Coping with our problems
Part One of Two
When?…oh when?…will we, as Black people ever wake up?
This question in one form or another, has been bandied about occasionally, longer than any of us now living, has been alive. The time has long since arrived for us to focus conscientiously on this matter.
This issue, to use just a few clichés, should be on the front burner every day and should be prioritized in every community agenda or discussion.
Surely we are aware that our communities, far more than any other community, are being continually traumatized and tortured by senseless and unspeakable tragedies. Every day in large cities and small towns across this vast land we are being decimated by wanton acts of murder and mayhem. Our sisters and brothers of all ages are being slaughtered. Our youth…yes our youth…the not yet blossomed flowers of future generations are being slaughtered. Even our babies…our very precious babies are beaten to death because they will not stop crying. Toddlers are beaten to death because they wet their pants or ate some food without permission…or some other insane reason.
What kind of people are we?…that wecan so casually and quietly accept the gratuitous and brutal destruction of present and future generations as if it’s not really happening at all?
How many more sisters and brothers?…how many more teenagers?…how many more prepubescent children?…how many more babies are going to be sacrificed on the altar of ignorance and self-hatred before we devote ourselves to an ongoing commitment to address this madness in our community?
Simple logic should tell us that something’s radically wrong with us as a community for all this madness to be continually tolerated in our midst.
Huey Newton, of the erstwhile Black Panthers Party is reputed to have coined the maxim: IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION…THEN YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. There’s no escaping the fact that we are all, as a com-munity, “part of the problem.” That should be obvious. It’s also obvious that we have no ethnocentric or moral commitment to the continuity of our species.
Consider our plight. We maim and kill each other at a rate unlike any other group of people. We burglarize our neighbors and communities at a much higher rate than any other ethnic community. We sell drugs openly and prostitute some of our finest young flowers of femininity on the streets of our communities…in full view of many churches…and in full view of many, many, devout parishioners.
Yet incredibly, there is no community outrage or outcry.
The devastation wreaked upon us by the combined effects of daily murders, burglaries, prostitution and drugs, should be far more than enough for us to come together for community action. Yet the sad truth is as a community, apathy doesn’t even begin to describe our total lack of concern. Our apathy is at a subterranean level.
There’s yet still more disturbing news. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), a Federal agency in Atlanta, Ga. reports every year that Blacks are #1 on the mortality list of all major fatal diseases. Among which are AIDS, Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Hypertension. This translates into the disturbing fact that on average our life span is seven to 13 years shorter than those of White Americans.
This dreary fact is exacerbated by the fact that a disturbing proportion of those of us “who make it” are committed to having no children.
So as a race, we are in a situation that really doesn’t augur well for the future because those that can best provide for the expansion and continuity of our species, are reneging on their responsibility.
On the other hand, those that are in the least desirable position to propagate the species are producing a disproportionate quantity of our future generations.
If we continue to lack the foresight and resolve to properly plan for counteracting the dire consequences of the direction that we are surely headed, at some point in our uncertain future, a catastrophic disaster for us as a race, will be un-avoidable.
Undoubtedly, there are many among us that will characterize this dissertation as an alarmist idea. Be that as it may, but to be forewarned is to be forearmed. It is better to have a plan and not need it, than to come face to face with disaster without a plan.
The purpose of this article and the ones that will appear in the coming weeks is to evoke meaningful thoughts, dialogue and interaction within the Black community. To that end, we encourage your comments and response. Hopefully, an outgrowth of these articles will be the establishment of an AFRO-CENTRIC FORUM. These forums will be conducted throughout the South Florida area, via the town hall format. The purpose is to sensitize, galvanize, and educate the community to the need for Black awareness and afro-centric prospective. THIS IS NOT A CALL TO THOSE WHO HATE WHITES…but rather a call to brothers and sisters of African descent…THAT HAVE A LOVE AND CONCERN FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE.
Please direct all responses to: khahma@gmail.com Developed and disseminated by: The African Diaspora Think Tank. An incorporated not-for-profit 501 3 (c) entity.
Be the first to comment