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By Terry Loving
The murder of Bobby Tilman – (stomped to death by his own kind), has sparked heated debates concerning the plight of American Blacks.
Many of the comments about his murder point the finger at disenfranchisement in the Black community; high unemployment; single mothers and absent fathers, etc. Numerous sentiments lament that our public school system has failed our Black children, and our politicians and church leaders have their own personal agendas – money and power.
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Our children look to the rap artists, drug dealers, pimps and thugs for examples of how to become “high rollers” with no need for traditional education. Our communities are infested with crack cocaine, alcoholism, teen pregnancy and deadly violence. Supportive families send their children to school, and pray daily that they will make it back home – alive. They check their kids’ school work, attend parent-teacher meetings, and develop a rapport with the teachers to make sure their kids are doing well. In the meantime, the good kids are competing with wanna-be thugs in the classroom – disrupting and disrespecting the teacher’s authority, and belittling themselves.
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Black children cannot read because they don’t want to, and they don’t have parents that make them. All children will protest when they don’t want to do something, but it is up to the parents to encourage and inspire their children to read, write, learn all they can – most of all – understand what they have read and learned. On the other hand, if their momma can’t read, she is still responsible for finding help for her child.
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Unfortunately, if momma doesn’t understand the importance of her child learning, she will have the attitude that the mother in the movie “Precious” had – “Take your @#$% down to the welfare office.” “Oh, you too good for welfare?” The response should be a resounding “Yes, I am!” And the fathers, where are they? Will this circle be unbroken?
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Chris Rock said that “Books to Black people are like kryptonite to Superman.” “Hide your money in books, Black people don’t read.” Is he wrong? Yes and no. Personally, I love to read, as well as many other Black folk. It is the other element within our race that despise learning. The education is there, and it is free. If you snub your nose at it, then who is to blame when you can’t read an employment application? And what about Black History?
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Why cry about it not being equally taught in the public school system when you can teach it to your kids yourself? Of course the White man doesn’t want you to know who you really are. We as Blacks have more power within ourselves than we realize – especially when we have God on our side. But we are too busy hating and killing one another to harness that power for good.
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It starts at home people! My kids were reading before they entered first grade. The same can be said of my grandchildren. The Black community must make drastic changes with the rearing of our children in order to experience vital changes as a whole. We don’t like to hear about our problems, especially when they are made public.
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News flash – when your teenage son or daughter’s mug shot is on the evening news, there is no more hiding the truth. And yes, other races have their evil to deal with as well, but I am more concerned about my own race at the moment. We are losing a whole generation to violence, drugs, ignorance and ungodliness.
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And please, don’t complain about the other races that come to America and succeed. They have for the most part learned how to get along to the point that 20 family members and friends can live in a two-bedroom house and pool their resources together. I have witnessed this growing up in North Philly. They open up “corner stores” that we support, and go to foreigners for “credit” when we – Blacks, born on American soil – are broke.
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Within my own family, my cousins supported their children, pooled their money together, and sent six children to college, and they all have degrees, and they are living the so-called American Dream. The adults did not always get along or see eye to eye on everything, but they agreed to help their children – even the ones that had no children helped those who did. So don’t blame the system or the White man, look unto yourselves.
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And here’s another thing. Blacks complain about the Asians, Indians, Chinese and others that open a business in their neighborhoods, but they continually support them. You know why they open businesses in our neighborhoods? It is because our race has been dubbed “consumers.”
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Meaning, we spend money as soon as it is in our hands, with no thought for saving or balancing a budget. We as a people do not set positive goals to find our way out of the ghetto. I heard of a woman here in Atlanta bragging about her $500.00 pictures on her wall. And!!!! When you are broke and hungry, material things won’t feed or clothe you.
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Advertisers make sure the non-sensible products find their way to our neighborhoods. Clocks big enough to hang on walls, were at one time hanging around the necks of young Black brothers. Asians can’t stand us, but they study our ways and habits. And they stock their shelves with products directed at Black Americans. If you don’t believe me, check out the Asian clothing stores in our neighborhoods.
