Submitted by Terence Blackett
Beginning any controversial piece of literary discourse can be a daunting task. Equally challenging is tackling a taboo subject area which can be exhilarating, as one grapples with the issues that are so pertinent to the thesis you are trying to build – in order that it may have structural integrity. The concept of “Angry Black Men” is a work under construction. It is the title of a book which is currently in manuscript form and will be due out for publication around the autumn of 2010.
The BU Family has got (firsthand) the opportunity to debate rigorously (no holds barred) how this postmodern phenomenon is affecting the Black Family and how this psychopathology can be contained and managed through a variety of remedial interactions and recommendations.
But what is anger? Anger is a natural emotion that affects us all at some point. But for some people, anger can get out of control and cause problems with family relationships, friendships, work and even the law.
It is a scientifically proven fact that intergenerational transmission of social, cultural, moral, philosophical and spiritual capital has produced inequalities across the periphery of the Black family and any attempt at a one-sided explanation of the issues which focus just on social relations or culture or discourse is in itself radically incomplete at the least and copiously sterile at worst.
Some sociologists argue that – “the inequalities in resources and opportunities themselves have little or nothing to do with the moral worth or merit of individuals but they have a major impact on the possibility of achieving goods which are valued and which bring recognition and self-respect” (Sayer 2005). It is with this issue of self-respect which is at the heart of the problem with Black men.
In the United States (where I am currently doing some research) the conceptual theory of the “Black Youth Bulge” is an epiphenomenon of late 20th century “strategic demography” which looks at population characteristics such as age, ethnicity, geographic location and numbers to help locate terrorist or criminal threats.
In Britain, pilot studies are looking at how social measures including areas of social policy can impact on a growing segment of the young Black population who are increasingly disillusioned by the structural inefficiencies created by a closed class system that undermines upward mobility and limits social progress amongst ethnic minorities with the determinant results being – hate, anger and violence.
Our young Black men vigorously opine that it is their right to be angry given what they are up against within the system. This psychopathology which was elucidated by social historian Herbert Moller’s 1968 article “Youth as a Force in the Modern World” in Comparative Studies in Society and History argues that “although the individual ‘age curves’ of psychopathy (or ‘sociopathy’) assume a variety of shapes, all manifestations of this personality disorder – from ‘wild oats’ behaviour, excessive self-assertion and pugnacity to criminal acts – are predominantly correlated with youth. It follows that primitive tendencies and psychopathic behaviours can be expected to increase in any population commensurately with its youthfulness.”
Today, over 7 million people in the US are behind bars, on parole, probation, or otherwise under supervision by the criminal justice system. Two-thirds of prisoners are Black or Latino – groups that comprise just over one-fifth of the population as a whole, while almost half of Americans live in poverty and the greater percentage ratio is amongst African Americans. These disparaging social statistics are contributing factors to the climate of hate and anger so prevalent in America.
In Britain according to a 2003 Home Office Study suggest that “1 in every 100 Black British adults is now in prison”. The number are however much higher given the fact that foreign Blacks also occupy British jails in increasing numbers due to immigration, drugs and other transnational crimes.
It is undeniable that the psychopathology of angry black men is wrapped up in the historical legacy of colonialism, slavery and injustice – something which 400 years has not been able to completely eradicate, no matter how prosperous, affluent or technologically savvy we have become. The scars of such historical pain still bear that psychic imprint upon the psyche of the Black man, bearing fruit in the form of gang & domestic violence, the YOB culture and increasing incidences of Black on Black crime and violence.
Anger unmistakably damages personal relationships. These relationships are often the ones you least want to lose. The target is usually spouses, children, co-workers, and friends. Actions often taken under intense anger are regretted after the damage is done. The Bible reminds us that “the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God” and even though we can get angry, we must not sin. The difficulty is in balancing these two extremes and even for the most astute amongst us – the challenge proves too great.
The conclusion is as W.E. DuBois reminds the Black man – “The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world — a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.
We must break this generational pattern which still affects us all…
The black race world over is in a conscious or subconscious rage with himself and his larger environment.With the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia ( which were not subjected to colonialism) all of the black race over the last 300 years were subjugated to some form of servitude.And it is a fact that the repercussion of this injustice contribute -to a certain extent- to our current state of affairs.Any conscious black brother who knows his history and the current state of affairs of his people cannot escape the feeling of “having a chip on ones shoulder” This does not necessarily means he should resort to lawlessness to make whole but rather the chip is a reminder that the playing field is still not level and the odds stack against him.
