What is the Problem?

What is the real problem in our communities? This is a question asked by many a person about black communities. From civil rights leaders to sitting and former presidents, all the way down to the grieving mother who just lost her child to senseless violence. This question goes back at least to the days after slavery. We have heard “solution” after “solution” proposed we have seen some action take place. We have even spent hundreds of millions of dollars for "really smart" people to solve it. All with the same result, nothing. Well I propose we stop asking this question. The way its framed, “What’s wrong with our (Black) communities” is in itself derogatory. It ignores the harder question of how did we get to where we are now. Because let’s face facts, not all the blame falls on the white man. At some point we have to take responsibility for ourselves and our communities regardless of what is happening outside of them. I want to use this writing to explore what I feel are the major issues plaguing our communities, how we got to this point, and what we can do now to fix it. I promise you this, it will not be easy, it will be uncomfortable with what I have to say for both blacks and whites. But that’s what is needed to get real growth.

Let’s take a brief look at our history. We are all well aware that our ancestors were stolen from our homeland in Africa and forced into slavery here in the USA. But what many don’t realize is this is where the conditioning started. What conditioning you ask? Well the conditioning of serving the white man, mistrust among ourselves, and family dysfunction. As a slave you are stripped of everything. Your clothing, your culture, your language, absolutely everything. The women were taught that the only person they could trust was Master. They were raped in front of the black men to show that they were weak and could not save you. Families were routinely separated. Men were made fight for the entertainment of whites. Among other atrocities that I can’t bring myself to mention here. Then came an end to slavery, and the really amazing thing is that slavery did not break us. In many ways it made us stronger. And Jim Crow started, among some other things. I know I’m skipping over somethings but we are going to circle back to it later. Then came the Civil Rights era things started looking good for us for a bit. And the rest is history.

Lets start by taking a look at a look at what happened after slavery. Millions of uneducated slaves suddenly had their freedom. What were they to do. Of course they do what they were taught to do. They may have been uneducated book wise but as far as life skills go, they had it in spades. Our ancestors new how to put in long hours from dawn to dusk and beyond. But now there was one problem. They were unable to find work. Due to the laws they were unable to do almost anything. But many still succeeded. Some fled west, while others fled north. We built our own communities. Some of which were largely successful. We started getting involved in the local politics. We helped our neighbors. If a black man came into the town we gave them a place to sleep, we set them up with a job. We knew each other. We had very successful cities or neighborhoods within thriving cities such as Atlanta, Greenwood, Chicago, Rosewood, Washington DC, Knoxville, and St. Louis. This is just a small sample of the type of life we had built in the years following slavery. In every major city in the country there were successful black communities and even cities. We had some people in politics for our neighborhoods, we had our own businesses, our own schools. We took care of ourselves. Now I chose these 7 places with a purpose. They were among the best cities/neighborhoods that the black community had to offer 2 which stick out the most are DC and Greenwood aka Black Wall street. They were also among some of the worse race riots. Even these riots did not break us. In some places we rebuilt, while others we relocated. We continued to build, building our own schools and universities. We supported our own businesses and put our own money back into our communities. We still faced the issue of the new legal slavery system, the prison system. In many areas especially in the south blacks were picked up on trumped up charges, and convicted of crimes they did not commit. Their sentence was to go right back to the plantations where either they were slaves or their parents were slaves and do the same work. Only this time it was much more grueling. You see as a slave the master had a vested interest in keeping you alive. You were a tool that he had to pay for. It was in his best interest not to hurt or cause damage to his best workers. As a prisoner that was no longer there. Oh you drop from exhaustion I’ll just get another one from the prison. Hundreds of thousands of black men were sentenced to do this work. Legal slavery.