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They produce those embroidered jeans for pennies, and sell them to Blacks for hundreds of dollars. We make other races rich, while we squander our wealth, and feel justified and proud to claim government handouts. We view welfare as an entitlement for 400 years of oppression, when in reality; it is the yoke that keeps too many of us floundering on the bottom of the economic barrel.
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No one is more creative with hair than my Black sisters. You have your shops, and many of you do well financially for sistas’ love to have their hair done. But answer this, why do you spend your money at Asian beauty supply stores? Do you not have enough contacts to buy you own supplies wholesale? You see, we run to other races for our needs instead of finding a way to provide for ourselves.
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We will support our neighborhood Chinese restaurant, convenience store, liquor store, and pay whatever price an item is marked – but with our own Black businesses, we expect the “hook-up.” Go ask a China-man to “hook you up” and see what kind of response you get. Don’t get mad yall, you know this is real.
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Our government makes sure that alcohol is cheap so broke Black people can panhandle enough to drown their sorrows in MD-20/20, Thunderbird, and Tokay (popular when I was growing up). Now we have 40’s, single cans and bottles of beer that are easily purchased. We destroy our brain cells with poison, and kill others that look like us – because we hate ourselves. We bought into the lie that we are the scum of the earth, and we perpetuate the revulsion each time we call each other the “N” word – the label pinned on men and women who were once kings and queens.
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Our spiritual leaders are pimping and lying in the pulpits, preying on sin laden souls that come to them for guidance. They preach watered down sermons that make non-effect (on a human level), the Power of the Word of God. The Black church was the backbone of the Black community at one time – the lure of money changed that. Domestic violence is destroying our homes, our families, and our communities.
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We shake our heads and say, “Where are our leaders – why doesn’t somebody do something?” News flash – no one wants to die for a cause anymore. We look at our race and determine what happened to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. isn’t worth happening to us. We just pray that evil doesn’t come knocking on our door, and we keep the blinds closed.
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It is no secret that young Black men who cannot read most likely will live a life of crime. Why? Because they can’t get a job, not because they are Black – but because they cannot fill out the job application, and lack professionalism in speech and demeanor. We accuse one another of trying to “act White,” when that may serve the purpose of infiltrating a system not designed to embrace us as a people. Why not endure what is necessary to learn how to build and operate your own business? Who is to say that we have to work for others for the rest of our lives?
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And often times, those who have good jobs do stupid things to lose them. I worked in a call-center with mostly young Black males and females. They played around, especially when the superiors left the day shift, and spent most of the night milking the clock, doing no work at all. Needless to say, our call center moved to Canada. We were laid off, and I despised each person that played around when they whined about losing their jobs. Where is the work ethic?
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Ignorance and ungodliness killed Bobby Tilman, and it is destroying our race as a whole. It may be too late to rehabilitate those who are incarcerated – at least most of them. The majority of the inmates will be released to commit more crimes, and return to prison where they don’t have to deal with normal responsibility. On the other hand, we can try to save the ones that are trying to lead decent lives. In order to accomplish this, we must address why our young people are so angry. And that begins at home.
Ok, for now – enough said.
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“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
(Hosea 4:6)
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(Note – “Priest in this scripture has nothing to do with the Catholic church. “Knowledge” refers to the true knowledge of God.)
“For God’s sentence on them is, “thou shalt be no priest to me.” But the priests whom Jeroboam consecrated out of other tribes than Levi, were priests not to God, but to the calves. Those then, originally true priests to God, had probably a precarious livelihood, when the true worship of God was deformed by the mixture of the calf-worship, and the people “halted between two opinions;” and so were tempted by poverty also, to withhold from the people unpalatable truth.”
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Africa: 12 Reasons Why Africans Are Poor, Miserable And Pitiable
“With thinking or creative faculty bestowed upon us we are meant to put our brains to work. But we the Blacks are the least willing or the least able of all the races to put our brains to productive work.
