I was born July 2 1969; it was a time of dramatic social change for Black people in America. My generation, the one demographers and social scientist labeled the �Lost Generation� or �Generation X�, is the first born into an �integrated� America. One might say that we were the first guinea pigs in this social experiment. We were the first of our children to be handed completely by our parents to be taught and drained in an educational system that at its root was designed to cast Caucasian characteristics and culture as superior and all other races/cultures as inferior. What does that kind of education do to people who are not Caucasian? We have been programmed from early on to think very little of ourselves, and that negative self-perception has led to serious social consequences. In the mid 1970�s, the U.S. Justice Department defined the �typical criminal� as African-American males between the ages of 16-25. Government policy began to shift full force toward locking up the Black boy children in the 1980�s during
Ronald Reagan�s rule and just as Egypt�s Pharaoh had done, America stated throwing them into the river.
Some readers may stop at this point and decry this writing as the unsubstantiated ravings of some conspiracy theorist, and if so, that is okay. Stop reading. However, for those of you, who recognize patterns that demonstrate a long line of discriminatory abuses and practices against the interest of members of our community, keep going.
There are some people in government office who believe that African-American males must continue to be held in check if the status quo of the white male-dominated U.S. society is to remain intact. More and more evidence of what none dare to call a conspiracy is coming to light every day. Not long ago, Congressional representative Maxine Waters uncovered information that shows how the U.S. Central Intelligent Agency provided financial, legal, and logistical support to rebels in South America. The diabolical aspect to the discovery is the fact that the bulk of the funding for what became known as the Iran/Contra Affair came from the enormous profits generated from the inner city (United States) sale of crack cocaine. It is also interesting to consider the fact that Hollywood, during this same time, began to glamorize the drug culture. The movie �Scareface�, one of the most popular ventures in Tinsel town history, became the fairytale that inspired otherwise economically disenfranchised young Black men. The story�s hero, Tony Montana, was a character the average brother could identify with; he was poor and uneducated, yet strong and ambitious. He wanted a life where he would be respected like other men, and just like one-third of my brothers, Hollywood�s bad guy did some time behind bars. He begins his journey to be �somebody� from a tent city prison camp for Cuban refugees seeking political asylum in the U.S. After killing a man, Tony was rewarded and was given a green card. His mantra was basically whoever has the guts can make it to the top. On his mission from poverty to riches, he attempted to suspend the concept of moral responsibility and as long as he remained immoral he enjoyed success; however, as soon as he put a value on life or the chastity of his sister, everything went downhill.
Media experts are supposed to know a lot more about the psychological effects of messages transmitted via movies, songs, books, newspapers, the internet, or any other information medium than the rest of us. Harold Casswell, the prominent social scientist who developed the concept for the roles of media in society, stated:
The media form a unique system whereby values within the social system
are perpetuated and give the continuity and consistency which endow a
culture with its distinct qualities of identity. Generations ago, this role
was often taken by parents and grandparents who transmitted verbally to
their children what had happened in the past. Now this transmission of
heritage is more often accomplished through some form of media.
When most people think about Black men, they receive the mental picture of a menacing, angry, lazy, uneducated, sexually crazed, social derelict that needs to be locked away in the interest of greater societal safety. Come on, admit it. Even older Black people are afraid of young African-Americans. Our own families look at us with condescending glances. How has the African-American male become so demonized in the imaginations of the American public? Does a perception so pervasive come about by happenstance, or is it possible that it is part of a design?
Let us go to the statistics. African-Americans make up approximately 13% of the total U.S. population. African-American males account for only about 6% of the population, but 48% of the U.S. prison population. Consider this, white males are responsible for approximately 80% of all crimes committed in the country and only a little less than one-third of them are sentenced to prison time. 75% of African-Americans males arrested for felony violations serve prison time. In plain English, most crimes in America are committed by white men; however, most people in America blame crime problems on Black men, thus rationalizing the disproportionate sentencing practices of the criminal justice system.
Media sensationalism of random criminal activity perpetrated by young people living mostly in poverty stricken enclaves called �projects� are contributing causes for the public�s acceptance of the unjust treatment of these individuals in the so-called justice system. Ture enough, the mediums that transmit these messages are created and edited by men and women of diverse races who work for the owners of these major networks. However, it is ultimately the owners of the media companies who �control� the content of the messages transmitted by their mediums and by and large these people are white men over the age of 60. When these men were teenagers, a Black man could be lynched or burned alive for a �crime� as trivial as talking back to a white man or, God forbid, whistling at a white woman.
The United States of America has historically reviled and demonized Black men, the U.S. Constitution was not designed with us in mind. It was Dred Scott decision that most clearly articulated the attitude of American policy makers when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, no Black man has any right that has to be respected by a white man.
At the root of America�s social attitude is a complete disregard for the value of the life of Black people in general and the African-American male in particular.(Remember the sight in front of the New Orleans Convention Center after hurricane Katrina.) Nevertheless, young Black males across the nation continue to crush these social stereotypes and in our own mediums will continue to redefine the world as a whole.
I have been incarcerated for 18 years for a crime that I did not commit; but, I ain�t no ways tired. I have stood here and I have studied a variety of subjects ranging from religion to politics, from law to business, from science to philosophy, from chess and mathematics to war. Yes, I am indeed a product of my environment, but I am also the hope of millions of slaves who toiled, bled, cried and died to insure my opportunity to live.
I am of the first of the African-American children to be born into the experiment of racial integration.
I am a survivor of the 1980�s crack cocaine epidemic. Thousands of my peers died or were otherwise emasculated by the biological and chemical warfare waged against us on the directives of individuals who sit at the highest levels of the American government.
By the time I was 16 years old, sociologist suggested the Black male Generation X population were an endangered species.
I am amongst the minority who rebelled against the rule of slave master�s children. I have stumbled, I have wobbled, but I have stood by the declaration of my manhood.
I am Jonathan Jackson, Bobby Hutton, Christopher Wallace, Tupac Shakur, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, and Stanley �Tookie� Williams.
I am also Sean Combs, Russell Simmons, Sean Carter, Kwame Kilpatrick, Barack Obama, Patrick Duvel and David Patterson.
I am the most hated, envied, hunted, feared and dangerous creature on the planet Earth.
I am street smart, book savvy, aggressive, fearless, motivated, intelligent and divine.
We have been denigrated by lies and cheap shots and I wrote this in defense of my bothers, because love it or hate it I AM A BLACK MAN.