Then again you have some brothers who not only have a chip carrying but a whole post.This then becomes too weighty for him and thus he decides to unload this excessive burden in the form of anti-social and criminal behaviour.
brothers killing brothers
in the ghetto’s of our minds
..
people view black men as a threat
and recruit black women for diversity
Ghetto’s Of The Mind
@Zion1971, I’m not sure why you exclude Liberia. It was not colonized, sure, but its modern form comes from the transporting there of freed slaves from America, who gained superiority/elite positions over the extensive indigenous peoples. You may need to look carefully at the ‘special relation’ between Liberia and the USA. You also seem to have discounted much of the past 30 years, through the coups and the reign of terror under Charles Taylor.
I agree with your conclusion, however.
Mr Dennis Jones
I am very much aware of the staus of Liberia I only mention its exception in the traditional mold of the colonial structure in Africa where most of the States were the private domain of France ,England and to a lesser extent Portugal.Liberia is one of those case that highlight the fickle nature of the human spirit(nature) is that when the oppressed become free they themselves become the oppressor.
Professor Cornel West, a Black man in the USA speaks to the rise of the Black man in the USA today but at the same time the noise levels should NOT be decreased which highlight the struggle of Blacks still at the bottom but more importantly modern society should NOT be allowed to forget the crime perpetuated upon the Black race.,
Well said David
@David, I’m not sure if you mean ‘perpetrated’ rather than ‘perpetuated’; they’re quite different in terms of where the argument can go.
Black people have never responded similarly to the crimes perpetrated upon them as a race; and men and women have not responded similarly. Why is that?
As a case study, why have Jews, oppressed for centuries in many different places and in different, not reacted in the violent ways that some black peoples have?
Then again, people in general do not respond similarly to crimes perpetrated against them, even when they are perpetuated. Look at the continued practice of slavery and how that has not led to revolts.
Yes, the human spirit is fickle.
Mr Johnson how would you frame the violent treatment of the Jews against the palestinians even though throughout history the majority of the oppression against the Jewish people we carried out by non-arabs?
@Zion1971, I dont quite follow the question, but let me go on. Jewish treatment of Palestinians/Palestine is better seen as Israeli action, and my understanding is that it is essentially a territorial dispute. Jews have not sought to attack their former oppressors or worse still ‘set fire’ to their own communities and destroy their own economic structures. Those are common aspects of the ‘anger’ that was under discussion.
We could argue that Jews have ‘fought’ different battles and won them well without spilling much blood or showing much anger.
Why is the Black Man angry? Who was the Black Man before he was chained, whipped and sandwiched in ships in deplorable conditions of vermin, filth and putrid and brought to the Western world to be the slaves of a foreign kind of man?
The Black Man came from a land where his manhood was never challenged. He knew his place in his society. He had already built civilizations the likes of which has never yet been surpassed by the foreigner/invaders.
How do you break a man? You beat him, you starve him, you castrate him, you debase his WOMAN in front of him, you chain him to toil in your field from sun up to sun down, while you reap the profits from his labour. You take away his language, his spiritual practises, in total you deprive him of his CULTURE. He and his women are bred for the perpetuation of the same enslaving system. It then becomes generational. They toil under the yoke. And what is there to justify their de-moralisation?
The Bible….Genesis 9: 18-25 esp. vs 25 “And he said, cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”
Therein lies the greatest justification for the enslavement of the BLACK MAN!
Yet he continued to toil under the yoke of oppression with the hopes that one day he will be freed!
As chattel slavery internally and externally disintegrated, the construction of prisons was stepped up.
After having the ‘chains’ removed he was still a target. The slightest infraction could result in a prison sentence or worse yet a lynching.
Having Black skin [a blessing from the Creator..Anedj Herack] was a detriment to the Black Man in a ‘white’ world.
Having been deprived of his CULTURE, he was forced to emulate the oppressor by taking on his foreign culture. A culture that was and is still spiritually deficient. An oppressor whose vision was limited due to his beast-like bahaviour and his inability to view life wholistically. An oppresor who practised LIES, DECEIT, THEFT, HATRED, DE-SANCTIFICATION of all life …..and all the other vices that were contrary to the African way of life.
An oppressor which sought to make bigger and better things at the sacrifice of the MAN.
And what do we have today? A divided man. A man trained in the way of the oppressor, without a wholistic view of his life. A man who is trained to see all things white as being good, IDEAL i.e something to aspire to. A man having to compete with his brother for food to put on his table. A brother whose brother has been set against him. A man whose woman has been set against him.
