Good Day Gentlemen, Today I want to discuss the re-set of life .... the Alt+Ctl+Del if you will..
First let me say I love the African Diaspora, We are a rich culture and heritage that spans the globe. Our cultural contributions are enumerable in fashion, music, politics, education, science, and mathematics. We seem to have achieved in spite of what others have projected on us.. Call it prejudice, racism, hate, bias, on every level from institutional to social..
However, As great as we are as a people… we are susceptible to the same ideology and group thought, group speak, and herd mentality as others... we decry most what we loathe in ourselves....
Take the tea party.. we assume that they’re all the same b/c they seem to speak in one voice. Their issues are projected to the world as the United States most vital issues. Then they proceed to vote against their interest for politicians who pander to their base instinct and primal need.. Those who they vote for intend on bringing NO jobs to them, Have no intention of making the quality of their lives better... Yet they vote for people who pray on their angst towards others who they feel are “taking over the country” so they create bumper sticker slogans that they’re going to “take the country back”…. From whom???
African Americans do the same thing.. We cheer for the Michael Vicks , Allen Iverson and others who project this thug/hoodlum mentality because they play for our favorite sports team, or because they’re the newly christened savior of the team.. We give them 2nd….3rd… and 4th chances, never really holding them accountable for their actions or the crimes they commit…. YET, the neighborhood dope boy doesn’t get extended that same grace… The rapist doesn’t get a 2nd.. 3rd… or 4th chance… Criminality is Criminality, you cannot justify or rationalize it any other way..
We need a Re-SET… an Alt+CTL+DEL….
We need an ALTERNATE way of thinking. Our thought process has to be challenged, and the herd mentality must be rejected. If you think like a slave on the plantation then you will eventually be a slave on the plantation…. Freedom was an abstract concept for those born into slavery, until someone thought alternately and wanted to run away… Our legacy is filled with the Hatian slave revolt, to Nat Turner, to Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party… Revolutionaries who thought outside of the social paradigm..
We need CONTROL… we need to control our way of thinking, if everyone in your circle thinks the same way you do, and you’re not progressing as a group… it’s time to change your friends. When you sit around griping about gas prices and career stagnation it’s because (among other things) you’re allowing the group to think for you. Many will say, I’m not buying into the peer pressure, but your actions say otherwise… you vote the same… you go to the same clubs… you enjoy the same movies... shop at the same stores... and live in the same neighborhoods..??? The group is controlling you, you just don’t know it..
We need to DELETE old paradigms that keep us trapped in poverty. One of the biggest social problems that affect the African American community is group thought. We see urban centers where teachers aren’t valued b/c we don’t value education, Black Colleges and universities have NEVER consistently had alumni financial support. We know every song on Kanye, Wayne, or Diddy/Dirty money CD but our kids don’t know a math equation… Homosexuality is running rampant, women are turning other women out… perhaps due to the lack of available men…. Men are leaving prison and bringing the gay thug lifestyle back to their communities… Our sons have adopted criminality as cool, OR have become male emulations of their mothers… and our daughters have become prostitutes for a purse or a pair of shoes... OR... have rejected men, adopted a gay lifestyle... all because of the hurt inflicted by the father who wasn't there.... HIV/Aids infects more African Americans than any other group…. STOP!!!! PLEASE STOP…. Delete this paradigm… we didn’t have this foolishness 30yrs ago..
It seems that even when we know that God is the only one who can save us, we reject God… I had a conversation in the last few days about people who don’t go to church.. Inherently, I had people rationalizing THEIR CHOICES.. instead of owning the fact that they don’t go b/c someone in the church hurt them and that they don’t want to go…. Don’t be mad at God… People did that to you…and YOU made that choice not to seek God... YOU sought peoples approval... and that's the problem
In the end Gentlemen we need an Alt+Ctl+Del of our entire social paradigm. We need to change the way we think… the way we comport ourselves… and the negative actions that affect others.. We can no longer be the infection that makes our community sick.. and we can no longer stand by and be hypocritical allowing one thing from some, while decrying it in others..
Gentlemen, we must do better.. and it begins with you..
Editor
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