The GeeZee Defense – Part V Angie Stone loves our “brothas” and so do I. It is out of love that I have to ask some of my brothers, “Are your strategies for surviving working for you and working for the rest of us?” If survival is key, and I believe it should be, then we must admit that some strategies are deadly. It’s been a generation since the release of Public Enemy’s album “Fear of a Black Planet.” That album, to this day, is a rap masterpiece in political commentary, consciousness-raising, and rage. Even the name of the group, Public Enemy, spoke to a centuries-old misperception and mis-conception, that Black people are innately criminal and a menace to society. Why feed that fear? Some would say it doesn’t matter what Black men do, they will always be perceived and conceived as dangerous. Out of love, I respectfully disagree. It matters to Black women how Black men choose to live. Black grandmothers, mothers, sisters, lovers, friends, and spouses care. Our well-being is attached to the well-being of Black men. It matters to Black men how Black men choose to live. Black grandfathers, fathers, brothers, lovers, friends, and spouses care. We need to be less concerned about being intimidating to white people (this is problematic on many levels) and more concerned about loving one another. How? Considering ant life. An ant scientist by the name of E. O. Wilson (1985) found that ant colonies compete against one another. The most resilient colonies have good internal regulatory systems to assure a social arrangement that maximizes the colony’s adaptiveness to its environment. In the U.S., it can be said that white people and Black people compete against one another for equal justice. In a radically liberal environment like the U.S., Black folks are losing our internal regulatory systems. (A case can be made that religious communities are still regulating, but without enforcement power.) Instead, we have an external regulatory system called the judicial system. Make no mistake -- the judicial system does not promote the Black man’s adaptation to the U.S. environment. Going to prison is not a passage into a glorious manhood. It is time to reassess our survival techniques. Maybe loving each other, as our primary internal regulatory system, will help us avoid the scourge of external juridical regulation.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 01:21:21 +0000
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