Friday, July 1, 2011
Education as a Counterhegemonic Force
Education as a Counterhegemonic Force: "For hundreds of years, education has served as the symbol of meritocratic stratification in American society. Philosophers, critical thinke..."
Black Male Leadership Crisis?
Perhaps the title of this rendering alone would appear to be a bit of a misnomer or oxymoron given that the President of the United States is deemed an African American male. True enough, President Barack Obama provides the illusion of Black male leadership, but given the lack of respect he has received as the occupant of the highest post in the world and the social distance that truly exists between he and those bearing similar semblances of racial taxonomy, the black male still seeks leadership. White America has dismissed both Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton as corruptible men because of grand-standing, rabble-rousing and infidelity respectively. A number of names are debatable for the sake of conversation, but are any truly emergent and even slightly synonymous with the names of the past such as Garvey, DuBois, King, Malcolm, etc.?
There are names such as Dyson, Jealous, Simmons, West, Joyner, a fading Farrakhan and more, but are they, at the heart of the matter, socio-politically galvanizing forces. Young black men are seemingly drawn more readily to those associated with some medium of entertainment and sport, or at least these are the fixtures that the media perpetuates as being definitively successful. I won't disparage music moguls, physical gifted men and the like, that have utilized their talents to garner some relative abundance of the fruits of meritocracy. I will however argue vehemently that their exceptional qualities are just that...exceptional. They are not the norm, nor the by-in-large reality of men that languish in gymnasiums and studios believing in a long-shot. I am most certain that if granted the opportunity to set aside carefuly crafted personnas of braggadociousness and hyper-masculinity, they would most certainly admonish young men to stay in school or pursue a trade, warning of the pitfalls and envy associated with the facade that pervades their existence.
Moreover, even as we consider the numerical reality of African American professional athletes and entertainers, our subconscious dictates that there is a saturation, when in fact in all professional sports combined, the totals do not meet 2,000. Consider as well, that the U.S. population numbers between 310-315 million documented residents. I ask young black men to consider the probability of being numbered among those considered "exceptional". I digress. Among these entertainers and athletes, how many can with all certainty be considered a leader? Maybe it is a movement towards defining leadership that I should concern myself with. Is a leader affirmed by followers? If so, then Charlie Sheen is a leader by Twitter standards. Is a leader defined by charisma? We often tell children that charisma is the one quality that cannot be taught or learned; they must be born with the "it" factor.
Among African American leaders today, which cannot be bought, or silenced, owned or puppeted? Of those from which to choose might we find one moral enough to admit his immorality? Which among them is tireless amidst despair and yet finds the wherewithal to dispense and emit energies that will ripple across the nation to the extent that his junior generation might stop killing for nothing and be willing to die for something? I applaud President Obama's achievement, but first of all, it needs to be placed in its proper context, given the one-drop rule, and from the misguided perspective of expectancy of those who comprise the new major minority group. President Obama is not, nor could he ever be the saviour for black people nor men more specifically; nor is it fair to look to him to be. He has merely been a distant observer of the phenomena that plague the demographic. The leaders of this targeted species must originate from within. Their place on the field of battle will be defended passionately and their desires fueled by those things that they have "lived and survived". They will know all to well the pain of fatherlessness, substandard housing, homelessness, drug addiction, incarceration, gang activity, disease, discriminatory practice, racism, hate mongering, violence, poverty and statistical prophecy, and they will claim it and fight it to a bitter end.
For my portion, I think that a leader of an endangered segment of the population must be transparent, selfless, a social and critical thinker, a man with vision but without an "agenda" and most of all, he must be fearless. The names that resonate throughout black history and spill from the lips of people the world over decades after their deaths, stared down death daily, speaking articulately as its stench polluted their breathing. Many of their deaths were forewarned and foretold, yet they were inextricably bound to a purpose greater than themselves. In my mind, that is leadership; the unwavering belief in a cause, a principle or a stigmatized and disregarded portion of humanity, knowing full well, that betrayal is bred even in one's inner-most circle, but laying down life voluntarily and in spite of. Many of the last few years have been aimed at commemorating their deaths, but even more sickening, assassinating their legacies as well.
