segment of bitter mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, and friends that serves no purpose other than convincing Black millennial women that there are no suitable marriage-minded Black males. This recycled allegation has reached urban legend status.

The primary problem with the unceasing denigration of millennial Black men is that there is not a shred of evidence supporting the allegations. When one focuses on the plight of educated Black women categorized as millennials, by far the loudest town criers regarding this matter, an interesting portrait arises. If considered seriously, the existing data would mute what has become standard verse for far too many, certainly not all, educated Black women making over $50,000. According to PUMS (2019), when one focuses on higher-income Black millennials, many Black men above the $50,000 income level as their female counterparts. It appears that millennial Black women have inherited a familiar dodge that they cannot find someone who is “equally-yoked” (financially) to build a life with from previous generations of embittered Black women.

When faced with such facts, one can only wonder what excuse millennial Black women who have dominated public conversations will use to explain their difficulty finding an equally-yoked, gainfully employed Black male.

The above information should spotlight what appears to be hopelessly single millennial Black women making over $50,000. If provided the opportunity, I would ask these Black women the following questions.

  • Do you think that your single status is due to Black men deciding that you are not marriage material?
  • Where did you get the idea that there were no equally-yoked marriageable Black men?
  • Have you ever considered that the pessimism that so many millennial women wear as a badge of honor actually an allergen to the gainfully employed equally-yoked Black men that you claim to desire?

Although painful to admit, it appears that yet another generation of Black women has been socialized to be doubting Thomas’ regarding Black suitors. Unfortunately, so many of these women have allowed the experiences of their disenchanted predecessors to be pressed atop their own.

Unfortunately for millennial Black men, it appears that Ralph Ellison’s construct shockingly applies to them. Although frightening to consider, one has to wonder if there is anything that Black men could or should do to break through the glacier-like ice that encases the hearts of so many of their female counterparts?

All of this makes one wonder if the fact that only 25% of Black women will ever marry leads them to abandon the present course that appears to be inspired by the experiences of a group of disenchanted embittered Black women instead of a numerically superior group of Black women who managed to remain married to Black men for decades.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

#ManhoodRaceCulture  

African-American Males, African-American Men, Black Males, Black Men, Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive, MRCi, RACE

Am I Everybody’s Keeper?: A Discussion About the Responsibility of Black Men to Black America

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Feel free to join MRCi (Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive) tonight (June 24, 2021) @ 7:30 (EST) — 6:30 pm (CST) for a much-needed discussion titled Am I Everybody’s Keeper?: A Discussion About the Responsibility of Black Men to Black America

Tonight’s discussion will focus on the issue of Black Males and their responsibility to others (Black Men, Women, and Children). Are Black Males responsible in any shape, form, or fashion for everything happening around them? Or have Black Men shed that burden in favor of individualism and the pursuit of happiness?

Join us as we discuss this pressing matter.

The program begins tonight (Thursday, June 24th) @ 7:30 (EST) — 6:30 pm (CST). Click here to access the meeting or use the information listed below.

Meeting ID: 353 334 8869
Passcode: 1YF4BG