Rise Black Man Rise...

I recently heard Anthony Astaphan tell the population that if Renneth "Bubbles" Alexis was a white man Lennox Linton would not have had anything to say about his "sudden rise to economic wealth".

 

Since when is Anthony Astaphan a champion of the black youtman?  And why has he not been able to advise his Prime Minister to champion the cause of the black youtman?

Why as it not the first priority of the Prime Minister once ensconced in the highest Office in the land where he COULD make a difference to elevate the black youth?

 

Why was it not the PM's focus to encourage them to strive for greatness and put themselves shoulder to shoulder with the other minority races?

With so many black issues being inextricably woven to negative national issues, and with black people remaining at the bottom rung of the social ladder and exploited for so long by their own kind and by others, why no Ministry of the Ghetto & Youth Empowerment?

This is not meant to be political, but why isn't this a priority of his Administration to convene studies, to set up policies, to create initiatives that would encourage black men to raise the children they father in a loving, respectful home, where they could learn to love and value themselves, their families and their children and dream of a better life for themselves and their loved ones?

 

 

I recently read a study that surmised that around the age of puberty, black male youth comes face to face with himself as he relates to the world and the choices he makes beyond that self realization determines the tone of the rest of his life; the most noteworthy conclusion of the study was that the decisions made at that point are (simply put) primarily affected (either positively or negatively) by the presence of a strong male role model in his world.

Reading that statement one may want to interject  that the same could be applied to all races and that would be true for the most part save and except that no other race in this country is pulled in such competing directions from so young, and that the choices available to black youth are so limited and diametrically opposed to each other that every step travelled in the wrong direction takes him further and further from any redemption. If Heaven forbid he makes the wrong choice he almost dooms himself to a violent end, and yet black men in society seem to be content to leave their progeny to raise themselves as if social conditioning and personal development are not taught values. 

It is almost as if triumphing over adversity is the one true legacy of black youth in society.

We live in a country where it is common to say that 'we all want to like we self' and that is fine; but raising children to successful adulthood is a responsibility that cannot be ignored and if we want a better world for them, the onus is on us to like them more.

As an aside but important to the overall discussion, I remain astonished at the behavior of some black leaders who, having risen out of poverty themselves, walk away from their brothers and sisters and leave their issues and pressing causes in the dirt.

Why do they do this?

Why not instead fight to make blackness synonymous with greatness and success, with family values instead of ghetto values, with nation building instead of hustling?

This is not Darfur, Somalia or Haiti, where poverty is all but guaranteed; there are opportunities available to the poor in this land.

These opportunities ought to be used and exploited for the good of the children so that they could have a future that does not include terms like 'incarceration' and 'known to the authorities,' but someone has to mould their minds to help them make the correct choices.

Forget all the talk about the State's responsibility; far and above all else the children need proper and committed parenting.

I have noted before that the retail and fastfood cartels in the country do not encourage little middle eastern boys to be 'gangsta' and little white girls to be 'ho's,' so why are are our leaders being allowed to portray black youth in this manner? 

Why hasn't black leadership come out vociferously against this 'ghetto-rization' of their children?

There is no getting away from the fact that the responsibility lies squarely at the feet of the black man who, long emancipated and liberated in the real world, seems to still find himself shackled in his mind. The Caribbean business model STILL wants to refer to black people as worker drones and consumers, and this lack of respect will not change until change is demanded by word and action, and cannot continue unless it is first allowed by the very people themselves.

There is a vacuum of real leadership in the black community, and this may very well be the root of its destruction. You cannot escape yourself and your heritage by changing your hair and your clothes, and the best advice I can offer at this point is to do like the other races and rewrite the past by your actions in the present and the future.

In the words of Bob Marley - "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds..."