All posts by Dr. James Thomas Jones III

POLITICS, RACE

Here We Go Again: The Looming Battle for Affirmative Action — It Does Not Look Good For Black America

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There may be no more difficult lesson to teach Blacks than the following one. The battle for racial equality will never end. ­The struggle will never end, but Blacks must also be mindful that opposing forces threaten their “victories” every moment. The concept of an irreversible gain in the American political system does not exist—anyone doubting the above needs to look no further than the anticipated reversal of Affirmative Action. The Affirmative Action issue landed in front of Supreme Court Justices 44 years ago with the Regents of The University of California v. Bakke.

The looming threats to Affirmative Action display why Blacks must be more vigilant regarding Black political and legal gains. Hilary Clinton’s failure to get Blacks out to vote during an uninspiring Presidential bid will serve as the foundation for decades of challenges to hard-fought legal rights gains for Blacks and many other groups in the new millennium. The above-anticipated challenges guarantee an uphill battle for the foreseeable future.

The long-term consequences of Donald Trump’s Presidency extend further than white supremacists and conspiracy theorists’ public appearances. The most significant accomplishment of the Trump Presidency was the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Please make no mistake; today’s overwhelmingly Conservative Supreme Court will dismantle what were always tenuous rights regarding Indigenous people, the LGBTQ community, and other people of color. The most violent assault the U.S. Supreme Court can execute against Black America is the dismantling of Affirmative Action. The dreaded moment that politically astute Leftists feared was inevitable is upon us.

Only the politically naïve are shocked that the present debate over Affirmative Action nearly seven decades after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision that desegregated American schools is occurring. All surprised by this latest attack fail to recognize that a central pillar of this nation is white America’s determination to turn back the hands of time opportunely.

Challenges to Affirmative Action from places such as Harvard University and the University of North Carolina will eventually mute race as a factor in collegiate admissions. This issue of how impactful race should be in the college admissions process has been debated around for decades by Supreme Court Justices. Over time, we have witnessed opinions pivot from race being permissible to it now being a mere “plus factor” during the selection process. I fear that this latest manifestation of the U.S. Supreme Court with its three Trump nominees will deal the final blow to Affirmative Action.

Trust me when I say this is an awful moment for Black America. Yet, Black organizations and leaders have said little about this colossal development. There may be no more frustrating element to working on behalf of my people than prominent Blacks and the organizations they head remaining silent in the face of disaster. The looming attack on Affirmative Action may not be sensational enough for such people.

Yes, the battle for Affirmative Action is not as shocking as white law enforcement officers’ unjust killing of a Black man on American streets. No dramatic footage is associated with significant issues such as Affirmative Action, gerrymandering, and red lining. However, the consequences of such measures appear on the dashcam and body cam footage of law enforcement officers murdering an unknown Black man, woman, or child.

It is past that Black America abandons being so reactionary to sensational media-driven occurrences and applying a strategy toward being politically educated and astute because the failure to do so will result in Black America continually losing against well-organized adversaries. The old saying goes, “if you do what you always did, you gonna get what you always got.”

Let’s work to get racial equality; that would be different for Black America.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2022

 

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African-American Males, African-American Men, Black Males, Black Men, EDUCATION, Hip-Hop Culture, RACE, Rap Music

Kanye???? What The Fuck Was That?: Kanye Confirms What We Already Knew

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Although each of us hates to admit it, something is alluring about an automotive accident or unexpected incident that causes us to strain our necks to capture a glimpse of what is occurring. Unfortunately for those of us who love Black people, one of our own has managed to turn himself into a twenty-car crash or, better yet, a living conundrum that offers not an inkling of there ever being a solution to this walking human problem. The individual that I am referring to is Mr. Kanye West.

Not a week goes by that Mr. West does not position himself as a veritable sideshow for on-lookers to gawk at and shake their heads in disbelief. If nothing else, Mr. West deserves credit for drawing the attention of fans and critics alike via physical appearance, public statements, or outrageous personal and business relationships. My parent’s generation would dismiss Mr. West as “just a hot mess.” Mental health clinicians consider Kanye a classic example of what happens when mental illness is left unchecked for too long. A process that is exacerbated when the mentally ill can surround themselves with enablers seeking to profit financially by allowing their misery to continue.

