Kimberlee Crenshaw — Race Theory
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Derrick Bell on Racism
How Black Men Have Been Made Invisible by Bitter Black Women
To be honest with you, baseless commentary by a segment of Black women about Black men puts me into a state of disbelief because I understand that their emotional accusations spewed toward Black men do not reflect Black men in America. I do my best to sidestep such discussions. I realized long ago that such opinions are anecdotal recitations lacking evidence. During a recent podcast, I was ensnared by such a discussion.
A rambling discussion eventually brought forth assertions that Black men were solely to blame for both the disintegration of the Black family and the resulting struggles of children raised in single female-headed households. Predictably, it was a female panelist who led this unproductive discussion that reduced to Black men being blamed for not being present due to their “weakness.”
The argument reminded me of Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man.
Ellison’s The Invisible Man, an unnamed protagonist, does not lack a physical body, yet he is invisible because those around him “see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination.” Although physically present, Ellison’s protagonist is no different from millions of Black men who are physically present, yet never really seen for who they are.
I considered this all too common attack on Black men to be identical to what the invisible man expressed. The female panelist’s decision to consolidate the identities and experiences of Black men who for whatever reason do not awake under the same roof covering their children as “weak” displays an astounding ignorance of Black lives, regardless of gender. Although I understand that generalizations permit us to discuss things, they still must be grounded in truth. The attack on Black men mentioned above does not rest on a morsel of truth.
Of course, I protested this mischaracterization of Black men by highlighting a host of reasons explaining this social epidemic, such as the emotionally driven, usually illogical, decisions and antics of women who do not understand the Black family’s importance in creating a familial legacy that bolsters the next generation’s opportunities for success. Not even my assertion that factors such as American courts’ decision to side with women when it comes to custody of children, drug addiction, or the “last hired, first fired” economic quandary that so many Black men experience seemed to penetrate the wild assertions that denigrated Black men into being weak.
In the end, the accusations of a bitter segment of Black women regarding the absence of Black fathers in the home or their inability to be selected for marriage is an extreme simplification that says little about the Black men that they have rendered invisible yet speaks volumes about their unwillingness to take inventory of themselves and the lives they lead while projecting their views on nameless Black men. It appears that some Black women are looking back at their lives and realizing that they have failed to develop a life worth living. Put simply, they have somehow managed to miss the truly important things such as family and relationships that were tightly grasped by their ancestors. It seems that in their rush to blame Black men for self-acknowledged unfulfilling lonely lives, they have forgotten to take any accountability for the lives they lead.
The classic saying “if you do what you always did, you’re going to get what you always got” applies to so many, certainly not all, Black women. It may be time for these frustrated, angry, and irrational Black females to stop blaming Black men for their poor decision-making and inability to forge a lasting relationship with men of any Race; after all, when one looks at the marriage rates, no man of any Race has or ever will choose them and you can’t blame Black men for that!!!!!!
James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.
©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2023
#ManhoodRaceCulture
The Dire Plight of the American Teacher
I do not know of a single African-American Professor who does not possess the desire to recreate themselves. Simply put, one of the major by-products of Black graduate students working their way through the snares and traps of academia is a severe desire to make the path more accessible and passable for those that follow. By the time we earn our Ph.D. s, no one in the world can impress upon us that there are enough Black academics and intellectuals to mentor us through the tough times.
When one considers that the rough terrain that Black Ph.D.’s must cross is often made more difficult by Professors who detest our presence for a host of reasons directly tied to white supremacist thought, engagement with one of “us” while in graduate school can serve as a much-needed gust of wind propelling us toward our lofty goal.
Trust me when I say that the pride I experience when yet another of my students crosses the threshold of earning their Doctorate degree is not one of euphoria but rather an occasion to pause for several moments to celebrate the achievement but, more importantly, to bow my head in honor and respect to the ancestors who aided this process in one way or another.
In light of the above, I hope that you can understand my unending pride when several of my students, most recently Ms. Coiette P. Gaston, who now is a colleague working in the same department as myself, cross that final threshold in their chosen field.
Suppose I have achieved nothing else in the academy. In that case, I can proudly state that I have contributed to more than capable Black Professors being available to mentor and teach precocious Black students researching issues of importance to Black America. I took the job of ensuring that the pipeline of Black thinkers continued flowing with the utmost seriousness.
Manufacturing excellent Black students begins well before arriving on a college campus. Those I reference have undergone a K-12 curriculum that has prepared them for higher education. My contemporaries’ dedication to reproducing ourselves will never blind us to the heavy lifting in K-12.
Only a fool fails to see the interconnectedness between teachers and professors—an overstanding of the interconnectedness between educators’ mandates that I closely monitor the matter of teacher shortage.
According to a recent Learning Policy Institute survey, droves of full-time teachers choose to exit the profession via early retirement or more attractive employment opportunities. The most cited catalyst for the above changes is the twin evils of psychological stress and low pay. American teachers have historically been abused, misused, and devalued by the very society they have nobly served for centuries. Data states that one-third of those exiting the classroom report a typical work week of over “56 hours or more.” One-third of current teachers report working a second job to “make ends meet.” According to the Learning Policy Institute survey, “64 percent of respondents said their pay wasn’t sufficient to merit the risk or stress.”
The fleeing of the teacher ranks is so common that many of those I have aided on the path to participating in this noble profession have exited the classroom. The past five years have been ferocious for the brilliant youth whose minds I helped mold in my History courses. So many of these young Black teachers that Charles Hamilton Houston would have considered “levers for social justice” have exited the teaching profession for the same reasons highlighted by the Learning Policy Institute study. The teacher shortage crisis has gotten so bad that the Houston Independent School District that many of my students vacated was marred by over seven-hundred vacant teaching positions during a recent summer, according to the Texas Tribune.
It is past time that the U.S. Government (local, state, and federal) makes a decisive move on behalf of American educators. When you think about it, they are the foundation for this nation’s prosperity; however, they are much like laborers who have been left out of profits. The time for shucking and jiving educators has been over for decades; it is now time for the entire nation not only to agree to pay teachers a livable wage but also allow them a seat at the table when substantive issues impacting their lives are being discussed.
One more thing. If you were able to read this, thank your favorite teacher.
James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.
©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2023
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