A MAN WHOSE MANHOOD HAS BEEN DE-VALUED!
But fear not, because that AFRICAN SPIRIT is still ALIVE! We saw it alive in Marcus Messiah Garvey, we saw it alive in Malcolm X and I saw it alive in my FATHER and today there are many BLACK MEN thru whom that SPIRIT is coming forth.
SO RISE UP YE MIGHTY MEN!
BTW
Let’s not forget that at the heart of whitey’s hatred of the Black Man is also that great envy of his PENIS.
I dunno about that…they got some indian men that got HUGE ones!
@HOPI
BEAUTIFUL MAN!!!
That was better than a Shakespearean soliloquy….
Is the Black man angry? When I see the faces of black people, including mine, what I see is the burden of the yoke which hangs him/her daily. The wrinkled brow of the black man is an indication of disadvantage and lack of opportunity; living in a world which is not our own and which has no kind of sympathy for us, even when governed by our own.
How can the black man rise up? Well Marcus Garvey had some good answers. The best principle is to create a world of our own.
I recently took a good look at our education system. While the policy makers are seeing that the schools’ curricula need reform, could you imagine what is stopping this reform? Votes.
There can be no argument about the fact that our educational system should be producing all manner of professional and non professional workers and not just seek to produce lawyers, doctors, etc. However, parents are saying that this is all well and good but if my child has the capacity, I would want to know that he has the same opportunity as any higher up and better off to become a lawyer or doctor.
I personally believe that these parents are in the minority but are influencing policy makers not to change the system; a very selfish attitude; so all others must suffer. We brag about an educational system that does nothing for us, but we are happy with the status.
The bottom line is that we are still reaching for white goals. We have none of our own; it would seem. We have forsaken so much such as food, medicine, technology, consumer items, etc. by the excuse that if they are being produced elsewhere, why duplicate the effort.
This is a big mistake. These words are on too many people’s lips… but the end result is, we have medicinal herbs here in Barbados for example, that are yet undiscovered. We depend on researchers to get interested in the medicinal value of our foods and herbs and when they find out, they move to ensure that we do not benefit.
I remember when they first discovered the medicinal value of pawpaw against cancer. All of a sudden all of our pawpaws died out with this bunchy disease. This led us to depend on imports of pawpaws from overseas. I think this was a calculated move.
Nowadays, they don’t go to such lengths, what they do is get a headstart and get the drug companies to produce extracts that all you need to do is purchase supplements and vitamins. No growing of anything; it’s right there on the shelf. They have us now accustomed to such patterns of behaviour.
There is much misinformation and disinformation. For example, they would never tell you that the best source of vitamins, minerals, etc. is from fresh produce grown in the land where you live. This is a very important principle. That is why our ancestors were so healthy and strong.
As youngsters we had on a daily basis tamarinds, golden apples, sugar apples, soursop punch, lemonade, coconut water, dounce, water melon, grapefruit, shaddock, oranges, ackees, fat porks, cashews, bananas, etc.
What do we have today? All genetically modified foods, mostly imported and not grown here. The bananas I see today, I call them plastic bananas; look ripe but green inside. Infertile eggs from genetically modified chickens. The chickens are themselves modified and full of hormones that cause them to look mature after 6 weeks instead of 6 months as is normal for the chicken.
This comment could take a lot of expansion into a lot more detail, but basically, we are a very unhappy people. We are no further on that 100 years ago. Still struggling under the yoke of deprivation and it seems that we are all afraid to change it. So we sit and allow some to get all and the majority to get none. That is the justice we settle for.
@ROK
Every word you wrote clearly expresses the wretched conditions of many of our people in 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries…
What is the answer?
@TMB
The answer is to build an African nation for Africans at home and abroad.
1. Get up and do for ourselves and stop taking it off the shelf; literally.
2. Stop speaking of re-inventing the wheel when all that encourages is laziness and leaves our health and well being at the mercy of others who do not have our interests at heart.
3. Understand that fruit and veg grown in a cold country are best suited to those living in that climate and stick to our own.
4. Decide to put differences aside as differences are as normal as the grass that grows where there is no tree; manage our differences.
5. Embrace anything that is ours and find the true value of it.
6. Start indigenous businesses. Look to own our own transportation. Buy some ships and don’t let these capitalists get all the cargo money. If we move our own produce we could cut prices down more than half to our businessmen. We can’t ride freely on their vessels, we have to pay for every pound.
7. We need to do some research and start producing our own products and export them too. We can perk the imagination of their markets using our strengths.
