The Enemy Within

The Enemy Within
January 29th, 2009

by Justin Giboney
Make an objective appraisal of the following statistics because they form the basis of an inconvenient truth that I would like black America to consider:
A study conducted by criminologists at Northeastern University found that since 2000, while overall murder rates nationwide have fallen, the murder rate among black youth is on the rise.
Homicide is the leading cause of death for black males between the ages of 15 and 29.
94% of blacks murdered are murdered by other blacks.

According to the Associated Press, in 2008, more citizens were murdered in Chicago (city with one of the highest black population in America) than American soldiers killed in Iraq.
While external threats to a nation are always a serious concern, more often than not, internal threats present a more immediate and grave danger (see War on Terror). What’s more, sabotage within cripples a people’s ability to fight without. For some time, I have struggled with whether or not many of the more problematic issues in the black community are a microcosm of that same science. Is it possible that at this moment in history, black America’s most mortal enemy is within?

The Tuskegee Experiment:
From the Tuskegee Experiment to Cointelpro, black America’s had good reason to be suspicious of the intent and effect of external forces. To suggest such indignities should simply be forgotten is neither useful nor realistic. In the same breath, these wrongs should not and cannot be used as an eternal crutch. Unfortunately, the vestiges of such cruelness still haunt the psyches of many African-Americans and render us hyper-cynical and prone to entertaining the most far out conspiracy theories. Cynicism can warp reality.

The barbershop has long served as a daily forum for male discourse. There is no better place to gauge the black male sentiment on a variety of topics. However, you will quickly find that these conversations often unveil a deep-seated cynicism. Enter any black barbershop from Tuesday through Saturday and you are guaranteed to hear spirited debates, along with a few outlandish conspiracy theories. You might even hear a story about how the American government is using iPods and ESPN to exterminate the black community. I have heard theories that are so creative, they make a Dan Brown novel seem pedestrian. It is entertaining at times, but disheartening once you realize that some of us actually use such theories to shun responsibility and feed a sense of helplessness and defeatism.

Notwithstanding the atrocities of the past or the inequities of the present, self-responsibility must kick in at some point. As incompetent and irresponsible as the W. Bush administration may have seemed, they were not the cause of all the black community’s problems. Violent crime is one of the most pressing concerns in the black community and we would be sadly remiss if we failed to take the majority of the responsibility in this issue.
credit: seccad Are We Too Apologetic?

For every Sean Bell and Oscar Grant (R.I.P.), there are several hundred blacks killed at the hands of other blacks (not in uniform). Where is the outrage and protest? Our youth are being intimidated and corrupted and our elderly are afraid to step out their doors. Why do we make excuses for the individuals who terrorize our community on a daily basis? Perhaps it is because they are our sons, brothers, nephews, and cousins. We must fight the denial that prevents us from seeing the blood dripping from our collective hand.

Most apologists suggest these perpetrators are somehow absolved because of historical mistreatment and poor backgrounds. In my opinion, those factors do not justify terrorizing your community. A significant number of blacks have always suffered from relatively low socio-economic statuses; however, poor living conditions have never been an excuse for such poor behavior. Moreover, there are several third world countries with significantly lower murder rates, so poverty in itself cannot be a justification.

These apologists also work off the misconception that the great majority of the young brothers committing these crimes are poverty stricken. On the contrary, I venture to say that a good number of these brothers did not grow up like Jermaine and Dukie in The Wire. There is a pervasive thug and anti-intellectualism mentality in our community that transcends economic lines further than we would like to admit.

Take an honest assessment of the violence plaguing the black community. Can we honestly contend that it does not stem from internal sources? Can we in good faith pawn yet another community issue off on “The Man”? Undoubtedly, we can put a dent in the senseless violence in our community, but the first step is acknowledging the enemy within.

