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"Father’s Day" for the Black man has yet to be earned by Taki S. Raton "Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes in Africa," quoting O’Neill, "no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Masai. "It is perhaps surprising, then, to learn that the traditional greeting that passed between Masai warriors was ‘Kasserian ingera’ as one would always say to another, ‘And how are the children?’" This greeting, notes the excerpt, underscored the high value that the Masai places not only on the well being of the children but also on the security and well being of the family and community. So to the question, "And how are the children," the response being, "The children are well," the unsaid inference is that the families and the community are safe and secure. It is the role, duty, responsibility, obligation, expectation and charge of the Masai men, to ensure that their families and community are safe and secure from harm both from within and from without. In order for their families and community to be safe, their very unique "beingness" as men; indeed their Kingdom of the Masai--their sense of origin and Motherland, their ancestry, legacy, history, heritage, tradition, identity, purpose, direction, values, culture, language, name, laws, birthright, spirituality rituals, holidays; their tomorrows, future, destiny, eternity--their Forever has to be safe and secure. Then and only then can they say that "the children are doing well" because the families and the community are well. If at any time the men of the group are not doing well; if at any time in the historical corridor the men become defeated and consumed by another, then eventually the family and the community will evolve into a self-destruct mode. A group, a culture must always ensure that their men are strong, able bodied, mentally cultivated and culturally spirited. Then and only then will the families and community remain secure. Therefore, to the question "And how are the children?" the response then can be "The children are doing well." This writer was asked by a respected community leader and advocate to share a few thoughts reflective of this Father’s Day observance. But 141 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Black man today is at his weakest point here in 2006 then he/we have ever been. Our children are not doing well. Our families and our communities are not safe and secure. What happened to the role, duty, responsibility, obligation, expectation, and charge of the Black man to ensure that his family and community are secure and protected both from within and from without? All other men protect their families and communities. But what about the Black community in 2006, 141 years after Emancipation? What happened to our role as provider and protector of our African/African American "beingness?" Just were is our Kingdom, Black man. And by the way--how are the children on this Fathers Day? Were one to read the April 4, 2006 edition of the Chicago "Courier" newspaper, you would find that Chicago-based "Black Star Project" Founder and Executive Director Phillip Jackson responds by noting that our children are fighting a war amongst themselves and against their communities: "Many Black children are out of control. They swear, fight, vandalize, challenge authority and exhibit overly aggressive behaviors. They have a reckless disregard for virtually any social norm, rules, or grace," he says. Jackson adds that in cities across America, too many Black children "have little respect for authority and no fear of consequence for their actions. They won’t listen to well-meaning adults in their communities and they don’t respond to positive guidance. They do not fear or respect clergy, teachers, their parents or even the police. In some schools, the daily classroom environment is a war zone with the possibility of crippling violence between the children themselves and the world in which they operate." Quoting a study by the Advancement Project entitled "Education on Lockdown: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track," the article notes that in the Chicago public school system of 434,419 students, 29,700 students were suspended in the 2002-2003 school year and possibly up to 3,000 students were expelled in the 2003-2004 school year. According to the Public Education and Black Male Students: A State Report Card study released in 2004, only 41% of Black males in the United States graduated from high school in 2001-2002. That would be only 4 out of every 10 Black men. This report surfaces the lowest graduation rates for Black males in 20 districts with Black male enrollments of 10,000 or more during the stated period. Cincinnati for example had a Black male enrollment of 15,340 with only 19% graduating; Cleveland records a 25,973 Black male enrollment with only 19% Black males graduating. The Black male enrollment for Milwaukee during this period was 29,893 with only 24% graduating. In Chicago the numbers are 112,040 with 30% graduating and in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, the Black male enrollment was 23,947 with only 34% graduating. The April 16, 2005 editorial of the "Chicago Crusader" headlines its remarks with "On The Road To Self Destruction." The writing says that among our Black males there exist a "heavy dosage" of violence, sex and debauched living that are popular themes in the music and videos. "A blind person can see how the adoration of the profane is having far-reaching consequences in the Black community. The breakup of the Black family is the outcome that is just over the horizon and with it will come the demise of the Black community," positions the editor. Citing additional numbers compiled by the Black Star Project on the status of the Black male, only 35% of Black men who attended NCAA Division 1 schools in 1996 graduated after 6 years as compared with 46% for Latino men and 59% for White men; 69% of Black children cannot read at grade level in the 4th grade compared with 29% among White children; 32% of all suspended students are Black; Black students (mostly Black males) are twice as likely as White students to be suspended or expelled; 67% of Black children are born out of wedlock; 45% of Black children live below the poverty line as compared with 16% of