There can be no ill-judgment of such men that tried with all trying and sacrificed that which we can only repay with words and tribute. I purposely omit remittance in deed because we are still searching for such a group of men, to galvanize, to lead, and if necessary to die.
NKrumah Lewis, Ph.D.
There are names such as Dyson, Jealous, Simmons, West, Joyner, a fading Farrakhan and more, but are they, at the heart of the matter, socio-politically galvanizing forces. Young black men are seemingly drawn more readily to those associated with some medium of entertainment and sport, or at least these are the fixtures that the media perpetuates as being definitively successful. I won't disparage music moguls, physical gifted men and the like, that have utilized their talents to garner some relative abundance of the fruits of meritocracy. I will however argue vehemently that their exceptional qualities are just that...exceptional. They are not the norm, nor the by-in-large reality of men that languish in gymnasiums and studios believing in a long-shot. I am most certain that if granted the opportunity to set aside carefuly crafted personnas of braggadociousness and hyper-masculinity, they would most certainly admonish young men to stay in school or pursue a trade, warning of the pitfalls and envy associated with the facade that pervades their existence.
Moreover, even as we consider the numerical reality of African American professional athletes and entertainers, our subconscious dictates that there is a saturation, when in fact in all professional sports combined, the totals do not meet 2,000. Consider as well, that the U.S. population numbers between 310-315 million documented residents. I ask young black men to consider the probability of being numbered among those considered "exceptional". I digress. Among these entertainers and athletes, how many can with all certainty be considered a leader? Maybe it is a movement towards defining leadership that I should concern myself with. Is a leader affirmed by followers? If so, then Charlie Sheen is a leader by Twitter standards. Is a leader defined by charisma? We often tell children that charisma is the one quality that cannot be taught or learned; they must be born with the "it" factor.
Among African American leaders today, which cannot be bought, or silenced, owned or puppeted? Of those from which to choose might we find one moral enough to admit his immorality? Which among them is tireless amidst despair and yet finds the wherewithal to dispense and emit energies that will ripple across the nation to the extent that his junior generation might stop killing for nothing and be willing to die for something? I applaud President Obama's achievement, but first of all, it needs to be placed in its proper context, given the one-drop rule, and from the misguided perspective of expectancy of those who comprise the new major minority group. President Obama is not, nor could he ever be the saviour for black people nor men more specifically; nor is it fair to look to him to be. He has merely been a distant observer of the phenomena that plague the demographic. The leaders of this targeted species must originate from within. Their place on the field of battle will be defended passionately and their desires fueled by those things that they have "lived and survived". They will know all to well the pain of fatherlessness, substandard housing, homelessness, drug addiction, incarceration, gang activity, disease, discriminatory practice, racism, hate mongering, violence, poverty and statistical prophecy, and they will claim it and fight it to a bitter end.
For my portion, I think that a leader of an endangered segment of the population must be transparent, selfless, a social and critical thinker, a man with vision but without an "agenda" and most of all, he must be fearless. The names that resonate throughout black history and spill from the lips of people the world over decades after their deaths, stared down death daily, speaking articulately as its stench polluted their breathing. Many of their deaths were forewarned and foretold, yet they were inextricably bound to a purpose greater than themselves. In my mind, that is leadership; the unwavering belief in a cause, a principle or a stigmatized and disregarded portion of humanity, knowing full well, that betrayal is bred even in one's inner-most circle, but laying down life voluntarily and in spite of. Many of the last few years have been aimed at commemorating their deaths, but even more sickening, assassinating their legacies as well.
There can be no ill-judgment of such men that tried with all trying and sacrificed that which we can only repay with words and tribute. I purposely omit remittance in deed because we are still searching for such a group of men, to galvanize, to lead, and if necessary to die.
NKrumah Lewis, Ph.D.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)