to be or not to be

“i heard that you’re settled down
that you found a girl and you’re married now
i heard that your dreams came true
guess she gave you things i didn’t give to you.”

-adele

“and i’m gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket
but i’ve got to get a move on with my life
it’s time to be a big girl now
and big girls don’t cry.”

-fergie

“i could have another you in a minute.
matter fact, he’ll be here in a minute, baby.”

-Beyoncé

“heard you got a new man, i see you taking a pic,
then you post it up, thinkin’ that it’s makin’ me sick.
brr brr, i see you calling, i be making it quick
ima answer that sh*t like, ‘i don’t f*ck wit-
chu,’ b*tch, i got no feelings to go
i swear I had it up to here, i got no ceilings to go
i mean, for real, f*ck how you feel
f*ck your two cents if it ain’t goin towards the bill, yeah
and every day i wake up celebrating sh*t, why?
cause i just dodged a bullet from a crazy b*tch.”

-Big Sean

with presumably every verse talking about an ex, what are the major differences of sentiment and emotion between the verses above? they’re almost exactly the same, minus the cussing (which everyone who’s reading this does).

“Nothing” is the answer. however, the difference is Big Sean is a Black man expressing heartache the way he knows how. the others are women, Black and white. he’s expressing heartache the way many Black males express feelings: in the studio by rhyming. the problem is people don’t want Black males to express feelings unique to us the way we do it.
we must do it your way. he’s doing it the same way r&b singers do. he’s just a rapper. you’ll see shortly this is much more layered than a song.

Black males get told to be open. to cry. to not fight our emotions. to be vulnerable. to express what’s heavy on our mind. but when we do, we get told, “not that way.”

who tells Beyoncé how to feel and express it after her well-known husband cheated on her? her sister physically assaulted her husband. who told Solange she was wrong?

by the way, THIS IS NOT A PIECE TO CREATE DIVISION. THIS IS TO START A MUCH NEEDED, DELAYED CONVERSATION AND TO GROW AND MATURE OUR THOUGHT PATTERNS AND BIASES. IF YOU ARE NOT IN A SPACE TO CONSUME THIS WITH A CLEAR AND POSITIVE HEAD AND HEART, READ LATER. REMEMBER THIS AS YOU GO.

who policed Meg and her actions and songs? when Pardi dropped a song that wasn’t remotely viscous, he was called sassy and to just “drop it.” **AGAIN, see above. this is much more complex than specific issues and i will make that clear. be ready to digest.

from January 1st, 2001, adele’s 21 album has sold the most albums. yes, adele expressing her feelings for 48 minutes is the best selling album of the 21st century. the album came out a decade (2011) after the century started and is still the best selling album. in fact, she stopped recording songs due to lack of inspiration. after a break up, she went back to the studio and continued. she won grammys for album of the year, song of the year and record of the year. she was rewarded for expressing her feelings of a break up. who woulda thought.

what’s the response when Black men do so? (food for thought, JAY-Z, the most decorated hip hop artist, was nominated for 8 grammys for his 4:44 album. he took home zero) what won’t be acknowledged is we aren’t treated the same as others because we aren’t ontologically human. (ontologically is the study or field of existence, of what’s real. ontology deals with whether or not a certain thing, or more broadly entity, exists. think of the question of God. that is an ontologically and theology question. anytime you see blue letters, click that to continue reading) humans are allowed to react. humans are allowed to cry. humans are allowed to feel and react in the immediate with slight understanding. humans are allowed grace for possessing emotions.