White children. In 2001, the chances of a Black male going to prison were the highest (32.2%). The numbers were 17.2% for Hispanic males and the lowest reading was 5.9% for White males. African Americans account for only 12% of the U.S. population but 44% of all prisoners in the United States. One in three Black men between the ages of 20 and 29 is under correctional supervision or control. "The Black male homicide rate is seven times the White male rate and a young Black male in America is more likely to die from gunfire," according to these statistical quotes, "than was any soldier in Vietnam." One in every 21 Black men can expect to be murdered, a death rate doubled that of U.S. soldiers in World War II as stated by Black Star. According to a recent US Justice Policy report, in 2000 there were 791,600 Black men in prison and 603,032 enrolled in college as compared to 1980 when there were 143,000 Black men in prison and 463,700 enrolled in College. Leary writes that throughout recorded history, people have been subjected, enslaved, and at times come very close to extermination and that these "crimes against humanity" are perpetrated, even today, in a seemingly "never-ending cycle." She writes, however, that upon the conclusion of any horrific holocaustic encounter, each group must first "see to their own healing. No other group can mend the scars of another." Her book, as above noted, is entitled "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome," which she defines simply as "the residual impact of multigenerational trauma unhealed." The author adds that the slave experience "was one of continued, violent attacks on the slave’s body, mind and spirit. "Slave men, women and children were traumatized throughout their lives and the violent attacks during slavery persisted long after emancipation. In the face of these injuries, those traumatized adapted their attitudes and behaviors to simply survive, and these adaptations continue to manifest today." We have not healed from slavery. We have been carrying, perpetuating and even cultivating this psychological trauma now for 141 years. Leary says that there is no way that a group can undergo 246 years of trauma under the North American enslavement era and not be scarred as a result. Within this historical corridor, the Black man, his woman and his child became defeated and consumed by another man. We have not reversed this process. We have not reclaimed a lost African humanity that was taken from us. Therefore, unlike the Masai, we eventually, as men, had nothing to pass down to our children. And integration, obviously, was/is not the answer given the current status of Black men in America, the plight of the Black family, the fact that today there are 1.2 million more Black women then Black men in the available mating and marriage arena, the continuing and regenerative socially denormed behavior of our children and the apparent ongoing demise of our urban communities across the country. We first have to heal. I have never been one to support Reparations because I observed that our leadership and our people never faced the real issue. The first issue of Reparations should be internal repair. We have to face what happened to us during slavery. We have to face the transformation process over those eight generations of altered enslavement from 1619 to 1865 that changed us from an African to a slave. We came here as Africans. We were transformed into a slave. And you can only integrate into your former slave master if you have accepted the outcome of your transformation and alteration as defined and imposed upon you by your oppressor. The Black man did not then and has not now reversed the process of transformation and alteration from African to slave. We are clearly still functioning with this slave mentality. As a result of this non-reversal, we are, according to Kenneth B. Stampp in "Peculiar Institution," a better slave now then we were 141 (plus) years ago on the plantation. Everything we do here in 2006 will invariably service the needs, interest and future of White people. And you just need to revisit the above noted figures on the Black male to ponder our current status as a group as a comparison to the life grades of other people. Apparently Black man, the more you integrate and become assimilated into the way and world view of another man, the weaker you became and will continue to become and the less of your "Kingdomness" you will have to give first to other Black men reflective of your unique "beingness"--as in the Masai. The more you assimilate Black man on this Father’s Day, the weaker you become and the less of your authentic self will you have to give to your children, your women, your family, your community, your (Black) nation or to your race. There will be nothing of you to reflect. So what good are you? Just what is our purpose on this planet if all we are to do is to become an extension, a clone, a reflection, a helper of another man? And with the above noted stats on the Black male, as we look at Father’s Day, we can’t even talk about OUR future, OUR destiny, OUR eternity, or OUR forever. Look at our children. Look at what is coming up behind us before, during and after we pat each other on the back this weekend, shake hands and say "Happy Father’s Day"--yeah right! Contrary to the integrationist and our victim-dependency based Black leadership, in a multicultural pluralistic society, all groups are responsible for their own development and advancement. And as Leary says, all groups, if necessary, are responsible for their own healing. All cultures in a multiracial society must work for self, build for self, teach self, and advance self through self-defined and self-created initiatives. In other words, each and every cultural group must hold its own. But one thing a group must never do in a multiracial society is reject one’s own ancestral/historical ethno-cultural worth and uniqueness and socially integrate as we have done. As Carter G. Woodson wrote 73 years ago in 1933: "In this effort to imitate, however, these ‘educated people’ are sincere. They hope to make the Negro conform quickly to the standard of the Whites and thus remove the pretext for the barriers between the races. They do not realize, however, that even if the Negroes do successfully imitate Whites, nothing new has