In the latest episode of this fool is crazy for real. Mr. West is publicly proclaiming, proudly, I might add, that he “has never read a book.” This declaration comes to the chagrin of Black educators who strive daily to push against the negative impact that illiteracy has on Black America. Making matters worse, Mr. West’s declaration indirectly mars the legacy of his beloved mother, Donda, an English Professor.

As if Mr. West’s prideful declaration of having never read a book were not enough for this week’s Kanye tragedy, he doubled down on his idiocy by informing the world of his plans to open a school, the Donda Academy, on land owned by hip-hop artist Young Thug; a figure currently imprisoned due to a host of criminal charges too numerous to list.

Unfortunately, one of the foremost consequences of Kanye West losing touch with reality some time ago is that he has lost any understanding of collectivism. Somewhere along the way, Mr. West, and those of his ilk, abandoned the classic hip-hop mantra of “we all, we got” in favor of a self-centered “I gotta get mine’s, you gotta get yours” self-serving Capitalist ethos. A position that weakens us all in the end.

I have tired of questioning if figures such as Kanye West understand how an utterance such as “I have never read a book” impacts, Black children. I refuse to spend a moment of my time analyzing why Mr. West felt the need to avoid reading or felt compelled to reveal this cavernous flaw for all to see. My efforts are better served by being aimed at making the world a better place for our children to flourish than seeking to unravel what is in Kanye’s mind.

Unfortunately, a portion of Black America has made the conscious decision to travel the same road that Kanye has chosen, meaning to avoid reading or illuminating the mind through something beyond a conspiracy-laced YouTube video or lowbrow podcast devoid of much substance. It is time that someone labeled such individuals as enemies of our people and efforts to liberate Black America. You know those I am speaking of; they are not indifferent to education but hostile to learning.

Trust me when I say that those who choose to travel down the road that Mr. West has admittedly traveled by shunning the gifts/talents and the work needed to hone those gifts will regret their choice. Unbeknownst to such people, the fact that America moved away from a manufacturing economy to a service and technology economy long ago is lost on them. The decision of segments of Black America not to adapt to these changes will be their death.

I am ultimately left with nothing more to say to Mr. West than the words of DeRay Davis in his best Bernie Mac voice,

Kanye, what the fuck was that…

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2022

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You can always contact me at ManhoodRaceCulture@gmail.com with ideas and issues that you would like to have addressed.

 

 

African-American Men

What Have They Ever Done For You?: A Black Man’s View of Blacks Mourning of Queen Elizabeth II

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I guess that the saying ignorance is bliss remains the unofficial motto of many within Black America. This space is too small of an area to offer a severe recitation of what is best termed Black foolishness. Far too often, ignorance of historical matters has ushered my people centerstage for those guided by logic to wonder what they are doing. The fawning of Black folk over Queen Elizabeth II death is the latest display of total ignorance of the historical record.

Unfortunately, I am hard-pressed to recall the expiring of any day without encountering some form of Black foolishness born from preventable ignorance. There may be no more succinct display of how non-illuminating the American educational system has been on the minds of Blacks than the way that so many Blacks have rushed forward to offer condolences and varying levels of sympathy for the deceased Queen of England.

Anyone with a surface-level understanding of Britain’s centrality to chattel slavery’s establishment in the West must be bewildered by the descendants of enslaved Africans expressing sympathy for Queen Elizabeth II. It is not a stretch to assert that such condolences are akin to fondly remembering what Queen Elizabeth II represents and what she oversaw until her death. The reaction of some Blacks is the latest in a series of moments that brings validity to Malcolm X’s over a half-century old, yet still applicable, characterization of his dumbed-down people. According to Malcolm,

Ya been had!
Ya been took!
Ya been hoodwinked!
Bamboozled!
Led astray!

If he were alive, Malcolm would be disappointed, yet unsurprised, that his verbal litany remains applicable today.

