American Blog

This is the first part of a 3 part post written by Mr. Michael Vass, author of www.blackentertainmentblog.com

For many today is a day of remembrance. Today is a day to think of hope. This is a time to look to the future and see a better America. For just as many today is just another day. A day that holds no glimmer of hope, no potential for better and no end to the sometimes harsh conditions that every day brings.

The differences in those 2 thoughts tends to be age and education, in my opinion. For many of the youth of today there is no understanding of what happened some 40 years ago. The youth of today have never been beaten for sitting in the wrong seat on a bus, based solely on the color of their skin. They have not had fire hoses placed on them because they tried to go to school, but had the wrong race to be allowed in. The youth of today have never been lynched because they dated, or looked at, someone of a color not their own. For too many of the youth today these are all items of ancient history, perhaps as relevant as the War of 1812, perhaps slightly more when a movie starring a favored actor is seen.

This is not entirely their fault. I cannot say I am greatly different. I am not different in that I did not suffer those same things. I had the benefit of growing up after that time. After the sacrifices of Dr. King, and Mr. Malcolm X and many others, most who were not famous enough to have their names recorded but sacrificed all the same. The difference is that I am old enough to have heard the bile in being called the N-word. I am old enough to have had a Mother, and uncles and a Father that did suffer those events. I am old enough to know that some have, and continue, to value the color of a person’s skin above their actions. I am old enough to have experienced the problems that go with that mindset. And that makes me understand that these things aren’t history, ancient or recent, but current in the world.

On this day I think to the breakthroughs we see. My own past success in becoming a stockbroker (a vestige of the ‘old boys club’ mentality still but not quite like it was), in traveling the world, in being able to attend a college (of my choice), and to live in places I chose. I see the things that have changed in the world. Actors and actresses of African American and Latino/Hispanic decent that are able to lead films without having to portray the villain, the drug dealer, the gangster or prostitute. I have seen characters on television that are Black that portray the American President, doctors, and leaders of industry. I have seen celebrities embraced throughout the world, and this nation, with skins ranging from dark to light. I have seen entertainers step back to their roots and enrich the lives of all there.

Yet I must say that with each step that has improved there are those steps that have gone backwards. I have heard the famous words of Dr. King often quoted and played, yet I’ve seen few continue them. Let me be clear, as much as the world is better for Black Americans it is also worse. And part of that worsening is the fault of the Black community and culture.

In a less quoted part of Dr. King’s speech he stated, “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’”. In ways that note is still unpaid. The failures from Hurricane Katrina, the injustice of the murders of Mr. Sean Bell and many others, and multiple other events confirm this.

But there has been some payment made. Minority businesses are not just the ‘crazy dreams’ of ‘those muslims’, but an encouraged reality in virtually every city in the nation. Where the military was highly segregated, now we have seen an African American reach the highest levels. Where there were political offices devoid of any persons of color we now have Cabinet members and Secretary of State. Today we even can see Black Americans as millionaires and billionaires in business and serious consideration of the potential of a Black President. Not long ago (a mere 20 years) such a thought could only be the fodder of comedians.

Yet for all of that there is still what Dr. King called, “…the tranquilizing drug of gradualism,” in that same speech from 1963. And like all drugs it is addictive. Today the youth fail to take the educations that are available to them. With desegregation, the internet, and yes mediocre schools there is the potential to expand our minds; yet the dropout rates have risen to unheard of levels. In the past we were barred from learning, today it is abandoned. In the past there was degradation placed upon us, in restrictions on where we could live, sit, and eat. In the past there was dehumanization placed in the words used to describe us. Today we degrade ourselves in words used to greet and converse with ourselves or others. Today we belittle our women as props and possessions in music videos, song and movies. Today we insult and destroy our families with terms like ‘baby-mama’ or ‘baby-daddy’, and actions such as creating families and not providing the resulting children with a father. We divert ourselves in a quest for wealth by any means, without concern of what those means and their resulting consequence cost.

These are the things we have done and allow to exist. There is no question that problems exist, beyond our causation. These serve only to compound the issues that we place on ourselves. Dr. King said, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”