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Young black violence: A three-part tragedy

Young black violence: A three-part tragedy
By: Michael E. RossTue, 01/27/2009
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There's a tragedy plaguing black America and its youth.
The names read like an honor roll of American misfortune. Sean Bell. Abraham Biggs. Oscar Grant III. Adolph Grimes III. They, and too many more besides them, are young, black, male victims of violence in the United States. Those men and others are part of a three-way tragedy that's plaguing black America and victimizing its youth in unsettling ways.
(Read more about youth violence and find resources.)

Part I: Police brutality
The first part of this tragedy is an old one: Young black men targeted by the police. Recent incidents clearly show that the mantle of change embraced in the nation's voting booths on Election Day hasn't fully trickled down to the nation's precincts and station houses.Cases in point: The New Year's Day slaying of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III in Oakland, Calif. A Bay Area transit police officer shot Grant, perhaps accidentally, while the young father of a 4-year-old daughter lay on a station platform floor.On the same day, Adolph Grimes III, also 22, was shot to death in New Orleans by nine undercover New Orleans police officers.Then there was the New Year's Eve wounding of Robbie Tolan by police officers in a suburb of Houston.All this was preceded in November 2006 with the killing of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old man shot to death by New York City police officers. Fifty bullets were fired at Bell, just hours from being married, and two of his friends. These reflect the persistence of a disturbingly durable trend: the tendency of police officers to perceive young black males as an ipso facto threat to society. That trend's evident in other, more psychologically corrosive ways: Police officers frisked more than 500,000 New Yorkers in 2008, 80 percent of them young black or Latino men, the New York Times reported recently.

Part II: Crime against each other
The second part of this tragedy is a rise in the numbers of young black men being slain by others like them. A study released late in December by criminologists at Northeastern University in Boston found that even as murders nationwide have shown signs of stabilizing, the number of young black men and teenagers who either killed or were killed in shootings has increased sharply since 2000."From 2002 to 2007, the number of homicides involving black male juveniles as victims rose by 31% and as perpetrators by 43%. In terms of gun killings involving this same population subgroup, the increases were even more pronounced: 54% for young black male victims and 47% for young black male perpetrators," the report found.Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, some of which found its way into the Northeastern study, determined that nearly 10 percent of black people arrested for murder in 2007 were under the age of 18."In a sociopolitical environment that is widely (and incorrectly) viewed as post-racial, attacking such intractable problems comes with a new set of challenges," the report found. "While the celebration around Barack Obama's victory is understandable, the real work has to happen now at the grassroots level."

Part III: Self-destructive violence
But the third part of this tragedy is the most disturbing of all: self-destructive violence. It's a fact supported by scholarly studies and law enforcement agency statistics: that young black males, apparently so locked into a sense of despair and hopelessness, are committing suicide and doing it at an alarming rate.One of the most recent and painfully voyeuristic cases was Abraham Biggs, the Florida teenager who overdosed on prescription medication in November and did it live via webcam.Biggs's death represents one of many suicides among young black men. According to the American Association of Suicidology, taking one's life is the third leading cause of death among young black men, who are seven times more likely to kill themselves as black women. Newsweek magazine, citing the AAS findings, explored the issue in its Nov. 25 issue. Dr. Sean Joe, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Michigan, told Newsweek in November that young black men were less inclined to seek treatment for mental-health and emotional problems — an attitude identical to the U.S. military, whose gung-ho culture frowns on soldiers admitting they need help for mental-health issues."The bigger challenge is redrawing black masculinity in general, and the ways in which men perceive what it means to seek help for mental-health issues," Joe told Newsweek. "The degree to which we can reduce the stigma around seeking help, and get men to understand that it isn't weak to seek help for your issues will greatly affect our ability to reach that community." As we hail the inauguration of Barack Obama and the rise of new American possibility, there's no escaping this national three-part tragedy or an irony too sad for words: At a time when at least the political horizon for African Americans has never been brighter, young black men of our future are having that future denied to them, or they're denying it to themselves.

