Over the last week, we have celebrated another Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year there weren’t many marches due to the hysteria over Covid-19 at the time of this writing were are currently involved with the Omicron variant. I do remember, or better yet have fond memories of past MLK Day marches alongside my mother while we lived in Oklahoma City in the 1980s and 90’s it really felt impactful and meant something to me as a young black boy whose mother taught me to read using literature depicting the horrors our Black ancestors went through and the hell on earth we experienced in America just trying to acknowledge us as human, let alone 1st class citizens in this country. Growing up was strange for me when it came to race relations, I never trusted White people. I personally still don’t trust White people come to think of it, but I do understand them. An understanding grew out of always trying to depend on Black people to show and prove we are as great a people that I attached my own beliefs and hope on to because through all the trials and tribulations the White race put us through we still survived and thrived throughout history! They couldn’t kill us! That is what makes being Black so special to me!
Culpability– Responsibility for a fault or wrong, blame.
I’ve always been interested better yet intrigued in the question of How a Black Leader became a “Black Leader?” As previously stated I learned about slave ships and lynchings early in life, I understood the hate for Black people birthed of fear by the White race. Fear of losing financial status also aligned with the fear of being replaced or wiped away based on simple science. Racial inbreeding would have wiped the White race out in a 50-year span honestly. Especially if mulatto children only went to intermix with Black-skinned people. The White race would have eventually ceased to exist. Which is a fairy-tale they would tell themselves, even though they loved making them mixed-race babies! The stranglehold the White race had on Blacks was almost impossible for me to understand, mainly because it really didn’t make commonsense. Blacks in the South outnumbered the Whites. Especially on plantation-style farms and estates. Yeah, the Whites had guns and dogs, etc. but through sheer might and cunning the Blacks could have overthrown the Whites any day of the year almost. White people depended on Blacks for food, they could have easily poisoned the White family. Then sent the field hands to kill the overseer and other sentries on the plantations. Yeah sounds crazy but these scenarios played out in my head all the time, and I wondered, “why not try?” I always hoped I would a book detailing how some wickedly smart and united group of Black slaves masterminded a coup and killed all the White people in the south and demanded the United States recognized Blacks as equals in the South and then things would be fair and balanced etc…
As I got older I experienced life with Black people, I was also learning more of our Black history. It slowly started to become obvious why that book was never written, and would always be a fictitious theme in my head!
Slavery was more mental bondage than it was physical bondage. As a “free” Black kid, I couldn’t imagine or even understand being a slave until I looked around me. I realized the mental chains were still being used. As an adult, I see they’ve only gotten stronger!
Why did I use the word Culpability as a focus word, the FOCUS Word?
It is because we are to blame for the current state we have learned to become accustomed to in America. In our fight for equality, I have always wondered why throughout “American” History the Black race didn’t stand up to the moment as a separate entity as we had been treated as such. Use these moments in time to stand against the White race and demand equality in return for our assistance. I had only done business with other Blacks growing up you know in the neighborhood, everyone had rules and regulations. We had to fight or figure out a way not to and still stay cool in order to survive. If Black kids couldn’t get anything from you they didn’t really want you around for the most part, and if there was anything to do with money then you had to know how to navigate those transactions, etc.. in other words, you better have what you owe. There were no ways around it, no ways to compromise unless that compromise meant you were going to give more than originally owed, etc… no give-me or handouts. Period. Don’t get me wrong I am not talking about anything like drug dealing or crazy gangster stuff like that, I mean just every day 80’s-00’s caste system neighborhood, and school politics growing up Black. I learned real quick that home is the only place you could catch a break. These are the eyes that I viewed in the past though, I couldn’t understand how Blacks would beg to fight in wars for the country that hated them. I saw events like World War 1 & 2 as opportunities to leverage the Black agenda into equality for the Black race. I didn’t understand why a Black man would fight for a country, let alone beg for a chance to fight for a country that didn’t want to recognize him as a man? That was mind-boggling to me. Then I remembered how Black slaves would try to prove their worth by picking the most cotton as a way to make sure they didn’t get beat by the master, although they were bigger stronger and hungrier than him.
Whippings! Whoopings! Beatings! Corporal Punishment! Spankings Etc… Killed the will of many Blacks. Then & Now!