8. Develop a code of conduct which we can pass on to our children which is culturally based. For example, never buy drugs and supplements off the shelf an stay away from their foods. Get off that chicken. Learn that large is usually abnormal. That seedless is abnormal and if we are what we eat, we are simply making ourselves abnormal.
For the last point we don’t have far to look:
1. everybody balding early;
2. high incidence of asthma;
3. children with chronic non communicable diseases;
4. our children are medically, mentally and physically weaker.
5. general high incidence of cncd’s like cancer, heart attacks, diabetes, etc. Don’t let them convince you that it is lack of exercise and then send you to a gym so they could sell their equipment. That is an insult because they saying that we are a lazy bunch. Problem is that we acting the part because of what we ingesting.
@ROK
And how do we harness our FINANCIAL POWER* to use it for the beneficence of our people?
So what are your thoughts on that? Can’t even believe you asked that question.
@Dennis Jones(a.k.a)living in Barbados
I do not understand the purpose of your commentabout Jews “not being angered at their oppressers.”
Oppression can be meted out in different ways and have differening effects on people mentally or phsically.
For the Jews even though their history in concentration camps under the Nazis were simliar to blacks thereis a link that separate their stuggle from the slave and that lies in the fact that their were not controlled ,and had no person to control their thinking and as a result they could move on .Thatin part may have been because the were giving an education before the war .
Now on the otherhand the slaves had zero so the odds were stacked against them when they had to make it on their own. No education a recipe for disaster.
The Jews as far as I know were not left alone and hung out to dry in the same manner as the blacks
For one in the wars they have fought the U.S. government has helped funded them in the millions of dollars.
To speak of their Nazi oppressors the have been jailed when found for war crimes . That should answer part of your comment or question as to why they are not angry , as you see they are seeing justice being served for them.
They have also been given repartation by the World Courts .
Therfore all that is being done for them by the U.S. government they don’t have to be angry.
On the other hand can you name any government who has been so willing to give the Black race a fighting chance or has even stand up to bat for them.
Today the black race is still waiting for an apology .
As far as the race being angry they have every right to be , but having said that they anger is directed too much against ourselves when in part it is not our fault.I guess no another would take the blame and that is how we ended up inthis vicious cycle of selfhate towards each other.
@ac,
You cite as a quotation something I never wrote (‘I do not understand the purpose of your comment about Jews “not being angered at their oppressers.”’).
You also look at oppression of Jews as being confined to their treatment under the Nazi regime. I never made any mention of Nazis/Nazism, but mentioned Jews being ‘oppressed for centuries in many different places’. Jews were persecuted for centuries before Hitler’s regime, and in many countries; to flee that in the past some even settled in the Caribbean.
I also did not frame my remarks about blacks in the context of slavery, which is not a universal experience for black peoples, so can only explain in part why some blacks are now angry. Blacks’ grievances are based on a wider and different set of problems.
What you say about lack of education needs to be seen for what it implies. The Caribbean has reportedly some of the world’s highest literacy and best education rates, but are blacks in this region having their thoughts controlled or are they less angry? Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the world’s worst literacy and education rates, but are the black peoples there angrier or have they less control over their thinking after centuries of their own cultures?
I do not see what the US government is doing as having much to do with the state of black anger in any wider international context.
@ROK
My thoughts as you inferred may be too off the wall to be published…
One thing for sure, a people’s buying power and how they use it determines their level of socioeconomic as well as political hegemony in the world where we all live…
Nothing else speaks more volumes…
Address those structural, mechanical and aesthetic deficiencies – and voila!!!
Like ROK stated earlier Marcus Garvey had a great solution to the ‘BLACK’ problem. We needed to return to our LAND.
But the psychological warfare that was waged on the mind of the Black man during slavery, and the demonisation of his Africa coupled with the introduction of him being saved from his wretchedness thru a ‘blue eyed blondie aka. Jesus the Christ’ proved to be too heavy a cross for him to bear. Where else did he have to turn to. He then became a Stockholm Syndrome victim and still suffers from it today.
Then whitey sets up all these orgs. like the NAACP pretending that they are in the interest of Black people, yet totally controlled by whitey.
When the Black man struck out on his own and set up his own thriving Wall Street in Oaklahoma, it was burnt to the ground by whitey.
Our children are constantly conditioned thru whitey’s miseducation system and via his media houses that fame and fortune is the name of the game, and that somehow the end-result of such achievement is a better man/woman, only to be sorely deluded.
Today we are still at war with whitey, much of it is very evident like police brutality and an awful education system, mind-stupefying drugs but the major warfare we are undergoing is SPIRITUAL/METAPHYSICAL. We can’t see it but its there.
