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“Didn’t You know that Being Black and Poor Came At A Cost “: The Sad Saga of Bryce Gowdy and the “Hell Hounds” on the Trail of Poor Black Folk

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Far too often we ignore profound messages because of their source. I have consciously attempted to avoid this trap and be receptive to poignant communications that possess the potential to illuminate my constantly evolving understanding of life. It has served me well.

While reading about the heartbreaking suicide of Georgia Tech football recruit Bryce Gowdy, 17, the words of hip-hop emcee Big K.R.I.T. came to mind. The famed rapper’s admonishment that “being Black and poor comes at a cost” unfortunately serves as theme music for far too many Blacks struggling against the grip of poverty and the misery it delivers in our minds and souls. Of course, for Black America, the path to poverty is a multi-lane toll road laden expressway with myriad exits and even more potholes.

It is difficult to argue against the assertion that the foremost by-product of the grinding costs of “being Black and poor” is an ever-increasing pressure. Trust me when I say that the alluded to “pressure” causes instability and unpredictably within those that it afflicts. The great poet Langston Hughes asked in his poem Harlem what happens to a Dream Deferred? Does it sag like a heavy load or does it explode? 

Only those who have dealt with the mounting pressure of being “Black and poor” have an inkling of an understanding of why Bryce Gowdy, a young man scheduled to enroll at Georgia Tech on a “full-ride athletic scholarship” this week, committed suicide via a freight train. For Gowdy, Charles Dickens’ words that “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” ring true as this young man whose family was in the throes of homelessness was on the brink of leaving all of that behind.

In retrospect, it appears as if Gowdy was being pursued by the same “hell hounds” that pursued famed Blues guitarist Robert Johnson.

The alluded to “hell hounds” that attach themselves to so many within our community birth “social ills” such as alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, depression, and promiscuity among those that they doggedly pursue. If nothing else, these addictions and evils provide those desperately seeking a reprieve from a hellish existence brief shelter.

In hindsight, it is obvious that Bryce Gowdy’s “hell hounds” caused a psychological break that birthed a desperate search for meaning in life. Shibbon Mitchell, Bryce’s mother, shared one of her final interactions with her child in the following statement.

Better days for Bryce and his mother

A few days ago, Bryce was talking crazy…he kept talking about the signs and symbols he was seeing. He kept saying he could see people for who they really are…He had a lot of questions about spirituality and life. He kept asking if I was going to be okay if his brothers were going to be okay.   

Although most Black males being pursued by “hell hounds” suffer in silence, Gowdy’s circumstances were different as others outside of his family were aware of his struggles. Jevon Glenn, Gowdy’s high school football coach, illuminates this young man’s burdensome situation. According to Glenn,

He had what looked like the opportunity of a lifetime to most kids, but he felt a burden and we talked about it that he’d be going off to Georgia Tech to stability, to free room and board, not worrying about food or money or anything like that. But he’d be leaving his mother and brothers in an unstable situation.

Bryce Gowdy’s situation is not rare. In fact, it is a fairly typical depiction of “the cost of being Black and poor” in America. It is a grind that whittles even the strongest in our midst down to pitiful caricatures of their former selves.

In the wake of this young man’s untimely demise, questions regarding why no one intervened on his behalf are natural. Anyone who has ever had “hell hounds on their trail” will tell you that questions prove how little some people know about this situation. They certainly do not understand that this problem of all-consuming grinding poverty does not cease until a seemingly inevitable psychological break occurs.

Unfortunately for Black America, Bryce Gowdy was not the first young African-American male to find the price of being “Black and poor” too much to bear and he will definitely not be the last. All that any of us can hope for right now is that he has found the peace that eluded him during his earthly existence.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III 

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2020.

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Slowing the Rising Price of Being Black and Poor: Why it is Crucial that Blacks Become Politically Astute

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There is little doubt that in the upcoming battle for the White House that in the words of De La Soul “the stakes are high.”

Like all other political seasons, this moment mandates that economically marginalized populations (working-class, the poor, and a tenuously positioned middle-class) be prepared for a major, yet never-ending battle in the larger war for resources in America. It is late in the game for non-elites to believe that this nation has any concern for its citizenry.

The most disturbing aspect of the current political season is the continuation of what can be appropriately termed an astounding disengagement from the process among Blacks. The alluded to disengagement emanates from disparate segments of Black America. While many Black Christians place their hopes in the unchanging hand of God, African-American women busy themselves viewing reality television shows and Black men watch professional sports as if their lives depend on it.

