Your Friendly Neighborhood Black Man

Dear White Man’s World,

It’s been a long time since we really talked. Approximately years 600 years to my count. Through all the lies and misconceptions painted about me, I really haven’t felt the need to talk to you. But a beautiful black woman has been telling me for years I need to express my emotions and what’s on my mind. So here we are.

The first thing that comes to mind is the mass images that depicts me as a sex driven angry behemoth that only wants sex with women, white women to be exact. I’m more than that. I am a king that has, and truth be told still, rules the world. With out me, there would be no Man. With out me, there would be no America. Without me there would be no American dream. Let me ask you a question. If you never received the credit you deserved for your contributions to the world, wouldn’t you be mad? If all you were told your whole life was that your were nothing and would never be nothing, how would you feel? If you grew up hearing from your own mothers and queens that there were no good black men, how would you feel? I’m TIRED of being known for my dick extremities and not my mind. My body is a temple, and only those special to me have the privilege to know it yet my mind is a contributor to the world.

Another issue with you I have had for centuries is the perpetuating cycle of slave to master circumstances. WE ARE MEN. NOT SERVANTS. Modern day entertainment industries that disproportionately utilize African Americans men for their physical abilities yet never offer them adequate pay and opportunities to climb business latter’s to hold power beyond courts and fields are concurrent with share cropping industries after slavery. While we bring countless amounts of money to a select few, we never amount to be apart of the select few. You need us more than we need you. We can, and have in the past, ran and operated successful Negro leagues where we were the barons of the industry. While Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, we still play in a segregated arena. Blacks on the field, whites in the stands. We gave up on Negro league dreams for spots in the field picking cotton passes from the sky. What the hell were we thinking? Among the fortune 500 companies, there are only 8 African American CEO’s, and ONLY ONE of those is a woman. And why is it that not until 2003, with the Charlotte Bobcats, that no African Americans was a majority owner of a professional sports organization. Always a slave never a slave master I guess.

Lastly, but not least, I have a bone to pick with you because of the divide you have wedged between my Queen and I. Never have royalty been so divided, hence the problems that have arisen within our kingdom. When you redefine the family and its structure, you create centuries of problems. Some issues to arise at later dates such as the lost relationship between a father and his son. I def commend your friend Willie Lynch. He’s been hard at work for the last 150 years. My family is nothing to play with. And I miss seeing my family everyday, both literally and through images and depictions in media. There are scarce depictions of fully functioning black families in the media and most date in the 60’s, 70’s and some in the 90’s. Yet no matter what the venue, white families seem to always have things together. Maybe a factor of the continued demise of the black family is the belief that our community is destroyed or the lack of a positive functioning community. Maybe my Queen and I will be back in each other’s good graces once we no longer see our self-fighting and see our self loving each other.

At the end of the day, we live in the same world and time. We need each other. Time has proven that. I know your mind and vision is clouded with that superiority complex. But I need you to hear what I’m about to say clearly. This is not your world and you are not special. Historically, you have just been more vicious, hence your position of comfort. But today is a new day with another one dawning. And your time is almost up. A new way of thinking is coming and its time for YOU to conform.

In love and affection

Your Friendly Neighborhood Black Man.