"The survival of the black man is in crisis. He is dying a shameful unnatural death. He is rejected by his woman and detached from his own seed. Slavery fractured his birthright ego, so he fails as a husband, father and son. His problems are too big now so he has no value for life, and no matter how hard he tries he just can't get it together and without divine intervention he will continue to self-destruct." Shahrazad Ali/The Black Woman's Guide to Understanding Black Men."
This book caused a huge stir when it was first released. No one wanted to hear what she had to say because she revealed by using generalizations and stereotypes the truth about how black folk are relating to each other, especially that black man and woman.
Once again, this blog is not about blaming slavery for all our woes. Slavery is only mentioned to point out where many of our misconceptions about who we are come from.
"And yes, the effects of slavery still rank as number one in the dismemberment of the black home and displacement of the black man; but the number two problem stems from contributing neglect of an internal nature that takes the form of a) disunity, b) distrust, c) bad choices." Shahrazad Ali/The Black Woman's Guide to Understanding Black Men
Distrust
Black folk have contributed greatly to the belief that blacks cannot be trusted. We have come to believe it ourselves and will oftentimes go out of our way not to patronize each other, or to help each other in need. Within the intimate relationship most things are met with suspicion.
Disunity
Many black folk love to talk about the "crab-in-the barrel" scenario where as one black person tries to climb up and out of dire circumstances; the others try to keep him down. Again, this is something that was handed down to us. It has manifested itself in many ways. There are people who won't be happy for you no matter what. There are some who will try to hold you back and keep you down. Unfortunately being human, there can be a tendency towards jealously and an unwillingness to try to achieve what you feel another has because many blacks feel they are stifled by the institutionalized racism that does exist. It has become popular in our nation to "hate." Until we stop this, we will not get to where we want to be.
Bad Choices
Ultimately for those black, white, blue are green; bad choices is the downfall of them all. We can choose a different existence, yes even in this racially charges climate country we live in. It literally happens everyday that someone is able to achieve great success, even as a black person. Until we develop individual and collective self-love for ourselves and our black skin, we just may keep on pointing the finger ignoring the other four that is pointing back at us.
Love, Peace and Soul
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