Category Archives: African-American Women

African-American Males, African-American Men, African-American Women, Black Males, Black Men, EDUCATION, Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive, MRCi, RACE

Black Student Housing on White Campuses: Is this a Return to the Days of Segregation?

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We are inviting you to this week’s Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive Zoom discussion over the rising argument surrounding Black-only Student Housing on the campuses of Predominantly White Institutions.  Why are White Students crying “reverse racism” at the thought of Black Students living separately from them?

MRCi discussions occur every Thursday @ 7:30 (EST) – 6:30 (CST). Click on the link below to join our intellectual community.

Join us as we discuss pressing matters facing and impacting Black Men and Black America.

Just in case you can not get the link to work, use the information to join the Zoom session.

Meeting ID: 353 334 8869
Passcode: 1YF4BG

African-American Males, African-American Men, African-American Women, Black Males, Black Men, Black Women, MRCi

Defining What it Means to be a Righteous Black Man?: Does the Absence of such Men Explain the Black Woman’s Refusal to Follow Him

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You are cordially invited to participate in this week’s Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive Zoom discussion about What does a Righteous Black Man looks like. Are they plentiful within Black America? Is the absence of righteous Black men the reason why Black families are in such shambles?

MRCi discussions occur every Thursday @ 7:30 (EST) – 6:30 (CST). Click on the link below to join our intellectual community.

Join us as we discuss pressing matters facing and impacting Black Men and Black America.

Just in case you can not get the link to work, use the information to join the Zoom session.

Meeting ID: 353 334 8869
Passcode: 1YF4BG

African-American Girls, African-American Males, African-American Men, African-American Women, Black Girls, Black Males, Black Men, Black Women, LABOR

No Reported Income?: The Dire Economic Plight of so many Black Millennials and How We Can Address It

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One of the most repetitious yet bemusing moments that repeats itself in my courses occurs after I cover the indispensable contributions of Civil Rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston’s fight for racial equality. Despite common misconceptions, Houston, not his protégé Thurgood Marshall, matters most mightily in the buildup to the historic Brown v. Board of Education (1954 & 1955) decision. The Supreme Court decision began the process of ending racial segregation in American schools.

The historical record indicates that in the decade following Brown, American institutions (schools, businesses, colleges, etc.) took small steps toward relinquishing many of the vestiges of American-style apartheid. Unfortunately, for the sake of truth, the damage done to Black America’s economic infrastructure as a result of desegregation is rarely discussed. The historical record indicates that Civil Rights leaders shortsightedness relegated Black America to economic subservience.

The consequences of moderate Civil Rights leaders’ decision to exclude Nationalist voices calling for economic self-reliance are impacting us to this moment.

One needs to look no further than the present economic plight of many Blacks for verification of this assertion. The dire economic prospects of a significant portion of Black America demonstrate how important it is for Black America to possess the ability to employ themselves by circulating the dollar amongst themselves. Consider for a moment that recent U.S. Census data indicates that 973,209 millennial Black men have no reported income. I am confident that with the damage that the Black Male brand has undergone over the past decades, many will shake their head at this information and say, “the brothers have got to do better.” Yet this is not a problem exclusive to Black men. The same Census data reports that the plight of millennial Black women is not much better as 707,625 of them are in the same predicament.

The above data would not be as devastating if America were not a Capitalist nation. Even the Wu-Tang Clan told all within earshot that Cash Rules Everything Around Me (C.R.E.A.M). There is no room for a reasonable debate that within Capitalist America, those who possess money wield absolute power over the economically marginalized.

What makes this reality more dangerous for Black men is the relatively standard demand that others expect them to occupy the role of the primary provider in their household. If financial stability is a prerequisite to having a family, the absence of a reliable, substantial income has banished 973,209 millennial Black males to the realm of being inconsequential in Black America’s advancement. Let’s be honest about this matter; the inability of the aforementioned Black men to access capital through “legitimate” means weakens Black America today. It curtails its future potential because Black family’s matter mightily.

When one considers the myriad obstacles, particularly previous entanglement with the American criminal justice system, that stand between Black men and gainful employment, it is time that Black America busies itself developing entrepreneurs and small business owners. The historical record indicates that any reliance on Whites to employ the “hardcore unemployable” in our midst is bound to fail miserably. Turn inward, my people, develop businesses and patronize them as if your life depends on it because it does.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

African-American Males, African-American Men, African-American Women, Black Males, Black Men, Black Women, RELATIONSHIP

Is the High-Earning Millennial Black Male Invisible to their Female Counterparts?

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A convincing argument could be made that Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man is the greatest novel ever written.

I must tell you that Ellison’s unnamed protagonist is “invisible” throughout the entire book for those who have never read this timeless text. Now I do not want you to get the impression that he is see-through as lacking a body; his invisibility results from those around him not being able to see. Everyone he encounters “sees only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination.”

Ellison’s Invisible Man is no different from millions of Black male millennials living without anyone, especially their Black female counterparts, ever seeing them.

While those on the Right engage in public political propaganda about Critical Race Theory, millennial Black men are facing an unexpected opponent. Young Black men between the ages of 25 – 40 have been rendered invisible. Nearly eighty years after Ellison’s brilliant construct, millennial Black men fit perfectly into it.

If nothing else, the familiar cries of Black women regarding the absence of suitable Black suitors are convincing, particularly to those who have never reviewed relevant data. The “Amen corner” that so eagerly joins into any discussion that culminates with the denigration of Black men has never needed any data to condemn their targets. The evidence base is purely anecdotal evidence provided by a segment of bitter mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, and friends that serves no purpose other than convincing Black millennial women that there are no suitable marriage-minded Black males. This recycled allegation has reached urban legend status.

