February Black

The Gantt Report

By Lucius Gantt

   I remember when I was in elementary school and my mother would buy me little cards and tiny candy hearts with corny sayings on them like, “I love you!” or “Be mine!” to give to my classmates.

I got married at 19 and after that my Valentine’s gifts were only given to my wife and my mother.

At the current time, Mom has taken her final journey and my wife married someone that is more on her level and I’m living the single life.

So, my Valentine’s Day love goes to LaSonja and Terika, the Gantt girls, and my living surrogate moms, Ruby and Juanita.

Everybody needs somebody to love. Try your best to find a lover that loves you.

In 2023, candy, flowers, a romantic candle-light dinner and a few minutes in the sack is not enough for some couples in a relationship.

Valentine’s Day is no longer the universal day of love, passion and peace; now the holiday is a day to see who the boss is!

When women see female gangsters, robbers and murderers on television, they try to be “Annalise” or “Big 50”.

Ain’t too much smiling and loving pillow talk going on these days, ain’t no “hitting it like a pimp” action going on either.

“Thank you, baby” or “That’s so sweet” might be all you get because anything more just might mess up the weave, the wig, the lashes or the makeup.

Just be thankful to have a woman, or a man, at all. There are too many viruses and other things going around for anyone to chase on the holiday.

February is also the month African Americans celebrate their Black history and honor their ancestors.

For years, I’ve been calling for a Black History Forum on Black Politics and Economics.

Black people want Black leaders but they don’t know who they should believe, admire and follow.

My suggestions to all of the schools, churches, fraternal organizations, social organizations and community organizations has always been: “line them up!”

Round up all of the so-called Black leaders, put them on the same stage and give them 15 minutes, or less, to tell us their plans for Black progress that will work!

Let the people decide what Black messages work best instead of letting white media outlets, white colleges, white churches and other white groups tell us who our leaders should be.

The top Black speakers during Black History Month programs get paid thousands of dollars to give the same speeches they have been giving for years to every school that invites them to speak.

The people that will tell you the truth about Black life in America will never be heard because the truth hurts!

I am God-fearing! No Black History Month speaker will ever cause me to be afraid to tell the truth.

Anyway, I wish everyone, young and old, a very happy Valentine’s Day and a meaningful Black History Month of activities.

But you’ll never see me holding hands, swaying and singing “We Shall Overcome” with closet klansmen, modern-day colonialists and neo-nazts.