Startling historical illiteracy is the only reasonable explanation for Blacks’ tears over Queen Elizabeth II. If nothing else, it reveals astonishing historical illiteracy birthed by the American public school system and nurtured by Black America’s failure to educate Black children. In the version of “history” that Blacks saddened by Queen Elizabeth II’s passing believe, there is no linkage between Britain and slavery. There is no exploitation of stolen Africans for their bodies, sexual organs, labor, skill, and knowledge, or the decision that the African would be a “slave” for the entirety of his life on the North American continent. There is nothing in the above listing of crimes against humanity for persons of African descent to celebrate unless they have become “white-minded,” meaning they have somehow managed to view historical events through the lens of a European.

Unfortunately for Black America, it is common to find Blacks who actively seek to ignore the historical record. Such people have refused to read historical texts and foolishly attempt to secure a psychological comfort that has eluded persons of African descent since they arrived in the Jamestown Colony in 1619. In many ways, the decision to ignore a brutal historical past in pursuit of an unachievable peace with those who have exploited them proves some Blacks to be unwise cowards contributing to their oppression.

Sadly, such people are plentiful. One may need to look no further than any news station to find the fools I am addressing, hopefully not a mirror.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.
©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2022

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You can always contact me at ManhoodRaceCulture@gmail.com with ideas and issues that you would like to have addressed.

African-American History, POLITICS

Have The Chickens Come Home to Roost?: Why Contemporary Black Activists Behave as if They Have No Understanding of Revolutionary Struggle

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In August Wilson’s play The Piano Lesson, the character Doaker issues the following quip about time and how there is no way to stop it. According to Doaker, “Time go long, time go long.” For each of us, “time is the only thing that God ain’t making no more of.” Yet, questions regarding the evaporation of time rarely extend beyond biological deterioration; as we age, our bodies change. A student’s comment pushed me beyond that limited understanding of the impact of time.

During a recent discussion of Marlon T. Riggs’ Ethnic Notions, for a reason I cannot recall, a failing that I attribute to the impact of time on my mind, I was responding to a student’s question of “What occurred after JFK was killed in Dallas?” I proceeded to mention Kennedy’s vice-president Lyndon Baines Johnson’s, commonly termed LBJ, impact on Black America by signing the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965). To my dismay, an unknowing student raised his hand and asked, “What does LeBron James have to do with this?” Initially, I did not understand the comment. However, after a few moments, I realized this young man associated the initials LBJ with NBA superstar LeBron James, not President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

 

I place the blame for such disassociation from the US History record on a host of culprits whose actions ensure that Black youth will fail to achieve the success levels of their parents or even grandparents.

Not a semester expires where a student does not attempt to drive home the silly notion that any occurrence before 2000 is “back in the day” and irrelevant to their tenuous present or uncertain future. The inherent dangers of such thinking disassociate African American youth from a past filled with vital information regarding survival strategies their ancestors used to weather the storms of life in a nation that many call a white man’s country.

Not a semester goes by that I am not saddened by African American students’ historical ignorance and illiteracy. Beyond the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks, Black students tend not to know other Civil Rights icons such as Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Hamer, or even a surface-level understanding of Black Nationalist icons Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, or Assata Shakur.

Truthfully, when I see one of my young charges with a T-shirt emblazoned with the image of Tupac Amaru Shakur (2Pac) or Christopher Wallace (The Notorious BIG), my spirit is lifted. However, when I realize that something as familiar as a T-shirt purchased from Target is no reason to believe that the one it adorns is politicized or revolutionary-minded.

Conservatives have successfully executed long-range goals to control what books are allowed in the libraries of American classrooms ensuring that African American children will continue languishing in a worsening purgatory locked away from their documented historical past. Making matters worse, Black organizations that should be opposing such attacks remain mired in ineffectual reactionary protests that fail to even hint at liberating Black America. Present-day activists can’t teach aspiring young activists about revolutionary struggle because relevant experience displays how little they know about the activity.

I agree with Huey P. Newton’s assertion that the revolution belongs to the young. However, I fear post-Civil Rights activists and groups’ failure regarding how to fight leaves aspiring new millennium activists with the necessary tools.