From my perspective, the most troubling politically disengaged Black populace are contemporary Black Nationalists, many of them operating in the name of the Black Panther Party. In many ways, the decision of aspiring Panthers to avoid the political arena reveals an astounding lack of understanding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense legacy. I am certain that Fred Hampton, the Chairman of the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party, is rolling in his grave as wannabe Panthers pose with armaments while phrase-mongering to anyone in their vicinity. Sadly, such groups are so engrossed in such foolishness that they have by-passed Chairman Fred’s call for political engagement delivered in his observation that “war is nothing but politics with bloodshed and politics is nothing but war without bloodshed.”

The decision of huge swaths of Black America, including self-proclaimed leaders, to not engage the political process reduces to a putrid, yet familiar, smell of unadulterated cowardice, confusion, and inefficiency. It is an all too familiar, if not favored fragrance of Black America.

At a crisis moment such as this, I am astounded by how many African-Americans have no desire to understand the political arena. Such people do not understand that it is the political arena that sets the price of “being black and poor.”

In many ways, Black America’s failure to engage the political process is tantamount to surrendering prior to a minor skirmish, well before a major battle.

Although my lack of faith in the majority of Black America becoming politically astute flows from several places, I am convinced that this matter boils down to a daunting belief by Blacks that they have no power and therefore do not matter in this nation. Such a perspective feeds into the squandering of a legitimate ownership claim for this nation; a claim that was earned via our ancestor’s blood, sweat, and tears. Make no mistake about it, the ownership claim of persons of African descent begins with their arrival to the Jamestown colony and therefore predates the founding of this nation. Yet, at the present moment where political engagement is needed, far too many Blacks refuse to move, yet stand prepared to complain loudly when the cost of being poor and Black is raised to an even more burdensome level.

Although I am not foolish enough to believe that the lack of political engagement is not the sole reason behind the misery and suffering of Blacks, however, I am sane enough to realize that it is a contributing factor in that process.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.

African-American History

KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON: WHY I AM SO INSPIRED BY A PHOTO TAKEN ON THE WHITNEY PLANTATION

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Eric Morris is one of my dearest friends in the world. In many ways, our lives have been on parallel tracks. We attended the same schools, however never sat in the same classrooms as he was a year my senior, the same church, and our beloved mothers actually sat next to each other every Sunday on the same pew, listening to the same word of God via the Rev. Archie Johnson and the Rev. Dr. Johnny R. Heckard.

Yet, we are opposites in regards to our personalities. While Eric is an extrovert capable of engaging anyone, I am solidly in the camp of ambiverts, an introvert around unfamiliar settings and people and an extrovert around close friends and a few family members. I’ll tell you the truth. There were times when I thought that Eric’s life mission was to poke, prod, and provide commentary regarding everything that he encountered, particularly my stoic demeanor.

I remember the following question as if it were presented to me yesterday. In his joyful, yet inquisitive manner, Eric articulated the following.

Man, let me ask you something. Why are you so serious You don’t drink, you don’t smoke, all that you do is read, write, and think. Hell, what do you do for fun Many you are way too serious about life. 

Of all of our thousands of verbal exchanges this inquiry stands as a prominent memory for a host of reasons. Within this question I found a description of myself — I have actually never had a drink of alcohol or smoked anything (I was frightened by what would occur if I used any type of drugs because addiction runs in my family), yet it simultaneously show that even my closest friends never realized that my actions were aimed at fulfilling a directive my mother and the surrounding Black community provided early in my life. If I had to put this directive in words, it would be stated in the following way.

You are our soldier and your primary duty is to engage and defeat the adversary at every turn through any methods available. This is a life’s work that will only be accomplished via the total dedication of your life.    

I will tell you the truth; there is not a period in my life that was not dedicated to fulfilling this Herculean task. I was motivated by the fact that there was work to do, people to save, others to inspire, and the sacrifice of my life was not too big of an ask.   

This calling serves as propulsion for my lectures and the unyielding demand that I be referred to as DR. JAMES THOMAS JONES III. Despite what many may think about the fact that I will not respond to anything other than Dr. Jones, the truth of the matter is that this demand flows from an interaction with an elderly Black lady who approached me on my campus and related how it lifted her spirits to see that “Black folk are now called Doctor this and Doctor that. Y’all keep on keepin’ on. I love it!!!!!!!”