Michael E. Ross, a frequent contributor to The Loop, is a West Coast journalist who blogs frequently on politics, pop culture and race matters at Culchavox. He also writes for The Root and PopMatters.
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Will America Lose Another Generation ?

Under the Reign of the First Black President, Will America Lose Another Generation of Black Males?

By Phillip Jackson - January 1, 2009
http://www.blackstarproject.org/

The previous generation of young Black males was destroyed between 1985 and 2005. No amount of crying, cursing or hand-wringing can change this because that generation is gone! We need only walk down any city street in almost any predominantly African American community to see residue of the broken lives -- millions of young Black men nationwide. Few people spoke out effectively and even fewer engaged in actions to prevent this silent genocide. The mass destruction of Black American males has been effectively ignored by almost everybody—the government, the media and most of the philanthropic community. Even most of our Black churches and Black communities still stand by and watch the horrific loss of our young Black men.

The resulting negative educational, social, spiritual and economic impact of a generation of Black males’ shattered lives is also ultimately a devastating loss to our entire society. Of course, every single young Black man will not be lost, but here are the facts: Only 2.5 out of 100 of the 102,000 Black males in Chicago public schools are projected to graduate from college by age 25 with at least a bachelors degree (From High School to the Future, Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago 2006). And only 19 percent of Black males in Indianapolis and 20 percent in Detroit even graduated from high school in 2006 (Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, The Schott Foundation for Public Education).

Testimony before the U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee in 2007 revealed that only 50 percent of Black men in New York City were employed and that, nationally, 72 percent of Black male high school dropouts were unemployed. Recent crime data from Youngstown, Ohio, a city with a 44 percent Black population, showed that young Black men between 15 and 25 years old were either perpetrators or victims of 90 percent of Youngstown’s murders. In 2008, Chicago had more than 500 murders, mostly of young Black and Latino men. The Justice Policy Institute predicts that one out of three Black males born after 2001 will spend time incarcerated.

All of these statistics, representing the general condition of young Black men in America today, forecast an abysmal future for Black America. These inexcusable catastrophic outcomes constitute an unnatural disaster. Black America, along with all of America, pays dearly for its collective ineptitude and willful neglect of the nurturing, mentoring, educating, developing and saving of young Black men. No plausible justification exists for a country as great as America to lose another generation of Black youth.

Ask yourself: Who are young Black women going to marry? Who will be good fathers to tens of millions of Black children? Who will build and maintain the economies of Black communities? Who will be the anchor upon which to build strong families in the Black community? Who will young Black boys emulate as they grow into men? Will Black America be a viable and valuable community in 20 years? Or is the better question: Who cares?

Will the election of America’s first Black male president cleanse its conscience for destroying a past generation and absolve it of guilt for annihilating the next generation of young Black males? What a cruel hoax to believe that if a Black man can become president, then Black men do not have problems that America is obligated to address. Yet Black America cannot trade one Black man in the White House for the million-plus Black men languishing in American jail houses and millions of Black boys failing in American school houses.

In the absence of broad public policy ushering in comprehensive systemic changes, future generations of young Black males are destined to continue destroying themselves, their families and their communities. American social, economic and governmental systems have greatly contributed to the destruction of young Black men who have, in turn, become weapons of mass destruction against Black American communities. All the while America continues its moral high-ground façade concerning international human rights.

Those voices who call for Black men to “step up and be men” are not only wasting their breath but are also part of a seemingly intractable problem. Correcting the issues of Black men will require a comprehensively structured, sufficiently financed, professionally managed, ethically led and committed multi-pronged effort to systemically address and shift the cascading negative outcomes for Black men and boys.

The real shame of this catastrophe is not that America can’t save young Black males; it is that America won’t save young Black males! The resources required are miniscule compared to recent governmental bailouts and expenditures. Saving young Black males is an investment in America! It is as much a spiritual battle as it is a physical and emotional battle. A successful effort to save young Black males must also address habits, attitudes and behaviors that have pushed Black men to the precipice of irrelevance, obsolescence and nonexistence. To date, precious little is in place to stop the on-going destruction and annihilation of young Black males.

