Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?

Appearing in the op-ed section on the Boston Globe's online presence, Boston.com was an article Destruction in Black America Is Self-Inflicted by Jeff Jacoby, one of the paper's columnists. In his piece, he relates the story of how he was accosted at a lecture on capital punishment a few years ago, by a young African-American woman. She took apparent offense to Mr. Jacoby's assertion that, in essence, African-Americans are a greater danger to themselves than Caucasian-Americans. While Mr. Jacoby is way off-base in his evaluation that racism "is now associated mostly with feeble has-beens," he makes his point that other issues are at play in the destruction of black communities.

Using statistics and other items in the public record that bolster the credibility of his hypothesis, he paints a picture of severe community dysfunction, and collective delusion with respect to our perceived cause of the predicament facing our community. His position can be summed up in this prophetic quote:

"To [African-Americans] white bigotry remains a clear and present danger, and the reason so many black Americans die before their time."

His postion is clear: that white fingers are not on the trigger of the gun killing our community, metaphorically.

I can't agree with him more.

You can read the article for yourself, but let's get down to common-sense, real talk. I'm not goinh to get bogged down in numbers, and pseudo-scientific explanations for what's happening in our communities.
 
To be sure, racism and prejudice have not gone away. Indeed, they are both more subtle and as insidious as ever. and they manifest themselves differently than before. And, yes, one can argue correctly that Black folks don't produce the guns, drugs, cigarettes or alcohol used in such large quantities in our communities, and that perhaps there are racist undertones to their production and peddling into our communities.

But no one forces us to engage in their use. I've never used cocaine, heroin, PCP, or crack. And no amount of peer pressure or desire to fit in would make me do so. Where is that self-control in our people?

We are not stupid. Nor are we infantile dullards that need to be hand-held as we journey through life. In fact, I could just as easily also argue that while these horrible tools of destruction are marketed to our communities, it is our own communal consumerism, and lack of love for self that allows easy uptake of these items into our homes.

Yes, one can argue that years of oppression and lasting effects of slavery have crippled the black community and ruined its fiber.

But self-defeating ignorance needn't be the rule rather than the exception, as it is in so many of our communities, regardless of socio-economic background. And the destruction of the black family comes primarily from our poor choices.

We know three general things that, intrinsically, lead to better outcomes for all people:

1. Higher educational attainment/skill development = more $$$. Learn a skill. Master a trade. Last I looked, plumbers, locksmiths and carpenters all made more than I do.
   
2. Waiting to have children until one is financially able to support them = better life outcomes for them and you. 'Nuff said.
   
3. Monogamy and safe sexual practice = healthier communities lower rates of HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies. If you're a dude, stop trying to be a "peeemp" or as a female, a bad imitation of Superhead. We'll all thank you later.

What's so hard about those three things? And since they are so easy why, then, do we have kids dropping out of high school at alarming rates, why is out-of-wedlock birth a near epidemic in our communities, and why is HIV/AIDS the overwhelmingly high cause of death for Black people in their most productive years, 18-45?

It's almost like we're living in Bizarro World. We've become a bad parody of ourselves.

One of my Fraternity brothers asked a great question: "Why do whites have unlimited access to capital to create massive corporations and medium sized businesses when Blacks are barely able to finance a sole proprietor business?"

The short answer is very simple: race. But a better question is: "Why are we not practicing the principles of collective economic power that we see working for Asian-American, Jewish-Americans, and Italian-Americans, or even immigrant members of our own diasphora?" We can save $3000 for a set of spinners for our car, but can't save $5000 for a down-payment on a house? We can waste $200 a weekend "buying the bar" but we can't spend that same amount of money (about $10,400 a year) and invest in some stock, or better yet, combine our savings and actually literally buy that bar?!

Come on.

We've lived through 400 years of oppression and every generation has built on the backs of the one that came before it.

Until now.

So are we whipped? Beaten? Have we finally succumbed to what society wants us to be: violent, lying, killing, and stealing, crack-whores, and pimps?

We're stronger than slavery. We're stronger than whippings, beatings, shootings, and lynchings. Stronger than drugs, guns, gangs, and greed. But when are we going to show it?

To quote Maya Angelou: "You may shoot me with your words/You may cut me with your eyes/You may kill me with your hatefulness/But still, like air, I'll rise."

I know racism exists. We all know racism exists. And as a Black man, I know that I'll have to struggle to overcome that obstacle. But damn it, what I don't need is for my own people to help The Man do us in. And more so, I needn't be my own worst enemy. That we victimize each other in so many ways is the tragedy in all of this. And while we look to external influences as the cause of our internal ailments, we allow the rot to continue from inside out.

I choose to fix what's internal first. Then, we can worry about what others want to do to us.