The primary problem with the unceasing denigration of millennial Black men is that there is not a shred of evidence supporting the allegations. When one focuses on the plight of educated Black women categorized as millennials, by far the loudest town criers regarding this matter, an interesting portrait arises. If considered seriously, the existing data would mute what has become standard verse for far too many, certainly not all, educated Black women making over $50,000. According to PUMS (2019), when one focuses on higher-income Black millennials, many Black men above the $50,000 income level as their female counterparts. It appears that millennial Black women have inherited a familiar dodge that they cannot find someone who is “equally-yoked” (financially) to build a life with from previous generations of embittered Black women.

When faced with such facts, one can only wonder what excuse millennial Black women who have dominated public conversations will use to explain their difficulty finding an equally-yoked, gainfully employed Black male.

The above information should spotlight what appears to be hopelessly single millennial Black women making over $50,000. If provided the opportunity, I would ask these Black women the following questions.

  • Do you think that your single status is due to Black men deciding that you are not marriage material?
  • Where did you get the idea that there were no equally-yoked marriageable Black men?
  • Have you ever considered that the pessimism that so many millennial women wear as a badge of honor actually an allergen to the gainfully employed equally-yoked Black men that you claim to desire?

Although painful to admit, it appears that yet another generation of Black women has been socialized to be doubting Thomas’ regarding Black suitors. Unfortunately, so many of these women have allowed the experiences of their disenchanted predecessors to be pressed atop their own.

Unfortunately for millennial Black men, it appears that Ralph Ellison’s construct shockingly applies to them. Although frightening to consider, one has to wonder if there is anything that Black men could or should do to break through the glacier-like ice that encases the hearts of so many of their female counterparts?

All of this makes one wonder if the fact that only 25% of Black women will ever marry leads them to abandon the present course that appears to be inspired by the experiences of a group of disenchanted embittered Black women instead of a numerically superior group of Black women who managed to remain married to Black men for decades.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

#ManhoodRaceCulture  

African-American Women, Black Girls, RACE

Is The Sha’Carri Richardson Saga a Cautionary Tale for Young Blacks Throughout the Nation?

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When I heard that Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended from the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo due to the presence of THC in her system, I was saddened as I, along with the rest of Black America, wanted to see her bring home the gold medal. Considering all of the blows that Black America receives daily, such a moment would be yet another display of black excellence in the face of domestic and global racism. If nothing else, Richardson’s success would verify that the world I reside in, the one where Black people are at the top of the game regardless of the venue, is as real as real can get. In this world, Black people are the most important factor in how their lives unfold.

I realized long ago that many Black folks live in a much different world than the one I just described.

From afar, I have noticed that this alternative universe that so many Blacks exist in is filled with people who pursue excuses that absolve them from their all responsibility for failure. My glimpse of such a view guided my expectations that legions of Black folk would rush to social media and any other medium to do their dimwitted best to absolve Richardson of all responsibility for actions that have cost little Black girls a much-needed celebratory moment following her earning an Olympic Gold Medal. A momentary embrace of a banned substance has resulted in a three-month suspension that has been reduced to one month. Unfortunately, even the shortened suspension will prevent Richardson from competing in her signature 100-meter event, if not all events.

Anyone above the age of forty has seen this sordid tale of a notable Black athlete, actor, or politician fall from superstardom; it has occurred so regularly that it may be time for us to consider it an inevitability. What makes these situations so frustrating is that nearly all of them could have been avoided if even a modicum of common sense and discipline had been used. Yet, it never fails that legion of Blacks will rush forward with an emotionally charged effort aimed at blocking the consequences that the fallen star’s impetuous decision-making has earned.

Moments such as this one reverts my mind to age-old wisdom shared by my immediate predecessors, who repeated the mantra that in this white country, Blacks are “going to have to work twice as hard to get half as far.” One does not have to look far to find within that slice of wisdom that our ancestors believed that we were the most important factor in our success or failure. Within the Black community that I was raised in, such wisdom was standard teaching for Black children who would need confidence and a plan to avoid the snares and traps that had obstructed the path to success for more Blacks than one can imagine.

Unfortunately for Black America, it appears that at the present moment, many in our midst believe that life happens to you. Such a reactionary perspective will certainly curtail, if not prevent, them from experiencing success. One needs to look no further than the litany of Blacks who have rushed to defend Richardson for her misstep. Not even the fact that the fallen track star’s decision to take ownership of her actions, as indicated in the following statement, has prevented the excuse-makers from seeking to block the consequences of her actions.

I would like to say to my fans and my family and my sponsorship, to the haters, too, I apologize. As much as I’m disappointed, I know that when I step on that track, I don’t represent myself, I represent a community that has shown me great support, great love.

Although this is a disappointing situation, it should not be used to display the usual excuse-making that many of our people use to avoid the consequences of our actions. Doing such is a missed opportunity for Black youth to understand that there can be both positive and negative consequences to their decisions.

During this moment, Black youth must be told that they have countrymen who will oppose them and actively seek opportunities to derail them from the path to success due to their skin color. So, they must learn the do’s and don’ts of success when dealing with opponents who would love nothing more than to see them fail. The saga of Sha’Carri Richardson should be considered yet another cautionary tale that Black excellence can be compromised when a lack of knowledge and wisdom meets the absence of discipline.

Black youth need to understand that not only do their actions have consequences, but there are troubled waters that reckless behavior will lead them into that not a single Black person possesses the power to extricate them from.

A sad yet unfortunate reality. But this won’t be the last time we see this situation, especially if we keep trying to make excuses for actions that we could have easily avoided.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

#ManhoodRaceCulture