Some Lost Don't Want Finding

The other day I got into an intense dialogue with a brother on Twitter. This back and forth went on most of the day and ended with quite a bit of vitriol and animosity.

This brother was going

on about how we as African Americans need to stand up and quit blaming white people for our problems. He went on and on about how the conditions of our communities and families are our own fault and that we are just making excuses when we say that white people are to blame.

To be honest with you, I can agree with this brother to some extent because there are some things we do as a community that do not lend themselves to our improvement on any level. But where he and I part ways is why we as a community act as dysfunctional as we do on occasion.

I won’t get granular as to what I tried to explain to this young man, but I will expound on what the crux of my disagreements with his points were.

First, I was a little taken aback as to why he was so vehemently sticking to supremacist talking points. He kept reiterating their position that, we are criminally minded and shiftless. Further, that we are a drain on the economy with our want of handouts and easier access to specific programs, just because we are black. I am /was surprised as to the lack of historical context these people have who think that this is the case. They never go any deeper to understand that, IF these allegations are true on any level, then why is that the case? If they are to believe in that ideology, wholeheartedly, then they have to believe that we are genetically predisposed to immoral behavior and the want of free shit! That we are hopelessly irredeemable and somehow sub-human, at best.

They will never research, historically, social science and racially driven legal constructs still on the books today that show the traps in the systems that hinder proper societal growth for the so-called African American in this country. Never allow a supremacist to measure our economic status with that of the entire dark population of the world. That is the, “you should be thankful you live in America” nonsense they will throw in your face. If American ideals were equalizers, or made us better off than the rest of the world, then unarmed black men and women would not be dead at the hands of law enforcement. Our prisons would not be filled with blacks sentenced unfairly as opposed to whites for similar crimes, and white supremacists would have no platform or real desire to mine for or fabricate racist talking points to bloviate upon.

But I digress…

I attempted to explain to the brother that if he really believed that was true, then what made him so different than the rest of us? “What are you, then? Super Nigga,” I asked him. In some way, shape or form, this young man felt comfortable enough in his position in this world to say that we as people are the problem and that the white population and government of this country is not somehow complicit.

As I am posting back and forth with this guy, I am wondering as to if he has ever had a connection with his own race. I can only imagine that he has had some kind of upbringing that perhaps has him thinking so negatively about his own people. Maybe he was brought up in a predominantly white neighborhood, or perhaps he was picked on by some other brothers and sisters, wherever he was reared. Something like that. So I asked him.

This brother told me he was born and bred in Houston, Texas! HOUSTON!!! Plenty of negros there!

I can tell you right here, and now, I lost ALL respect for this brother. (I will tell you right now I loathe to keep calling him my brother… so I’ll stop.)

I was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming and pretty much raised in Ogden, Utah. There are negligible numbers of brothers and sisters in each of these places. And even given that, I have never abandoned my sense of family with black people. (My parents were CRUCIAL in that regard) I will say there was a time in my life when I would sing the kumbaya song when it came to racial relations, and would give every white person I had ever met the benefit of the doubt, sometimes at the expense of a brother and a sister. But as time went on, I realized that only a handful of the white race should be given the benefit in my life at any time. That’s not a bigoted view.

What it lends itself to is understanding that they cannot empathize with what it means to be an African American in this country and can only sympathize with the systemic and ingrained problems we face because of skin color. Even in their most sympathetic disposition, they tend to be dismissive, uninformed and sometimes incredulous. Further, some will take on a “savior” complex or “I’m doing you a favor” stance or will take social liberties with us that I find somewhat disrespectful and annoying to no end! Only those that can show a correct understanding of the situation will I give credence to. If not, stay the hell away from me. It is not essential to be liked by all white people or even most of them. It’s vital that we understand where our real allies are, and deal with them only. (SOUR PILL: A Guide To Surviving in the Dominant Society, Chapter 11, pg. 91)

As the conversation continued, I actually began to believe that I may be conversing with a white guy with a black bio picture! I could not believe that an actual brother would continue to espouse white supremacist talking points for HOURS at a time, with no retreat. I could not fathom that this negro could be cooning so hard even after I schooled him on Jim Crow, gerrymandering, the court system, the prison/slave system, and the engineered urban social structure that keeps our people relegated to second-class citizenry. I even gave him resources to study to bolster the information I was handing him. All of that to no avail.

I ended the conversation with roasting him and wishing him good luck with his buckdancing routine.

I guess I’m writing all of this to say that I am a little disconcerted about the mental state of some of our people. I tweeted something the other day about having so many think-tank type brothers and sisters, and not enough tank builders. I can honestly say I contribute to the noise myself. I thought maybe if I could have given something to that lost young man more tangible than some internet links and ridicule, than perhaps the veil could have been lifted. I’m beginning to believe we are still functioning under what white people say are the solutions for us and not, in any expeditious manner, embarking on new and more innovative ideas that pull us from under what their rendition of what right looks like.

I have promised myself that before The Most High takes me from the living, that I will actually enact real change for our people in this country. We can write books and make videos and say the most profound shit on these social media sites, but if we don’t start getting out here and giving these young brothers and sisters something that is tangible and affecting their day to day, then we are going to have people like this lost negro acting like uninformed sellouts and idiots. They will continue to believe that the dominant society knows what right looks like… for us. That cannot and should not be the case.