I grew up in a Chrisitan household which meant my parents lived by the rule of “spare the rod, & spoil the child!” Trust and believe there were not going to be any spoiled children in my parent’s household. You were disciplined for any infraction deemed suitable off-top. That built a permanent scab in my psyche as a young human. The older I got, I realized it was also the primary running theme throughout slavery, and just as in my household it was backed by the Bible! If God commanded it then it has to happen. Since God commanded it then it was also not up for questioning. Matter of fact God also commanded that children be obedient to their parents so that meant questioning them was also akin to disobedience and deemed justification for discipline as well! An unbroken circle! The scab that grew on my mental psyche always did me more damage in the long run, than having the freedom to just make a mistake or follow my own path, etc… I am not here to debate whether whipping children is the way to go or not as a parent, but I just know I decided not to keep it as an option. Fear-based obedience only rears a child who will fear their own mind and restrict themselves e than their peers which for some in my case anyways has done more harm than good. I feel like it has led to me being underdeveloped and socially challenged in ways that many will never see, but I know those blocks exist and why. I know that is also the reason the nonfiction story of the slave revolt that changed the south and the role the Black race played in America would also never be written. The mental scabs of brutality had already started forming in a Black child’s mind when their mother told them the rules and regulations of survival on the plantation. Yes I know there were slave revolts I am not talking about those, in essence, I am talking about the reason none were successful due to the Black treasonous individual who alarmed the White man of the dastardly deed afoot by the ungrateful Negros. That mental scab was fresh in that traitor’s mind because it was accompanied by the feeling of acknowledgment and reward he would receive. Whether it be something extra giving to him on the plantation singling him out for praise or even meritorious manumission it wasn’t gonna be a whipping or even worse a lynching so to him it was worth it!
You may be thinking I am blaming my parent’s feelings to choose whippings over actual conversations and human communication to address character flaws or address teachable moments. Although well removed from slavery the mental lessons of slavery mainly the perceived lack of discipline would lead to the White man levying a punishment far worse than the whooping they were going to give you. They hadn’t learned how to communicate any other way, those whipping were out of love for your future survival as a human being. Many may not ever admit it, but I am sure in the south plenty of Black mothers may have blamed Emmitt Till’s mother for NOT preparing him for the difference between the North & South as it related to prejudice and a Black boy’s role. Yeah Chicago had racism, but it didn’t have that small town south racist retribution that stranglehold racism. The fear-laden racism that held Till’s relatives in fear for their own lives don’t hat fateful night when them White men came knocking. The scab was already well developed on their brains where they were frozen in fear and felt helpless to do anything to save Emmitt’s life. In their eyes, it was up to God as to Emmitt living or dying. This is the same story told over and over again throughout the south and America as a whole when it comes to Whites killing Blacks. The same scab that kept me from striking my father or attempting to strike my mother regardless of how big I had gotten. That fear was far stronger than the respect factor which ultimately kicks in after a certain age especially if the discipline never crossed over into the child abuse side of the fence, although that line moves depending on who’s judging.
NO! DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND & THINK I THINK THE WHITE MAN BEAT BLACKS OUT OF LOVE!
IT WAS ABOUT CONTROL STRAIGHT FROM THE HOLY BIBLE
THE STRONGEST FORM OF MENTAL CASTRATION
Our Culpability is in our continuance and consistent and constant reimaging of the world in which we were born into. We basically bought into the lie that our once Master & Enslaver’s traditions, religions, tactics, mannerisms, and beliefs somehow belonged in our own lives and should be mimicked. We’ve been fighting for “freedom” but only to become a Black version of the White man! We basically accepted the White man’s plan B attempt to maintain control over us, because not having an origin story means you only know, what you’ve seen. The goal of equality to the White man has been a fallacy from the beginning! The Black race is not the monster the White race is. Especially not the Black American descendants who’ve only known America as its home. The only people we feel valid about being violent with are ourselves because we’ve never really recognized we are not just equal to the White man but actually Better speaking in terms of compassion and spirituality. Science has already proven we are physically superior yet we shy away from those truths and even deem them racists in nature, even though they are facts. The fear that we could ever be determined to be superior to the White man is one even we are afraid to suggest. When it comes to mental prowess there are studies after studies showing that even in lesser developed situations in America, Blacks outperformed Whites mentally hands down. When you remove the ideas and qualifications of degrees and formal education standards Blacks based on the history of America are far more inventive, artistic, and creative than the White race! These things are facts and surveys and tests done during times when Blacks had NO Equality in comparison to Whites, especially in the south.
All throughout history though the 1 trial that ultimately determined a “Man’s, People’s, A Culture’s” freedom has been through WAR! Physical domination and overthrowing of the top of the caste system is what gave that 2nd class society an even playing field in the end. They had to ultimately take it! It is even true in the American story. America did not just BECOME free from the Monarchy, it was through WAR America gained FREEDOM!
