Are you a product or a person? (I’m not an ATM and you’re not a hoe)
You ever notice in the black community, we have a way of dehumanizing each other, the way we use the n-word, the b-word or the hoe word in our speech toward one another? There is a lot of productizing of our people into these things. You see it early. Why do guys like certain girls, because “she has the biggest butt or she’s easy”? And why do girls like certain guys because “he has the nicest clothes and it looks like he has the most money”? When we dehumanize people, it’s easy to treat them with disdain; we abuse them, because we are not treating them according to their God given purpose. That’s why brothers can’t see past a sistah’s body. Nor a sistah will not date the average looking brother, because we are looking for products and those people don’t have good commercials or strong advertising campaigns. I’m all for being with someone who makes you happy, but looks is only one part of it.
Human beings have hearts, minds, souls, spirits and personality to be considered. They are not bottles of soda to be consumed and then tossed in a recycle bin. That’s why it’s easy to not commit to the woman you have your child by or choose a man worthy of being committed to. 71% of our kids are born out wedlock, uncommitted relationships. By contrast only 27% of our white counterparts are born out of wedlock. That’s why it’s easy to shoot your brother over sneakers, coat and/or gold chains. There is a reason why the AIDS crisis is so acute in our community. Because of the way we look at ourselves, the way we look at leather coats, disposable. You can see it in our abortion rates and our high black on black murder rates. It’s hard to play a sister if you knew her family loved her and that she would be deeply hurt by your selfishness or emotionally crushed. It’s hard to shoot a brother, if you knew is family was counting on him and his father is looking forward to seeing him. Or his grandmother is waiting for him to pick her up. It’s easy to do when you see human beings as products, hoes and banks, but hard to do when you see that person has a life worth living.
We have to start seeing ourselves in a more positive light, human beings to be respected, cared for and treated with dignity. If we don’t treat ourselves with dignity and respect, what other community will? If we don’t invest in ourselves, who else will? When we go to buy a house or start a business, we have to put collateral up or a down payment. We need to put some collateral up. If you see a sister call her beautiful whether she’s young, old, short, fat, tall dark or light. Let a brother know he’s doing a good job whether he’s an analyst for Fidelity or a bus driver. People will not think better about us, if we first don’t think better of ourselves. I know we have to put some standards around this positive thinking and I’m not the one to hand out ninth place medals, but we have to start somewhere.
Intelligent Brown Man
Her are more links to view that’s related to today’s blog post:
http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/75UnmarriedBirths.cfm