Integration was one of the worst social programs forced upon the Black Man.
The rich man’s wealth is in the city
Destruction of the poor is his poverty
Destruction of your soul is vanity
Do you hear
I and I, I wanna rule my destiny
I and I, I wanna rule my destiny
:
My destination is homeward bound
Though force try to hold I down
Breaking chains has become the norm
I know I must get through no matter what a gwaan
http://555dubstreet.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/destiny/
Before Charles Taylor, indigenous Liberians were subjugated for decades by a family called the Barclays!!! The matriarch of that family, one of the original immigrants was Barbadian, she was London Bournes sister…. My God!
@ Dennis Jones
my response was to your commentrefering to the Jews not being angered at their oppressors .
Y’all are falling into the racist white frame.
There is no basis for this article as phrased. There is no phenomenon of angry black men.
Wherever you go in this world, wherever there is social stagnation or disruption, there are angry young men. I saw them in London, I saw them in Toronto, and they came in all colours.
White racists have always wanted to treat black anger as somehow being different, special, more worthy of fear than the anger of other races.
Must we follow them?
To Hopi and the other conscious brothers
According to you
” The Black Man came from a land where his manhood was never challenged. He knew his place in his society. He had already built civilizations the likes of which has never yet been surpassed by the foreigner/invaders.”
Yet inferior little whitey so beat the crap out of them that they ain’t recover yet. What happened?
and by my question “what happened?” I mean just before and at the time of conquest not during the period of slavery and imperial control.
I ain’t know bout angry Black men but what about dumb Black men or unambitious Black men? Look at the proportion of new female attorneys to new male attorneys. See today’s newspapers. Over 75% of the students at UWI (Cave Hill) and UWI (Mona) are female. St Augustine may be a little lower.
@Anonymous – Submitted on 2009/11/07 at 7:24am
Please don’t misplace your intelligence.
Anonymous – Submitted on 2009/11/07 at 7:24am
Do you understand the concept of causality?
Do you accept the rise in females in the student population is linked to a changing dynamic in the society which is still being investigated?
David
come on. Sometimes one has to be provocative. But really doesn’t it strike you as passing strange that the proportion of males entering the “professions” seems to getting less with time. Why?
David
Quit stalling…
for the record “causality” is not an explanation. It is an taxonomic term to characterise a relationship between variables.
The individual world each person occupies is said to be their reality tunnel. The theory states that, with a subconscious set of mental “filters” formed from beliefs and experiences, every individual interprets this same world differently.
e.g. We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
If you are a black male without a criminal record then you must be a liar.
@David
It is so strange how some seek to use information to create divisions. When the white man moved off the plantation we were seeking to move in them. When the white man was seeking to sell out the hotels we were eagerly trying to buy them. What is the success?
Now that the legal profession is not so lucrative women filing in? Tilers making more money than attorneys. Try putting your hands on a good carpenter or mason; they don’t come cheap.
So what? The point is that life don’t regress and in a lot of cases what looks like regression is really progress and what is progress to some is a path travelled by others who have moved on.
The bottom line is that we are all trying to move on. Women have their role and men have theirs. Each has to find a way to cope with everything including the educational system which is failing a vast number of our youth. Many that have qualified as attorneys never visited a courtroom yet or have no business in a courtroom because they have decided to utilise their skills in other areas of business.
This charge about black males is not only petty but malicious. Since the women are doing so well why are they not leading the charge? Tell me about the overall condition of the black race and that the successes of the women have advanced us as a race any further than we have been crawling for centuries.
As a matter of fact I would argue that most graduates are caught up in the system and uphold the white status quo; thereby prolonging the slavery. All those civil servants who consistently practice deprivation and should know better given their level of intellect and supposed ability to think. They should be practicing empowerment of the people, not deprivation of the people. They are just not conscious; more self serving to conform to the status quo.
We have to be more conscious than that. Don’t care what you do people will live, that is the edict of the Creator and when you practice deprivation you are going against the will of the Creator that has ordained life… so how dare you drive it asunder?
The popular culture promotes being a pimp as the most desired status for a Black man. To be a lion (of Judah or otherwise) is the mark of manhood for many. Interested persons should study the group organisation of lion prides and the roles of lions and lionesses in sourcing food.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions#Group_organization
The description of such group organisations seem to me to be a rather good metaphor for present day human society. However while good for lions, such group organisations may have unhappy consequences for humans.