This pivotal moment in my life has risen to the forefront of my mind due to my own “keep on keeping on” moment. I recently viewed a group of medical students from Tulane University posing for a photo on the Whitney Plantation. Sydney Labat, one of the students in the photo, provided the following caption for the powerful moment.  

Standing in front of the slave quarters of our ancestors, at the Whitney Plantation, with my medical school classmates. We are truly our ancestors’ wildest dreams.

I can only speak for myself in stating that there is no more fulfilling occurrence than when a student reaches a significant marker in their lives be it graduation, entrepreneurship, marriage, etc. and continues a path of ascension that I know makes our ancestors say “Keep on keepin’ on.”

I salute these future medical doctors and all young people for their steadfast determination to engage and conquer the many obstacles standing between their current station and ultimate destination. I pray that they remember that this entire world is in desperate need of their contributions and counting on their success as it serves as yet another dose of wind that educators such as myself will use to stay afloat in the arduous struggle to continue the historical struggle to throw up roads to success where there has previously not been any road or light.

Keep on keepin’ on y’all.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.    

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RICHARD G. HATCHER: A LIFE OF POLITICAL LESSONS THAT BLACK AMERICA CONTINUES TO IGNORE

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I have attempted to make sense out of Black America’s deafening silence regarding the death of Richard G. Hatcher, the first Black mayor of Gary, Indiana. In many ways, this silence is yet another reminder that far too many Blacks have little understanding of a historical record that holds indispensable lessons regarding what will and what will not work in the struggle for Black liberation.

If nothing else, Black America should know who Richard G. Hatcher and Carl B. Stokes, the first Black Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, as they were living symbols of a “Black Power” politic that failed to uplift Black America from an all too familiar position of economic marginality.

Those well-versed in a volatile identity politic driven 1960s that witnessed Richard Hatcher and Carl B. Stokes’ election as the first Black men to lead major American cities will tell you that by the mid-sixties non-Southern Black activist communities had abandoned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. non-violent civil disobedience and pursuit of integration with a hostile White community in favor of a yet to be fully defined “Black Power” politic.

There is no more prominent example of shifting political winds than the fact that the Watts Rebellion began August 11, 1965, a mere five days after President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. While many Americans displayed optimism regarding a potential path to racial reconciliation, Black America abandoned gradualism in favor of an impatient Black Power politic. Black Powerites rallied behind one of two goals.

  • The overthrow of America via revolutionary action.
  • The seizing of central cities via political participation and economic solidarity.  

Ironically, the vanguard organization of the 1960s, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would travel down both of these paths during their existence.  

While outlandish Black Powerites issued threats that they had no power to execute, Richard G. Hatcher became the Mayor of Gary, Indiana. 

Parliament beautifully articulates this unprecedented moment as the arrival of “Chocolate cities and Vanilla suburbs.” This moment of Black political hope was born of equal parts White flight and Black political naïveté.

The ascension of Black men to political power in cities such as Gary, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Atlanta was a test case regarding the utility of the vote. Unfortunately for Blacks, this test of political theory would prove that there was not much that Black Mayor’s could do to reverse the steep economic decline each of these embattled cities would experience.      

Gary, Indiana, much like Maynard Jackson’s Atlanta, suffered mightily as a result of the racial slur that it was now a Black city. While White citizens fled the central city, they carried their businesses and much-needed taxable income with them. It soon became apparent that not even the election of a Black Mayor could significantly alter the fortunes of Black urbanites. During a late-seventies interview, Hatcher addressed the worsening struggles of cities such as Gary in the following way.   

There’s almost a vested interest among a lot of powerful business people, the tax assessors and other county officials who keep business taxes low here, in proving that a city run by a black will fail.

Unfortunately for Blacks who dedicated their lives to expressing “Black Power” via electoral participation, it became increasingly clear that such efforts were incapable of staving off poverty, violence, or other social maladies that flowed from the river of economic inequality.

In the wake of his ascension to the apex of local politics, Hatcher shared lessons learned during the journey. According to Hatcher, there was no balm for the suffering that the ‘powerless’ experienced at the hand of “affluent elements of our society.” In fact, this nation’s central cities were nothing more than “repositories for the poor, the Black, the Latin, the elderly.” Hatcher now understood that such groups were incapable of accomplishing significant change. Hatcher now believed that the only hope for meaningful change would occur via a coalition of liberals, Black Powerites, and radical Whites who were truly committed to concepts such as “power to the people.”