We now enter the civil rights era. At this time the black race in this country had been expanding and many were showing success. Yes, there were some places where the black man lived in abject poverty but the same went for white men also. But we were getting tired of segregation. The phrase separate but equal just was not true. Now in my personal opinion, I believe desegregation was the beginning of the downfall of our communities, but I digress. This time period also marks when the government starts to take an active blatant role in the destruction of our communities. With the influx of blacks, jobs were scarce. Laws were passed to help make sure that no black man would be able to find a good job outside his own community, and those jobs were also starting to run this. Because of segregation we could only go but so high in any field. There was no real chance to excel for the bulk of blacks. There wasn’t even a solid chance to support your family. And that is what brings me to the government programs. In several cities both state and federal governments started housing projects to accommodate the growing number blacks in their state. The communities were starting to fall apart due to various reasons, but my belief that desegregation was the most hurtful. This allowed the wealthy influential blacks in the community to leave. They were the glue that held the community together. You put this with the programs the government was doing. Breaking up families by send men to prison and then building the projects but telling women that if they moved there that their husbands could not even come to visit, and their male children once 18 had to leave. This effectively was the death kneel for the black family. This caused a generation of children to grow up without their fathers. Women were forced to make the agonizing choice to either provide for their children or stay with their husbands and hope things get better. We had been successfully divided. Our communities had been broken up and now our families. With our families now broken Children did not grow up seeing Dad work to put on the table. They grew up seeing the government give them a roof over their head and food on their plate for free. Mom didn’t need to work and was actively discouraged against it. If she chose to work she would run the risk of losing her benefits. This in turn had other consequences. If the government is going to provide you everything you need then why do you need school. Our schools already in disrepair got even worse. Many teachers didn’t even try anymore if they even tried to begin with.

Over the course of three generations we went from freed slaves in 1865 and built up mighty communities in the face of overwhelming racist laws, oppression and outright murder by 1915, All the way through the 1960s when segregation ended, we were together, united (for the most part) Now we have received equality on paper but at what cost. Our elite left the communities, our leaders have been assassinated, and we are raising a generation that does not have the positive influence of a two parent household or knows the value of hard work. They know the value of money though which leads to the third and final prong, Drugs and the subsequent war on drugs. It has been well Documented about the CIA’s involvement in supplying our communities with crack. There is even speculation that Bill Clinton was involved with it during his time as governor of Arkansas. This further destabilized our communities and our families. When Crack hit our neighborhoods it was a wrecking ball on an already destabilized black community. Then the laws that followed, are responsible for putting more black men behind bars and destroying more families than ever. This was also the start of the militarization of our police force. We saw such laws that allowed the police to shoot a fleeing suspect even if unarmed and posing no danger to the officer or the public. During this time, we stop taking care of our own. We started expecting the police to maintain law and order in our communities. We voted the politicians that said they would be tough on crime, without asking them what tough on crime means. It means that if you live in this community you are guilty until proven innocent, it means stop and frisk. It means mandatory minimums, It also means far more members with a felony on their record. Just one felony and as a black man, your screwed. It was/is already hard to find a job but now its damn near impossible to find one. Not to mention they take away your voice to be able to make a change. You can no longer vote. You Mean nothing in the eyes of the government now.

Brothers and sisters we allowed this to happen. We could have said no to the free housing and the free food. We could have said no to the drugs. So part of the blame is on us and we as a whole have to accept that. My white brothers and sisters, you must also accept responsibility for your part. Your ancestors would not allow us to live in peace. You forced us to live separate from you then when we started to show success you said no not fair and burned our homes down. You instituted laws to ensure that white people would remain in power. Both of us can come a long way by simply acknowledging what has been done. Once we can do that then and only then will be able to move forward. I have noticed somethings in my 36 years on this planet. I grew up in what I like to call the ghetto suburbs of Philadelphia. To the people in the ghetto, it was the suburbs and those in the suburbs it was the ghetto. I also payed attention to how people acted there. There was no looking out for your neighbor. If you saw your elderly neighbor out shoveling snow no one went out there to help unless they thought they would get paid. No one checked up on you if you weren’t seen for a day or 2. It used to be that we would take care of each other. My grandmother would tell me stories of how if it was known that a family didn’t have money for whatever reason, the neighbors on that block would invite them over for dinner or skimpily give them some food. Now we tease them. It used to be that we had leaders within the community that children could look up to, also leaders on the national stage. Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr. Malcom X. There was a plethora of black role models to choose from. Now who do we have? Lil Wayne, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, President Obama? Only one of these people, in my opinion deserve to be considered a role model. Our community has gone from praising the likes of MLK jr to praising Jay-Z or Waka Flaka. There are many many black role models for our children. In business, medical, politics, etc.. I believe it’s important to have a role model that looks like you, but once again I digress. I’m starting to get into my next subject.