No, I am not trying to incite a race war! Calm down… it’s way too late for that. The volumes of Black men and women who have chosen to cross the race line would make that impossible anyway! Lol!
But the reality of the current state of Black Americans is our constant fight and battle to want to be seen as EQUALS to the White man is proof that we still carry that scab of slavery discipline and we are constantly searching for a reward from the White Man! In America, the Black woman is the most educated demographic in the country, yet she is constantly told she is under attack and made to feel as if she can never have peace or security in herself or a Black man. I started with the Black woman because I am a Black man who believes Black women are the key to the black race ever overcoming the scab of slavery and ending the same actions that make our race culpable in our own demise. This brings me to Black men. We have chased the White man’s image of a man that leaves his woman behind just to toil in the kitchen etc and blah, blah as the White man did. When in reality the Black woman has never had those freedoms because a lot of times they were doing the work the White woman couldn’t due to laws, or wouldn’t due to privilege. The Black woman has NEVER occupied a monochromatic space but always traversed the chromatic scale of life. As we have chased the White man’s goals of conquering and spreading his seed all around and adopted that to our nature even as too a point to idolize it as the goal of life, now mimicked in all forms of “Black Entertainment” we’ve betrayed ourselves and our women. For so many once they finally decide to become a “marrying” man or just stable at least they completely forgo the Black woman and search for the worst representation other races have to offer in so many cases especially the White women, they choose the one the White sure didn’t want!
Closing, The Solution!
Yes, I am now going to hurt your feelings and explain the only path to remove the blame and end our own culpability for our place in America for our acceptance of being placed in the 2nd class spot on the American caste system. Believe it or not in theory it is actually pretty simple!
Stop trying to be SLAVES! Forgive yourself! Forgive your parents! Forgive your ancestors!
We always talk about the search for happiness and look for the things that will bring us the most joy in life. First off I am the type of Black man that thinks a successful drug dealer can also run a successful company. The only difference is the merchandise. Earlier I admitted I have always wondered “What makes a Black Leader?” The answer is the people! The real question should be “why can’t we all be Black Leaders?” We have a problem controlling our own destiny. I believe that problem is birthed by fear, for most it is associated with the fear that grew from the scab of slave discipline. Like I said I am writing this post-MLK Day 2022, which means I have been reintroduced to more images of my racial history that are projected for 1 real reason, and it is not a celebration of triumph. It is a reminder they are mental reminders to make sure that scab is still bonded to our brains, that we were and are to remain 2nd class citizens in this country. We are culpable every time we act as if we’re excited to celebrate those moments in time! Don’t mistake my words as in saying I don’t think we should have an MLK Day, I want the history told on July 26th of any given year when any given American discusses Martin Luther King Jr. that it was the American Government that assassinated him, and not James Earl Ray as I was taught in school. I would actually rather Black politicians stand up and discuss Martin Luther King Jr.’s goal of reparations for the Black race and a universal government wage program, instead of the 3rd grade I have a dream excerpts. I would also of course like the freedom from Blacks to see where the version of equality Martin Luther King Jr. died for was an inconceivable goal in its birth on nonviolence, basically castrating the Black race to defend itself against racists who completely intended on being violent! Its main fallacy is the dependence on the American Government to adjudicate the meaning of freedom and equality for the Black race because the Black race would not physically fight for its own freedom.
We are culpable in our own demise when we don’t nationally recognize the message of all factions of Black Leadership. The reason why only view 1 faction is that they were the least to do harm, and so safe to the rich White Men that controlled America. The Kennedys and Rockerfeller’s of the world to whom we still look for guidance on how to determine Black equity in America or what equity even look like. The names change, but the processes and reasonings do not.
We are culpable when instead of teaching Black kids why their vote matters in relation to their income and perceived goals and aspirations in life, we teach them to vote for ideas completely opposite of the things that will help them accomplish their dreams. Instead of equipping them with the knowledge of laws and rules and regulations on how to make sure they know when, where & how to vote, we instill fear of the boogeyman who’s constantly working to is going to steal their right to vote. We constantly want to remind them of times of poll taxes and literacy tests to vote, without the context that those times are gone, and will not return as long as you understand the value of the vote and make sure you vote for your own interests on your own valuation of life. It is time for Black parents to tie the voting right and privilege to the conversation as to why you don’t want to become a felon. Make sure your children know it is another privilege as an American another right you lose, and depending on the state may never get back. It may sound corny or insignificant, but if you’re really doing the job of being a parent you will understand!