Far too often, Black activism presents itself as a one-trick pony of reactionary public protests and riotous behavior. Opponents of Black rights must react with glee when they see the old playbook and strategies in the hands of a new generation. Those who seek to increase their freedom quotient by snatching away Black rights have also used a predictable yet highly effective playbook that goes as follows.

  • Donate money to political campaigns.
  • Volunteer for political campaigns.
  • Run candidates that view the world through your lens.
  • Holding the elected officials’ feet to the fire once they’re elected.

As stated above, this is a familiar playbook that any group, regardless of Race/ethnicity seeking to increase its access to power, has implemented for decades.

One can only wonder when unfortunate Black traditions such as phrase-mongering, rioting, and reactionary activism give way to tried-and-true uplift activities that other groups have implemented to ascend out of their marginalized socio-economic position. Such activism is effective yet, considered relatively mundane as it is devoid of public performance and theater. If Black leaders abandoned their propensity to talk so much and modeled a traditional grassroots activism, the African American collegians that I lecture to daily would have some understanding of from whence they come and an inkling of where they should head.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2022

 

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You can contact me at ManhoodRaceCulture@gmail.com with ideas and issues you would like to address.

RACE

THE FERGUSON EFFECT: Yet Another Ridiculous Explanation of Black Suffering

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Although many may consider the decision to frequent news outlets representing the views of the Far Left through the Christian Right to be odd, however, I believe that we must make the engagement of differing viewpoints a routine activity. During a recent foray into the realm of Conservative thinkers, I encountered an unusual term, “The Ferguson Effect.” I am sure that you are as oblivious to this phraseology as I was prior to this chance encounter.  Put simply; it is Conservative’s most recent attempt to explain away escalating numbers of Black murders.  

According to Hannah Meyers, Director of the Manhattan Institute’s policing and public safety initiative, the Ferguson Effect occurs when local law enforcement officers react to heightened anger from Blacks by refusing to protect and serve Black communities.  

According to Hannah Meyers, “the protests and riots mid-2020 after the death of George Floyd followed a pattern of spiking violence that we’ve seen following past viral police incidents, such as the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray… police pull back while violent crime spikes precipitously.” 

In the alternative universe that Conservative thinkers reside, escalating murders within Black America are not attributable to traditional social problems such as economic poverty, inferior education, and limited job opportunities. Such logical explanations are not accommodated by The Ferguson Effect. Instead of such traditional explanations, Conservatives have begun blaming increasing Black murders on what they believe to be a wicked Black Lives Matter created fiasco that begins with efforts to defund the police; a group that BLM activists have made analogous to an occupying Army.  

If recent FBI data is accurate, there is no room to argue against the seriousness of the recent spike in murders of Black people. According to FBI reports there has been a 32% increase in Black murders from 2019 to 2020.  

  • 7,484 Black people were murdered in 2019 
  • 9,941 Black people were murdered in 2020 

For those who are paying close attention to the above figures, 2,500 more Blacks were murdered in 2020 versus 2019. Just as troubling is the fact that over the previous decade (2010 – 2019) an average of 6,927 Blacks were murdered. It is astonishing that when compared to the average of the prior decade, 2020 marks a 43% increase in Black murders.  

Although there is scant room to argue against FBI data, there are major holes to be found in Conservative thinkers’ assertion that the root cause of the shocking increase in Black murders is attributable to Black Lives Matter and the push to defund the police. Such sly politically motivated half-truths are a familiar tactic by American Conservatives seeking to discredit efforts to address racial inequities while advancing a political agenda dedicated to furthering the politico-economic powerlessness of Black people.  

The assertion that efforts to defund the police are in any way the catalyst behind increased Black suffering is the height of foolishness. In fact, if advocates of The Ferguson Effect are correct that in the wake of Black murders that somehow become viral that local law enforcement officers are deciding to “pull back” their patrolling responsibilities, defunding the police is reasonable.  

After all, what good are these public servants when they decide on a routine basis to not serve the very people whose tax dollars allow them to exist in this nation with some semblance of dignity. 

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D. 

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2022 

 

Please remember to subscribe to the Manhood, Race, and Culture YouTube Channel. 

 

You can always contact me at ManhoodRaceCulture@gmail.com