ROK
women are also tilers, plumbers, electricians etc. The neighbours just had their house tiled and painted,I noticed that only women were on the job. They did an excellent job too!
ROK
given your comment: “As a matter of fact I would argue that most graduates are caught up in the system and uphold the white status quo; thereby prolonging the slavery.”
AND the fact that large amounts of money have been poured into UWI in pursuit of the “one graduate per household” goal;
would you agree that we are in hole and digging deeper?
Most of the women graduates from UWI are in the social science and liberal arts area which have predominantly been female . But the males still dominate the natural and hard science( Engineering, Mathemaatics, chemistry, physics computer etc)
OK. That is the same thing I mean. You think I don’t know that women are tilers, plumbers, steel benders and masons, etc? I have to admit that they have not shown much interest in carpentry. Carpentry calls for serious strength while masonry calls for stamina.
“would you agree that we are in hole and digging deeper?”
LOL! OK! You have made the point in one sentence.
So one proposal: cut the Gov’t contribution to UWI by half. Channel that money to the polytechnic and other vocational training programes which are particularly attractive to males. Make sure vocational training include self-employment skills (bookkeeping, customer relations, tax and legal issues etc) not only the technical components of the work.
More contentious proposal: media campaigns to promote male participation in the ALL spheres of Barbadian life. Aggressive rebuttal of the lion model. Promotion of true human values.
Under your system there is no need to cut anything. Invest in the people. Do all you say and keep the UWI contribution up. Let the competition for education determine where the contribution to education should be made.
Anonomous
“Over 75% of the students at UWI (Cave Hill) and UWI (Mona)”
… like de res’ say doing girly girly t’ings like arts and social sciences including law. But what the hell is level of participation of this 75% demographic in the institutions that are fighting for systemic change? Take for example the latest opportunity for the FTC to show that it actually can do something
Head Table
Neville Nicholls
Gregory Hazzard
Andrew Brathwiate
Alfred Knight
Andrew Wlloughby
In One Corner Representing Barbados Light and Power
(Puppets)
Ms Peggy Griffith
Ms Sandra Sealy
Ms Kim How
Ms Marsha Atherly
Ms Sudanna Cooper
Ms Dava Leslie
Ms Heather Waithe
Ms Marisha Walcott
Ms Svetlana Schenbakova
Ms Henry Forde
Ms Debbie Fraser
Ms Nicola Berry
Ms Sabrina Maynard
Ms Allison Saunders
Ms Margaret Blackman
Ms Sandra Franklyn
Ms Jackie Marshall
(Puppeteers)
Massa Peter Williams
Massa Hutson Best
Massa Stephen Worme
Massa Mark King
Massa Rickky Junnings
Massa Hal Hunte
In the Corner Camoaigning For Consumers and Effective Nation wide Change
MR. Malcolm Taitt
MR. Roosevelt King
MR. Chris Halsall
MR. Eli Edwards
MR. John Campbell
MR. Jai Jebodsingh
MR. Lionel Moe
MR. Clyde Mascol
MR. Mogens Toft
MR. Ian Edghill Errol Niles
Now tell me, what is the real significance of this UWI statistic again…?
David
Yah mus’ mek dis a topic fah discussion… wha you t’ink..?
BAFBFP
You should be worried. The puppets are young, those for the consumers are mostly old men. Time is against us.
It is very revealing how the posters here diminish the achievements of black men who are now represented by the President of the USA, the leader of the free world.
In Bim there are many black men from dirt poor families that have risen to the top of their professions. How is that possible? Probably determination and hard work. Little time worrying about whitey and history they cant fix?
I would not argue that black men should forget about that terrible institution of slavery, just as Jews should not forget their shabby treatment by Europeans. However it is interesting to note that black slavery exists today in black countries like Sudan, Mauratania etc.
The ideas presented regarding food, alternative medicine etc are on the right track and in a competitive, health concious world there is business oppurtunity, but talk is cheap.
The biggest problem facing black men today is self belief. How come black men are totally convinced that they are better than whitey in music, sports, entertainment etc and have acquitted themselves at very high levels but in countless areas they believe they are disadvantaged. In the C’bean the political leadership is mostly black so why have these problems not already been solved after40 years of independence from whitey. Could it be stupid venturing into communist ideology Guyana/ Jamaica? Could it be that the black leaders are more concerned about owning the former plantations themselves and indeed care no more about the black diaspora than whitey?