Black males are not. who speaks to the feelings of a Black male? the complexity of maleness and masculinity? bells hooks? the most popular and respected speaker of Black masculinity in modern time was a “queer-pas-gay” Black woman who has many times shown her disgust for that very demographic. you can easily see why those identities are ironic for being the voice of Black masculinity. and you can also see who’s pulling the strings.

speaking to the pain and hurt and struggle of women is lucrative and exciting. it’s heard. speaking to the hurt of Black men is divisive and comparative, which is why i had to make TWO disclaimers before getting here. what a shame.

when you listen to Big Sean’s song, i wonder how many people heard his hurt. or did it immediately shift to the feelings of who he was talking about? is that the same for adele? taylor swift? Beyoncé? other people get told their feelings are “always valid.” not us. when we speak, the conversation instantly goes to “i hear you… but what about…” it shifts to the feelings of the recipient. we no longer talk about us. the Black male is now responsible for your feelings while processing his. in the world of white supremacy, Black males aren’t allowed to be a hypothetical victim of hurt or wrongdoing because that would admit Black males can be victimized. even if we’re the ones running away, we are the brute.

every. single. analysis. of. Black. males. exist. as. violent. hypersexual. beings. it’s our existence.

if you listen to rap music, you’ll notice cries for help. cries for attention. you’ll notice white flags waving. you’ll notice pain. the key word was listen. people rarely listen to rap music, they hear it.

hearing is perceiving sounds, noises. when a tone or sound is accepted by you, you heard it.

listening is the act of paying attention to the sound. to give it consideration.

walking down the street you might hear a piano. when you listen to it, you’ll notice it’s Dr.Dre x Still Dre.

TRANSITION

“anytime you make an analysis of an oppressed people in ANY aspect of their lives, and you leave out their enemy, you will never come to a correct analysis. on the contrary, you will blame the oppressed for all of their problems. therefore, we tell you from the very beginning that we have never taken the lie from others ‘the biggest enemy is ourselves.’ NO. the biggest problem is capitalism and it must be destroyed.” Kwame Ture. https://youtu.be/AY_0DcyLY5Q

in 1992, Ronald Ray Howard shot a pig.
he blamed 2pac Shakur lyrics for inciting him. 2Pac went on the Jane Pratt show in 1993. the crowd and fellow panelists grilled 2Pac saying his music is about cop killing.

them: “but doesn’t your songs mention cop killing?”
2Pac: “nope.”
them: “oh that’s not true. that’s not true.”
2Pac: “all my songs mention police brutality and self defense.”

the song is question is Soulja’s Story which is an ode to George Jackson, a revolutionary who was imprisoned for stealing $70 from a gas station. his sentence? 1 year to life. that’s right. 1 to 25 years to life for $70.

and i understand. after centuries of conditioning, seeing Black males as subhuman is normalized. you might not retain anything i wrote. hell, i “am” a Black man.

let’s examine Jonathan Majors and that white woman.
despite white women’s collective history of guilt and false allegations against Black men and despite Black men’s collective history of innocence, we still assumed her innocence and his guilt the second the news dropped. am i wrong? he was guilty with or without an official court decision (i know we hear guilty and stamp it, but look at the counts he was considered guilty of…)

the juxtaposition of that to the viral story of the Somalian woman who was hit with a brick shouldn’t be overlooked. a white woman came and gave tons of hidden information about her to DEFEND a random Black man. no relations to either party. the info was about the Somalian woman’s history with scamming and faking injuries to make money. you know the response? “i know yall are not about to believe this white woman…” but the SECOND the Jonathan Majors news hit, who was the first person people believed?

there is reason to believe people reading this actually wanted Jonathan Majors to be handed a guilty verdict just so the narrative continues. just so they can, in their Black misandry soul, be justified in their preconceived notions and biases.

“but this doesn’t happen to Black men who put the community first! stand on business and it won’t happen.” oh? when talking about Dr. Martin Luther King or Dr. Huey P Newton, two men who gave their lives for the betterment of their people, was it different? two men who had complicated lives and had to wake up and still be in a nightmare despite their dreams had and still have dirt thrown on their legacy. people are willing to listen to FBI letters over those who knew Dr. King!! THE FEDS??!!