thereby been accomplished. "You simply have a larger number of persons doing what others have been doing. The unusual gifts of the race have not thereby been developed and an unwilling world, therefore, continues to wonder what the Negro is good for." So besides (still) working for and advancing the interest of White people, what Black man are we good for in 2006? This writer’s response is that we must look back to our past to resurrect the glory and strength of our highest order that is uniquely our own above, apart, and beyond the image, considerations, views, belief systems, or attitudes of any and all other men. We must from an African frame of reference rescue, reclaim, reinterpret, reconstruct, resurrect and restore our own vision in America, build and control our own schools (K4 through college) and teach our restored African World prominence to our children. Our young people have to see, know, believe, and love the best in themselves; in the best of what they have been ancestrally and historically, the best of who they are now and in the best of us that they can become. But before they can see the best in themselves, they have to see it in us--in our men, in our fathers, in our grandfathers, in our uncles, in our elders in the men in our communities and in our Black leadership. It is our responsibility to see that our young men know their greatness. Once they see, know and love that which is in us, they then can realize the beauty of their own being--not someone to be brutally gang beaten and/or killed but someone to be cultivated and praised--a reflection of their own godliness. No, you won’t get "Happy Father’s Day" from this writer. Our children are failing because we as Black men have failed them. We first failed ourselves by not correcting what happened to us during slavery. If you fail to correct your past, you will certainly fail your future. Another way of phrasing this point is that the past must be reconciled before a safe, secure, and promising future can be realized. And we continued to fail ourselves by becoming an extension of others, building for others, and advancing others while neglecting our children, our families, our communities, our nation, our race, our future, our destiny and our African World eternity. "And how are the children?" When the Black man in America can respond, "The children are well," then and only then can we truly celebrate Father’s Day as we as men have done our job. Indeed, I will go you one better in this charge of us doing "Our Job." Why don’t we as Black men first organize, go through a healing process, rebuild ourselves, rescue and reclaim our African World historiography, reconcile our past (learn/grow from our history and correct our mistakes), clean up our children’s and young people’s music and videos, build our families, take back and protect our communities, create our own community-based businesses, structure our own institutions, redefine our vision for ourselves and for our people, build and control our own schools, teach, model and properly guide our children in our own schools that we build, finance and control. And yes Black man. You can build and finance your own school. You help the White man build, finance, and control his private schools where you send your children and you allow the system to use your tax dollars to support district school systems around the country that are failing and destroying our children daily, mostly our boys (thus the above stated deplorable stats). Why don’t we use our own money to build our own school for our own children to first save them from their destruction in public schools, second to bring out their innate genius and third to safeguard and advance the Highest Order of own culture. This would also be one way of cleaning up our children’s music and their degrading videos. And in an annual observance and celebration of this much needed effort, to include building our own schools, let’s have our own Black "Father’s Day" on the birthday of one of our heroes like Malcolm X, Carter G. Woodson, Marcus Garvey. "Real Men cook" would be asked to move their event to this date. The person we select cannot must not be an integrationist. The person cannot be a Christian minister, a politician or anything anywhere closely resembling the sorryness of our current sold out national Black leadership. The person selected has to be must be, like the heroes of all other men in their own right, an acclaimed nationalist--one of our own, for our own and uniquely our own, Are we man enough to do this? Are we man enough to finally disconnect and sever this 387-year shameful historical mental slave appendage that still today connects us to and causes us--and our children, our women, our families, our communities and our future--to be totally dependent upon another man? Are we man enough to control, teach, and guide our own children? Can we once and for all break the psychological chains of Willie Lynch and make our own unique and prideful African Centered contribution to the onward flow of humanity? I personally have no doubt that we can achieve these initiatives. If we do this, just imagine a few of the outcomes--our women will finally respect us, our children will be proud and will follow us, our future will praise us and our ancestors will be at peace. Let’s make this happen Black man. It’s time that we acknowledge, build upon and reflect the rays of our own godly magnificence. For any response to this article, the writer can be contacted at Blyden Delany Academy, (414) 933-1130 of by email, blydendelany@yahoo.com. |
I Love Him Still From the cradle and the crib I watched him, my father, first teacher, mentor and friend A quiet man, didn’t talk much, but when he spoke We all listened, hanging on to his every word Such a dedicated husband and father Always practicing what he preached Never being afraid of work, laboring long and hard A proud man, with his head held high A straight forward no nonsense kind of guy As a gentleman, he passed the test Respecting our mother, always willing to aid a sister or brother in distress His character was exemplary; he was one of the best He taught us the value of honesty, integrity and of a good name I love him still, though he now abides in the land of sweet rest! by Charlesetta Thompson
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