Gripe of the Day: The Black Man

If you can't tell from my picture, I am a Black man. Ask any Black woman and she we tell you a few things about us Black men. When she's finished ranting, you probably still wont know much about the Black man because she doesn't understand us anymore than we understand ourselves. The first thing you need to know about the Black man is that he is as geographically diverse and unique as any other man. When you talk about an American White male, you don't conjure the image of a kilted pipe player, though he may well be descendant of a Scott. When you think of a Wall-Street high roller, you don't think of John Wayne. The same is true for Black men - we are diverse. People have an issue understanding us because we're always being analyzed as a monolithic group though we are far from it. It is true however, that there are some truthful basic generalities as there are with most alike groups of people - just as we can say that most Asians have almond eyes or most White people are light in complexion.

Character generalizations have to be constrained to the geographical local of the man, especially Black men. While I have associated myself with many Black men from many different places and backgrounds, I myself, am an African American male of African American slave origin: I am thus qualified to claim to have insight into the psyche of the same. There are many differences, I have found, in Black American men and Black men from other places on the planet. Our social circumstances, physical challenges & economic opportunities have molded us into a unique breed of Black. For those of you who haven't studied what the beginnings were like for the African slave coming to America, here are a few of the conditioning practices undertaken by the conquerors of Turtle Island (America). Due to the hostile and often rebellious nature of the African captives, a decision was made to not deliver the slaves directly to America before their will had first been broken. Most slaves were taken first to slave camps in South America where they were "conditioned" before being brought to America. One very affective practice was to capitalize on many of the captives' belief that the White man was literally the Devil. Read some of the slave narratives written by actual slaves of the time such as, Olaudah Equiano, and you will see this. The enslavers believed that if they could verify that they were as wicked as the Africans believed, the slaves would see no hope in resisting. An especially grotesque and wicked practice was to bind all of the pregnant female slaves to trees with their husbands bound in front of them and forced to witness as the women stomachs were sliced opened, the children ripped out and stomped dead on the ground in front of them. Such practices were not only effective at creating the illusion that the enslavers were some sort of super-natural evil, but it was affective at causing the Black warrior to surrender - inside, to the will of his possessor. Such practices as well inadvertently began the storage of a hidden rage. So yes, there are some accurate generalizations when referring to the American Black man and his hostility.

Once conditioned and delivered to the new land, where they were sold like cattle, the "conditioning" continued. If any sign of the deeply recessed warrior nature of the Black man was displayed, he was immediately assaulted and reminded of the brutality of his enslaver. White folk don't like hearing this stuff because like most people, they'd rather focus on the good in their selves, but oh well, get over it fuckers - I'm saying this shit! As we all know, a man is defined by his woman. If you don't understand that, let me explain it this way. How do you define light if there is no darkness? What defines a man is what doesn't define a woman and visa versa. I know, I could do better but I think you get it. I bring that up because another thing done by the enslavers to under mind the Black man was the objectification of the Black woman. The Black woman was demonstrated as the property of the enslaver as she was sexually exploited at his will. That is a VERY damaging thing. There is no culture that has ever existed that didn't have a special place for its women and it doesn't matter if they were seen as something greater or lessor, the fact is that every culture has always recognized that their legacy resided in the woman. Purpose for a man has always resided in his ability to have, hold and care for his woman. Many wars have been fought over women. When the Black man's ability to have faith in his woman was taken, he was truly redefined.

Once freed from his shackles, the assault didn't end there. Systematically, Black men were separated from their families. This was achieved by denying Black men opportunities to adequately provide for their families then providing Black women opportunities to provide for their selves (welfare) provided that there was not a man in the house. That was the rule; you could not receive the assistance you obviously needed unless you got rid of your man. The government became the Black woman's man. This was a "divide and conquer" tactic that carried on from slave days. Bitterness and resentment was developed between the Black man and woman as a result of these tactics. The Black man became this homeless, loveless rage filled entity just stumbling his way through life and our good government encouraged our inner chaos to grow. Remember the trains filled with guns that the CIA used to stop and unlock near the ghettos of Los Angeles? Remember the brain stifling experiments government sanctioned scientist used to run on Blacks on the east coast? I remember the outrageous documentaries made by Gregory Hines on those experiments. Remember the experiments on the southern Blacks which are too numerous to mention. The American Black male has survived some horrendous things. The Black woman has been through her share of crap, perhaps more than anyone, but a man needs to be able to depend on his woman no matter what. When the Black man lost his faith in his woman, he lost everything.

Today, we have come a long way. It has been a long hard road but with persistence, we have managed to get those opportunities that were once denied us and we are slowly reconnecting with our women. Remember when we first started tasting success that the first thing we did was run after White women? I remember all of those pro-ballers and athletes who were the first to acquire real wealth. It was very telling about the psyche of the Black man to see what he did with that wealth and who he wanted to share it with. The faith in the Black woman had been diminished. Even now, there are many of us remaining who place a higher value on everything before a relationship with a woman (bros before hoes). Not only do we need to work on repairing ourselves but our women need to work on giving us reason again to value them. Our faith in the Black woman needs to be restored but it's difficult when the Black woman doesn't realize what her role is in restoring that faith. There are still efforts to hold us back through dividing us. If you haven't noticed, an especially attractive/successful Black woman, all of a sudden becomes an acceptable mate for some White men. It's rare that you see White men with Black women unless they are either exceptionally attractive, successful or both.

I got over my anger about the past a long time ago because I see the unintended benefits of our tampered existence here in good ole America. I look at all of those hostilities committed against us as immunization shots. We didn't die from any of it so it only made us stronger. That's why we are unique and the more we are opposed, the stronger we get.

So; Who is the Black man? If you're asking about the American Black male of slave descendency, I'll say that he is altered but stronger, bent but not broken, self-destructive but a survivor, lonely but hopeful, uncertain but persistent, uneducated but intelligent, homeless but free. In other word - I don't know what the hell is up with us Black men! We are such a convoluted mess of success and failure, subduction and conquest, that I don't know if we're coming or going. The Black man is in a state of restoration from an age of disrepair. What we are right now is, changing. Ask me in twenty more years about the Black man. Maybe then I'll have something substantial to say. Anywho, I'm vented.