The concept of continually feeding the minds of young black men that whitey is going to block them from success in a black run country is fodder for a self defeatist attitude prevalent among youth. Why try to achieve? How come it is young black women are achieving? Are’nt they black by definition? Is it that whitey loves black women? My personal observation is that there are more black men partnering white women by a long shot. May be the penis thing? Although at this stage of human development one would hope that black men would not be so dependent on one attribute.
Anonomous
Worried Hah…! Puppets will always be puppets.. and old men will be replaced with younger warriors. What worries me is when a Big man takes over from a puppet and claims that “There is nothing wrong with being a creature of the Prime Minister”…!
Now that’s f*cking scary..!
Regrettably I left out
MR Roland Clarke and
MR Douglas Skeete
@Anonymous………….Well being dumb and couldn’t speak a language, we were just hanging out with the chimps swinging from trees, just wishing and praying that somehow, some god would send whitey to rescue us from our miserable, sub-literate, ungoldly state. We were in such an awful state and oh how glad we were to see whitey arrive that we faithfully and orderly boarded his nice, clean, spacious, fully-stocked ships [family and all intact] and were happy to be in another world that some of our Ancestors…i.e. the Olmecs had already traversed. That’s exactly what we were doing just before whitey hit the scene.
Hopi
so according to you (don’t try to weasel out and claim “oh I was just being sarcastic”)… our Black ancestors were stupid as shit.
@ BAFBFP
I have to admit that there is merit in what you say. I do not know what can be done to change this, but I hope that recognising that it is happening should be sufficient to draw a response. Women have got to play more upfront roles in challenging the status quo. It cannot be good enough to simply get a couple of degrees and fit in to what is a hugely inefficient and exploitative process. We seem to be such good followers of instructions, just point us the direction and we will put on blinkers.
BAFBFP
“Young warriors”? – where dem coming from – Canada like Hallsall?
Has John absent himself from these discussions?
@Anonymous………….No sarcasm here, so don’t get mad at me. You questioned me but since you don’t like the answer I give you, you minimise the Black Ancestors to being stupid as shit! [ Not to worry because there’s redemption for stupidity, but for CALCULATING EVIL there’s none]. I figured that since you are so ph..king brilliant, I’d give you a SIMPLE answer! Don’t forget that we were a continent in total darkness just waiting for the peckawood to come shine some light on us. Does that sound better to you?
@datrut………..What black run country you talking bout? Do you really think that BaRat runs America? What free world you talking bout?
Hopi
You think you are so condescendingly, r##h##e clever and knowledgeable. You didn’t give a simple answer, you just gave a simple minded answer … or maybe you really do believe that the Black ancestors thought whitey was a God. Are you hoping that whitey will feel remorse and set us “free”?
Sorry Anonomous
But anybody that fights on my behalf is a warrior…!
It is my understanding that most of the English C’bean countries are and have been run by black men for more than 40yrs. Is Hopi suggesting that Burnham and Manley were puppets of the whitey west? If so they played their roles undercover with perfection, since their policies and actions bore little relationship to what existed in colonial times. If those two countries had been lead by Barrow or Adams their denizens would be far better off today. Bim has progressed at a reasonable clip with little physical resources, although places like Singapore have left Bim in the dust relatively speaking.
My point about Barrack is that he is a man of colour that has reached great heights in political terms. Black folks are about 12% of the US population therefore the probability of a black person becoming President is very low. Remember that just fifty years ago it was a major surprise that a Roman Catholic, Kennedy, was elected.The fact that BO beat out Clinton and overcame the Jerimiah Wright connection is absolutely remarkable, a miracle.
The ‘Free World’ is certainly open to interpretation but I mean countries where people have oppurtunities to succeed without being overly controlled by authorities.
@Anonymous…….. I gave a simple-minded answer to a brilliant unknown, yet you accuse me of …. “thinking so condescendingly, r##h##e clever and knowledgeable.” How can I, a simple-minded person be accused of such? Must I remind you again that I do not live by belief..therefore believing that whitey was god has absolutely no resonance avec moi!
Are you hoping that whitey will feel remorse and set YOU Free?
@datrut…………..when you start injecting such words/phrases like ‘absolutely remarkable and miracle and progressed at a reasonable clip’ you and I are in totally different realms.
How so? Please amplify.
why black men are angry…
http://www.WhyHeHatesYou.com
BAFBFP
How dare you refer to Sir Henry as Ms Henry Forde? You bloggers need to show some respect.
@David
It is amazing what I just saw and heard from the AG on TV. Is the answer to the Minibuses to criminalise and penalise? Why don’t we look for examples of how this problem has been solved in other islands? Trinidad for example.