“Our refusal, so to say, to use our brains and think out solutions to the challenges confronting us is the number seven reasons why we are the way we are–poor, miserable and pitiable.”
“We Blacks everywhere are too willing to resign ourselves to any situation in which we find ourselves. The Black man can remain in a ghetto environment for centuries without thinking about how to improve his circumstances. Government will not care about him and he will not care about himself. Go to any African country: the same type of grass-thatched round mud house that our ancestors of pre-historic times lived in is the same type of houses many of our people are still living in today. This does not in any way show a people who regard life as a continuing battle to conquer and subdue the earth so we can live a better life than our forebears did. This shows a people who do not sit down and use their brain for their own good.”
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“Adults blame parents for education problems”
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No Future Exists for Black Children Who Cannot Read
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Young Black Men, Read To Lead…
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Why Shakir Can’t Read
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If I Was A Poor Black Kid
“If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city. Even the worst have their best. And the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities. Getting good grades is the key to having more options. With good grades you can choose different, better paths. If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have.”
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Why Forbes’ Column Crossed the Line
Middle-class white guy writes about what he would do if he were a poor black kid. Craziness ensues.
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WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”
Click above link to watch on Netflix, or you can view video on Hulu.
“Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim explores the tragic ways in which the American public education system is failing our nation’s children, and explores the roles that charter schools and education reformers could play in offering hope for the future. We see the statistics every day — students dropping out, science and math scores falling, and schools closing due to lack of funding. What we don’t see are the names and faces of the children whose entire futures are at stake due to our own inability to enact change. There was a time when the American public education system was a model admired by the entire world. Today other countries are surpassing us in every respect, and the slogan “No Child Left Behind” has become a cynical punch line.”
WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” OFFICIAL SITE
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BLACK WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
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Janitor Turned Owner Rescues Failing Ohio Factory
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http://www.spiritual-side-of-domestic-violence.org
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- “Fewer Than Half of Black Male Students Are Graduating from High School” and related posts (mirroronamerica.blogspot.com)
- Black Britons at more risk of jail than black Americans (guardian.co.uk)
- Prejudices and Stereotypes That Feed Into People’s Psychic (socyberty.com)
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Shakir
February 19, 2011 at 9:57 am
Unfortunately we are still facing many of the same issues in general that we have faced since long ago. although many people are having the conversation. few have come up with any real measurable solutions to our lack of generational progress. WHY? I am a 36 yr old so called black man. I am married my wife had twin boys when we met. I had a 4 yr old daughter when we met. my daughter lives with her mother my wifes children live with us. and we are exspecting our first child. I have to be honest. I have made plenty of bad choices over the yrs i have a criminal history I left school in the 12th grade i was involved in drugs crime gangs guns thug life. Im not today and i havnt been for 10 yrs now. In spite of the odds being against me. I have managed to become educated. I am a so called blue collar worker I drive a tractor trailer, im in a union, my family my wifes chilldren as well as my daughter are covered under my health insurance policy through the union. i have worked in human services, i have worked in addictions, i have worked in childcare, i tried running a buisness. I am a Muslim. I vote. I have a felony on my record. I believe that I have been able to have a measure of success because of my faith and my optimism. I tried selling drugs. I tried useing drugs. I tried running in the streets I tried being a player. I believe that one reason why I am successful so to speak, is because i began to read. i have learned how important self education is. not traditional education but education through life experience and reading. college now adays may impede progress because although it exposes one to resources. look at the situation today with unemployment and the economy. all of the big time college grads. are jumping off bridges drowning there chilldren killing there families. killing themselves.
are these people educated by the same system that told us all that C Columbus Discovered America in grade school? yet they didnt tell us how African people came back and forth to so called America hundreds of yrs before him. for starters. Educate yourself.
ssofdv
June 21, 2011 at 11:38 pm
Shakir, I applaud your life change. Sorry it took so long to acknowledge your post. It won’t happen again. I pray that you are still keeping strong, and taking care of business. If only more brothers and sisters would wake up and turn their lives around. Sigh, where did we go wrong?
Peace