Unfortunately, it appears that such concepts are as meaningless to present society as the death of Richard G. Hatcher, a man whose political life once held so much promise. 

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.

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WHY 50 CENT’S ATTACK ON OPRAH SAYS SO MUCH ABOUT HOW LITTLE BLACK MEN AND WOMEN SUPPORT PROGRESSIVE BLACK WOMEN

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Before an attentive global audience, famed comedian Chris Rock simultaneously shocked Whites and angered Blacks by airing a portion of Black America’s “dirty laundry” before “mixed company.” According to Rock,

There is a Civil War going on within Black America between Black folk and niggas. And niggas have got to go!!!!!!!

Unbeknownst to Whites, Blacks regularly discuss this risqué topic in the privacy of their homes, barbershops, during Black-only happy hour gatherings and church meetings.

An attentive listener would realize that Rock’s riveting commentary touched on only one of the many “Civil Wars” occurring within Black America. Politically astute Blacks can attest to the fact that at any given moment there are many “Civil Wars” occurring within a non-monolithic Black community. This understanding of the never-ending in-fighting within Black America makes the recent attack of Oprah Winfrey by rapper 50 Cent understandable.

In case you missed it, 50 Cent took the famed talk show host to task for inconsistencies in her #MeToo activism.

From the hip-hop icon’s perspective, Oprah has chosen to attack Black men such as Michael Jackson and Russell Simmons while remaining quiet as a mouse regarding White men deserving of her attention.

According to 50 Cent,

I don’t understand why Oprah is going after black men. No Harvey Weinstein, No Epstein, just Michael Jackson and Russell Simmons this … is sad.

If nothing else, this matter provides insight into how many Black men view the duties of “their sisters” as they seek to navigate this White Man’s world.

The alluded to men harbor a dogged belief that at their best, Black women serve as “helpmeets” whose sole purpose is to aid them along this path called life. These women sacrifice themselves for the good of the Race without any expectation of reciprocity. Although such demands may appear selfish, the truth of the matter is that the alluded to self-centeredness is informed by a historical record rife with Black mothers, grandmothers, girlfriends, aunts, daughters, and acquaintances effortlessly sacrificing lives and muting hopes and dreams for the men that they adore.

Make no mistake about it, when Whites attack Black men, there is a natural expectation that Black women will rush to the front of the line to defend Black men. Ironically, the above expectations are not lessened when Black women are the victims of some Black male’s brazen attack. For far too long, Black men have taken it as a given that Race trumps gender in the minds of Black women. Far too often, Black women have served as a willing sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered at opportune moments for the benefit of all others.

Although frightening, it is nevertheless true that many Black men mirror 50 Cent’s thoughts in believing that Black women are little more than a tool to be used to advance personal political agendas. Behind closed doors, it is not considered boorish for Black men to demand that Black women settle into a depressing intellectual slum that promotes Black male interests while muting the concerns and interests of Black women.

One needs to look no further than 50 Cent’s commentary to understand that many Blacks consider Oprah Winfrey a traitor to the Race. Such thinking beckons Black America to a time where racial solidarity was essential to survival. Unfortunately for those harboring such thoughts, many Black women have vacated “their place” and take definitive steps toward advancing an agenda centered on “Black women issues”; interests that may not benefit Black men directly.

There may be no clearer sign that many Black men are participating in a Civil War against Black women such as Oprah Winfrey who seek to take Black men to task for their actions against their “sisters”. Unfortunately, it does not appear that there are many Black men interested in aiding Black women as they seek to ascend out of a marginalized position that has historically been so marginal that Malcolm X termed them “the most disrespected person on the planet.” Even the most optimistic among us must concede that far too many Black men appear to have at best a loose alliance and fleeting interest in the plight of Black women.

And in the words of 50 Cent, “that is … sad.”

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.   

Committed to investigating, examining, and representing the African-American male, men, and manhood by offering commentary regarding the status of Black Men and Black Manhood as it relates to African-American Manhood, Race, Class, Politics, and Culture from an educated and authentic African-American perspective aimed at improving the plight of African-American men and African-American Manhood in regards to Politics, Culture, Education, and Social Matters.