We are culpable when we don’t hold our Black leaders of every sector responsible for being irresponsible. We should not be listening to a Black person that has come from lower-income and middle-class situations spouting out messages that because you or your child are Black they can’t rise up and become great through education etc… just like that “Leader” did. The real question should be “How did you do it then?” If they aren’t willing to honestly answer that question and allow that to be the path for others and endorse that path and help create lanes for other Blacks, then they are part of the racist discipline machine set in the way to keep reinforcing the scab on the mind of 2nd class citizenship! In this arena is where I say Black women will lead us out of this time period because Black men follow them.
For example: If Black women did not fall in love with gangster rap, it would not exist today. Period! There’s a reason women get in the club for free! Am I blaming Black women? No! I am saying they do have a responsibility in understanding their role. It is not the simpleton role of the White woman the “stand by your man!” fictional character of a wife in traditional American life. It is much greater than that because the Black man’s role has been bastardized and is based on the image he has from the White slave master. We have the protect and provide an aspect of the role of manhood, but that is about it. The savagery and simplistic animal characteristics were passed down learned and linage from the White man, the only difference is the privilege didn’t change hands. That is where the difference comes in at the Black woman has always lived in both worlds. The only person of either race who could. For the heterosexual Black man, the Black woman is the only hope we have to get us back on a track that recognizes how great we actually are & directs the Black race in the future. Our current situation is 100% unnatural from the music we listen to concerning Black life to the visual entertainment TV, movies, web, etc… depict a Black man who is lost and searching to belong searching for purpose. Even in the Black man’s highest levels in life as in during the Civil Rights Movement, we didn’t celebrate the Black woman as we should have for so many of their lives were lost not to mention the impact they made when the Black man wasn’t able to cut through the fold. That was a small example of the Black men following their role models. These horrible habits crossed industries and Black men abandoned Black women for the perceived benefits of White women and women of other races. The look fitted better with the White men they were trying to impress, it should an evolutionary development of sorts. This lie is still alive today, but not as much as with the powerful Black men as much as is with the ordinary Black man, looking for that acceptance. With all that said and done I still have faith that if Black women pulled out of the debauchery circles and the mess and demanding of the Black race and which also dogs and downs them as well, the Black race still has enough Black men to lead alongside the Black woman to make our race stop the actions that make us culpable in our own demise. That 100% includes the Black man or woman SCREAMING BLACK POWER married to a White spouse. You are living a LIE! Before you get mad just think about it. If you think a certain shoe is the best and tell this to everyone, but you only wear the 2nd best brand, then you’re lying to yourself. You love who you choose, that’s your choice and I am not knocking it, just be happy and stop taking our money and taking advantage of gullible and nieve people.
We have to stop whipping our children as the first action in discipline and understand that heathen is just a smaller version of the both of you! This also means we have to pick an appropriate way of disciplining and correcting our children. Every child needs a method in order to learn and obey those methods are different and should be more complex than verbal and physical whoopings. That is the only way we prevent the scab from developing on their mental psyche which leads to other issues or situations where unhealthy coping mechanisms can develop.
The way we teach our children about our history in America should start with the family’s own history 1st before grouping the whole historical context of the Black race in a lesson and allowing strangers to teach it to your children. Considering abortions are targeted specifically at the Black race that means Black women have to have the babies, to begin with. Once that child is here teach them who they are, but more importantly who they definitely AREN’T which means you have to become a version of yourself that can live up to your own expectations! That doesn’t mean if you want your child to be a rocket scientist because they chose that as well, you have to become 1 first. It means you have to be the best at whatever it is that you do, so that child will know some self-worth, work ethic, and goalsetting understanding they have expectations in life to meet and goals to accomplish. Plenty of garbage men and seamstresses have raised amazing children. Plenty of hustlers and quasi prostitutes have as well, think about how that happens. That means men have to stay with their mothers. Women have to choose better men to have children by! Either way, the 2 of you are responsible for raising that child. Poverty is a state of mind whereas being poor is just a financial condition the 2 are not the same don’t confuse the two, and neither will your children.