The commuters are being short changed. We need one large bus stand which is designed to line up all the buses including minibuses and eliminate the breaking of lines and soliciting of passengers.
Think about it, to walk from the River terminal to Cheapside to catch a bus going the other side of the island is nearly a mile if not a mile.
The way that the minibuses are treated it is like they exist outside the society. Indeed, the way they are treated is a reflection of our psyche. We should embrace and not alienate one another. How else can we solve problems or find mutual solutions?
@ROK
Read our initial comment over on the blog Time To Stop The Damn Foolishness.
@Anonymous@nov9 8:18am….Brilliant! I knew some genius could find someone, with all the answers to our problems! So now that we have identified the problems, the solution is super easy! Let’s get rid of all of ’em. First we’ll start in your camp! D’accod?
Just a few examples of the hype in The US about the 2012 movie due for release tomorrow…
What is strange is that we have been having 4 days of non-stop storm weather in the Hampton Roads area with the weather migrating up the Eastern Seaboard toward NY along the coastline…
* History Channel: “Decoding the Past—Doomsday 2012: The End of Days”
* History Channel: “The Lost Book of Nostradamus and 2012”
* AOL News: “Thousands Expect Apocalypse in 2012”
* ABC News: “Will the World End in 2012? Thousands Worldwide Prepare for the Apocalypse, Expected in 2012”
* Fox & Friends: “It’s the End of the World: Mayan Calendar Ends in 2012”
* Geraldo Rivera (Fox News): “Fact or Fiction: Will the World End in 2012?”
* USA Today: “Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse”
* Los Angeles Times: “Many gather to ponder end of Maya days”
* New York Post: “2012: The End is Nigh!”
* U.S. News and World Report: “Apocalypse 2012: Are the Final Days Coming Soon? New Doomsdayers Adapt a Mayan Prediction”
* Newsweek: “2012: A Y2K for the New Age”
So why the fascination with the “ENDTIMES”?
Do we really believe the world end?
Or are we hoping that it will?
“A national survey of 1,800 Americans aged 18 and older questioned participants on how and when they feel angry in order to build “a broader social portrait of anger in the United States,” said study researcher Scott Schieman, now at the University of Toronto.”
See research finding at:
http://www.livescience.com/health/091203-angry-young.html
Pingback: DIARY OF A MAD BLACK MAN……Angry Black Men: « Sstoked's Blog – Real advice from real people (just ask)
yes im an angry black man myself over this biased,racist ass society.ive faced racial injustice since i was 11 or 12.called nigger numerous times,robbed and rejected,expelled from school though i got my high school equivalency diploma,harassed and ignored in stores,run ins with cops.ive faced sexism too which sucks. only jesus,god,guardian angels and most other black men can completely understand black men.other races and genders cant,black women cant either.past to present for all the crap we endure to get harsh treatment,to little to no empathy is very frustrating. raised without fathers,having dr.king,2pac,malcolm x members of black panthers killed hurts because they would have had sympathy for black men unlike todays biased ass world. the media likes to make us look bad,only good through sports.in reality were good at other things,but that sides not shown.unemployment exists but some brothas want to work but cant get jobs due to discrimination. i love the crips and bloods because there are similarities i have with them.raised fatherless,poverty,frustrated with life in general.keeping faith in god helps but until our death were forced to deal with this corrupted ass world caused by satan and people who messed up gods free will.sure theres some nice people,but it should be a lot more.people got their priorities messed up concerned about finances more than anything else about a person.like men like women for her looks,but most women want to know a mans occupation and income before his looks.men will accept an unemployed woman easier than a woman accepting unemployed man blatant sexism.women can hit men not taken serious,men hit women all hell breaks loose man gets in trouble even if its the womans fault who started the mess. and when people say lifes not fair,get over it,so,i dont know,i dont know what to tell you,i dont care,not my problem,what do you want me to do?,stop feeling sorry for yourself,stop whining and suck it up.i say f that b.s.,those are harsh sayings that dont help,people should have better morals and sense and they know it,if they dont know now,come judgement day theyll get their act together or will burn in hell for eternity with satans butt. just a brotha to get some things off my chest. i am for real here,100 true.
@ dan curry
Take that RAW* Black energy and channel it into something which you LOVE* – whether it be sport, art, entertainment – whatever floats your boat – do that “ONE” thing with all your might!!!
Lastly my dear Brotha… YOU GOTTA’ PRAY JUST TO MAKE IT TODAY!!!
BS. Blackmen are not angry. It is just garbage. Didn’t the white people try to say that in the 80’s.?Now some black person or whatever is saying it.