Phillip Jackson, Founder and Executive Director
The Black Star Project
3473 South King Drive, Box 464
Chicago, Illinois 60616
773.285.9600 or email at blackstar1000@ameritech.net

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The Black Nationalist Measuring Stick: Who Sets the Standards?

Image by National Geographic

By Dan Tres OMi

When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright mainstream media induced fiasco was raging in the summer of 2008, many evangelical and progressive Christians came out of the woodwork to claim that Rev. Wright did not speak for them. While history has shown that Rev. Wrights approach to Christian Theology from a Black Nationalist perspective is older than the founding of the United States of America and even predates the black evangelical movement, his protractors were correct in assuming that Wright did not speak for them. While I agree that Rev. Wright is correct in his assessment of U.S. Foreign policy and it's treatment of people of African descent, Wright cannot speak for all of the Black Church. The same can be said of Black Nationalists of the extreme stripe.

Some may argue but let's be frank, there are varying degrees of Black Nationalism. Just because one is an adherent to Black Nationalism and is a Christian, it does not make said person less of a Nationalists then someone who practices Islam. If one practices Vodun, it does not make that practitioner of Vodun much more of a Black Nationalist as someone who is an atheist and a Black Nationalist. I have encountered those who never read Cheik Anta Diop or Dr. John Henrik Clarke but help to uplift the Black community each and every day. While some will say they are not true Black Nationalists since they might not wear the Red, Black, and Green (RBG), but their actions speak for themselves. If they are out there on the front lines helping educate Black youth every day of the week then in my humble opinion, they are Black Nationalists through and through.

It bothers me to no end when I hear one set of Black Nationalists downplay someone's contribution because they disagree ideologically or because of the occupation or position one may hold. Like most people, we of the Black Nationalist slant tend to judge a book by its cover. It is no wonder that we continue to let charlatans, agents, and misogynists enter wily nily into our ranks. Then there are those of the Black Nationalist slant who assume that if one just stays Black and dies, then said person is a card carrying African warrior. Both assumptions are far from the truth.

If a police commissioner of a particular city is black and the usual politics of neglecting and abusing Black communities within that city continue unabated, is that police commissioner who happens to be black helpful or harmful to that community? Can we consider that commissioner an ally or an opponent? Remember that every brother ain't a brother. Yet if that police commissioner helps to quell police brutality and misconduct, stamp out police corruption, help to strengthen communities and remove much of the crime throughout that city, wouldn't that commissioner be considered an exemplar? Does the uniform matter if he helps out those who looks like him?

Many choose to follow a hollow stereotype of a Black Nationalist. You know the type: daishiki's downed, arabic name, and the afro pick. Yet individuals such as the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Arturo Schomburg, the late Dr. Amos Wilson, and several others did not do those things. In other words, one's actions will speak for themselves. Calling the white man the devil, refusing to work a regular 9 to 5 to support one's family, reading a few books on black history, and accepting an arabic named doesn't mean a thing. Ironically, we tend to consider individuals who perform these acts as true Black Nationalists. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Making meaningful and consistent contributions that result in the further positive upliftment of our community makes one a nationalist. It could be anything from reading to children in one's local elementary school to mentoring a fatherless child to building bookshelves for a local church to organizing fund raisers for local charities or events. It could be a few times a year or once a week. It could mean earning a degree to create new Departments of Africana Studies in major universities. It could mean getting elected to a city council and helping others implement the right tools to uplift the community.

As a group who considers themselves conscious minded, we should be able to measure anyone's commitment to our struggle. We have the best exemplars and ancestors around. We are the ones who always “do the math” and have access to those who can help us decide who is holding it down and who isn't. The standards have already been set. The blueprint has been provided. Now we just have to go to work.