Last But Not LEAST, Defend Yourself Against Any Threat Equally, God Won’t Save You
There’s a bit of irony in America. It comes back to the scab of slave discipline that allows Black people to kill each other before we would harm a White person in self-defense. We aren’t even supposed to believe or conceive a situation where we felt comfortable enough to do so, let the history of America tell it. I base that on all the senseless murders of Black Americans throughout time and I am only talking about the recent last 100 years, where we know exactly who the killers were and the people involved and yet the Black race did nothing. I mentioned Emmitt Till earlier and I was amazed but not surprised just recently the family lost an appeal or attempt of some sort to get some justice for Emmitt Tills murder. Although after so many decades what could any justice look like? These situations are perfect examples of the stranglehold the scab of slave discipline has on the Black race. During a time where Black men had come back from fighting wars for America, they couldn’t feel enough anger to go down there bestow the same treatment on those men who killed Emmitt Till. That vengeance has always been left up to the Lord for Black people. Do you understand they knew exactly who those men were? The world knew who they were? None of the killers or most gangster Black men in Chicago went down there and a damn thing! This is a story all too true throughout history and present-day in the Black race. Don’t get me wrong I am not a killer by any standards, I would never want to kill a man, so no I am not about to play vigilante. I am just talking about the guys who I know that have bodies under their belt, all those bodies share the same race and usually zip code as them also. That is our culpability in our own demise in this country.
Because only the Lord could wage war against the White man in that sense. That’s why an adolescent White boy could be allowed to whip a young Black man if desired, and that man would have to just take it! The scab was so thick that he felt that was natural. Only God almighty could actually reach down and smack that child, for whipping a grown man. Well, we know God never reached out of heaven and did that so… those prayers were basically a waste.
The second amendment is held so close to the hearts of the White man in America it is almost their last name. They’ve used it to always make sure they were armed to fight against any type of threats coming from any direction. They mainly used those guns to avenge any simple thing they saw as a threat as well. Usually without ever shooting a single bullet. The simple thought of them having guns was enough for many. See they never had a scab form so they had no fear of anyone or anything. Some say they only feared God, but we all know that was a lie because God was formed in an image of them so “God understood!” White men used those guns to break Black men out of jails in order to get mob justice they felt was deemed in most cases led by the actual perpetrator of the crime the Black man was accused of, to begin with! Don’t let a White woman be involved well there goes your Black town, shot up and burned down! Land stolen and only God could avenge them, and since that never happened, well it must have been right, I guess. Off the top of my head, I can remember watching movies like Rosewood & hearing about the Tulsa Massacre and wondering how none of it was ever avenged. This is the one trait the Black man didn’t absorb from the White man, see plenty of White men were killed by other white men in order to squash any thoughts of a Black man getting away with disrespect. Plenty lived in fear and went along with policies they didn’t believe in, but the powers that be would have killed them and ruined their livelihoods if they spoke out. This is no excuse for their cowardly actions, it is just proof they had mental scabs as well.
The last step of ending our own culpability in our situation is to recognize we deserve the right personally to defend ourselves against all people, who would do us harm. With that being said we should 100% look to reconsider if there is a chance that we can resolve issues between each other without killing each other, because truthfully we will not look to kill a White person if the situation was the same, and that is really how equality works! A White boy can come to the ghetto sell his drugs, rape women smack babies do whatever he pleases, and will get a pass in most cases. A Black guy from around the corner can’t even step foot on the block without preapproval from the gang leader or council etc… Now make that make sense. That scab still exists because even though they may have 100 bodies and tats all over their face, they know if that White boy gets killed, all hell is going to break loose. So the level of disrespect is tolerated to a very far degree, whereas a beating is the most they will do. This behavior repeats itself across spectrums when it comes to the relationships Blacks have with Whites where that line of ack is constantly being crossed and the Black person just draws another line, instead of acting accordingly. Those courtesies are never extended from the other side though.
This also means stop looking for the American Government to save you as well. It’s not going to happen. You have to understand the money they allocate is allocated as a whole for all poor people, the majority of which are not Black. Regardless of what they keep spewing and repeating from both Black & White wants of “change” Black people usually don’t even qualify for a lot of the programs. The level of poverty you have to live on is so low, that most people naturally work themselves off it. It is literally damn near impossible to stay that poor and still be a part of society. Yet, some people do their plan and they follow it because it works. The Government loves these people because they offer years of votes and an easy way to funnel money where and to whom they want to, win-win situations. Just follow the money, and you will see who really benefits. Although I am an advocate for using welfare benefits when you need to, they are never going to be dependable like they were in the ’80s unless you are capable of basically living on absolutely nothing. That is where it’s going. For Blacks, even the Government has moved on as far as a support system anyways, they no longer need us they just want our votes.
Don’t get it twisted the last and final degree of culpability lies with the Black politician especially the Democratic ones. I don’t need to go into what all they have done and do to make sure we never rip off the scab of slavery discipline because if you’ve read this far then you should already know!
Great read!