A Call to Action and A Bone to Pick
This past weekend a friend of mine was in town and wanted to go to campus. So we hit up all of the usual places including a store called Futura, which I have frequented myself on more than a few occasions. We went downstairs into the basement and I was shocked to see a t-shirt that said “Rutgers Nappy Headed Ho’s Basketball team” complete with a picture of a basketball with an afro. To make a long story short several students and alumni were able to stop selling that shirt all together and now we are targeting the company that created that and several other extremely offensive shirts. I am extremely excited and proud of the people of all ethnicities who are taking part of this effort but that is not the purpose of this blog. I have a bone to pick.
In order to rally people who cared into this effort I created a group on Facebook. There was an immediate response and people were on it. I was so excited. But then came the back lash. People began leaving posts on the wall of the group not only discounting the efforts of the individuals involved but also in the overall purpose of these actions. In addressing this I am not discounting the validity of their statements. There are huge problems in the Black community. There is a blatant lack of respect and subtly. The entertainers do need to be held accountable. Parents need to start teaching their kids to respect themselves and each other. There is an epidemic of AIDS and HIV in the black community, yes, all of these things are ramped in our community and there ARE efforts being made to combat these problems. But the things that bothered me the most about these comments were A. The sarcasm, B. the lack of knowledge and understanding on the topics that were being discussed and the efforts behind them and C. and most importantly, the lack of action behind them.
The problem with complainers is that complaining is usually all that they do. I created this group and am pursing this goal because for the most part people would go into that same store, see the shirt, shake their heads and walk out irritated, but not doing anything about it. In fact I almost did the same thing until I was told that the shirt would never be taken down and I needed to get over it by one of the sales associates. I personally love a challenge, and now the shirt is gone. Why? Because I took action; and that is the moral of this story.
Complainers always have excuses as to why they can’t make things happen. I’m too young, I’m still in school, no one else cares. Complete and utter excuses. I say if you are going to complain about the issues in the black community and look down your nose at the efforts of people who are trying to make a change, no matter how ridiculous you may think it is, then you better have a laundry list of real activities underneath your belt because otherwise you are making yourself look bad. What good does it do to point out all of the things that aren’t being done if you aren’t doing anything about it yourself? What good is it to complain about groups on campus throwing parties, playing rap music that use explicit language, talks about degrading women and promotes a materialistic lifestyle, when you are there, paying your money, dancing to the rap songs that degrade women and doing just as much to support these things you are against? What good does it do to complain about groups raising money for the so called wrong reasons when you have just as much space and opportunity to do your own fundraising for the right ones? I’m sure that there are no complaints when people are recipients of the scholarships and awards these campus groups raise money to give out. The city of San Francisco has an AIDS walk annually, do you participate? The City of Oakland hosted the March of Dimes walk this past weekend. Where you there? It is very easy to whine and complain and be upset and displace your own inaction by pointing out flaws in someone else. But the cliché ‘actions speak louder than words’ was said for this specific reason. If you want to get angry and discount the efforts of your people and the work they are doing that is your right. But I have to answer a question that was asked.
“When will black people stop being blind to their own reality? When will black people start to realize that they are their own downfall? When will they start to care?”
The answer to that question is EDUCATION. Perhaps before we start asking questions such as these we should research and become a part of organizations that are working to make changes. Perhaps before we start asking these questions we should have a firm understanding of what the real issues are instead of standing underneath the umbrella of generalization and yelling out that AIDS are killing our people. Perhaps once you actually get involved with conscious efforts and start actually invoking these changes you would like to see then you would stop complaining and asking these types of questions and start asking What can I do to help.
Peace Y’all
B