Dr. Huey P was the intellectual behind the most disruptive and revolutionary organization in modern amerikkkan history. Huey in fact succumb to partaking in the horrible drug crack cocaine. this one person did. but as Kwame pointed out, you cannot dare mention drugs in our community without mentioning the to who, where, what, and why. that, again, is not an analysis at all. but something else Huey and The Black Panthers did was an attempt to illegalize drugs from their communities by instilling fear into drug dealers and giving often violent ultimatums to not sell locally. and by countering Nixon’s War or Drugs with their own initiative (check Lincoln Detox). The Panthers, along with Puerto Rican group the Young Lords, realized that the meds they were providing by trying to help those battling addiction was trading one addiction for another. they pivoted and looked to communist China for inspiration: acupuncture to detox. when martyrs such as Huey P and MLK are reduced to singular acts and are immediately mentioned in the same sentence as entertainers who have never displayed any sort of standard or dedication to a demographic that needs drastic help (no disrespect at all to anyone), we are reminded of their non humanness.

ignoring the Panthers known reputation of being students of Malcolm X, karl marx, and vladimir lenin, this is what someone wrote about them in an article in 2015, published by forbes. ignoring their well documented studies of respected philosophers is a given. but do you see how the failure to regard Big Sean’s valid HUMAN response and the innate guiltiness of Black males is bigger than isolated situations? the reason i cannot use innate is because that applies to living things, something you’re born with. intrinsic is a better word as it is an essential component of a thing. in other words, if something that is intrinsic is removed, the thing from which it is removed is no longer quite itself. humans have emotions, humans are born innocent. you remove those components, you cannot be human.

THE RESPONSIBILITY IS ON US, NOW.

there’s a reason why i flock to Kwame Ture and Assata and Malcolm. that’s where i am mentally and philosophically TODAY. they appeal to my maturity. 10 years ago, i wasn’t as developed.

2 year old’s generally don’t watch the evening news or Love Jones. they’ll be watching paw patrol or some animated show with tunes and a lot of color. that’s where they are.

when you’re hurt or when you hate, you will listen to music, opinions, people, books, and interviews that reinforce your hate, thus making your hurt validated. you create an echo chamber.

i’m not saying Kevin Samuels was right OR wrong with his words. but he appealed to a lot of hurt men. a lot of people who listened to him listened to like-minded people. can you relate to creating an echo chamber? i know i can. we have to break through that.

we ultimately have to resist white supremacy.

this issue is a humanitarian issue. if you admit Black males are humans and oppressed, you wouldn’t be mad at much of what i said because all i’m doing is speaking up for an oppressed group of people. so it’s above simply no one liking Black males. because to like Black males is to admit there’s *something* to like. to admit there’s something to like about Black males is to admit they’re males. and to admit they’re males is to elevate the being, the existence of Black men to a human. white supremacy’s agenda for the last 497 years is to reduce the being of Black men to non human. that is how we can justify the everlasting treatment, outlook, and disregard of Black men. when we say Black people are so loving, are we even talking about Black men? when we say we love Black people, are we including Black men in that? seriously.

ain’t nothing gon come inevitably or with time. we gotta put in work. we’re doing the thing we say we hate.
we say we hate a lack of accountability, but we lack accountability. we say we hate when people don’t put themselves in other shoes, but we don’t.
we say we need people to self reflect, but we don’t.
we use the right words, and NOTHING follows.
we want others to consider our condition and emotional and mental state, but we don’t want to consider others.

last time i checked, Black males were under the same oppressive regime and in the same communities and are getting killed and harassed like you reading this (and at higher levels in many metrics). but again, to remotely consider that, you would have to accept that Black males are human.

the kid in the picture above is George Junius Stinney Jr. he was convicted of murdering two girls. at the age of 14, he was electrocuted to death. making him the youngest person to ever be sentenced to death and murdered by the state. it was later determined in 2014 that George Junius Stinney Jr was wrongly convicted…