Black Men, Where There Is No Head

The Tail Becomes Out Of Control

I often recall growing up in Plains, with that came a sense of country living mingled with a small town atmosphere. I recalled my uncle Judson raising chickens, as did many black families during the 70's, my uncle had different domesticated life stock as well.. Some were used for the day's meal. As a young boy I witnessed how the process of preparing an animal for dinner was done. One particular occasion my uncle took a hen to a makeshift table and proceeded to decapitate the hen with a large knife. As he made the quick strike about the neck, (as humanely as possible) the hen jump from the table headless in disarray, I watched as the hen jumped and flapped its wings about the ground. I said to me "This chicken is out of control" As I got older I began to see a similarity in the chicken incident when one looks at a dysfunctional family. One in which there is no father in the house. Among 20 households in the black community 15 are headed by a female alone, according to the SHOT Foundation. To solve any problem you must always go back to the root cause that has our women in the condition we find them.

The problem stems back over 400 years ago in the making and braking of a slave. When studying the scars of slavery. Black male responsibility to his family was not a priority on the plantation. First priority was loyalty to the slave master by breeding Blacks like animals. Many were forced to mate with women based on body type, size and strength to bring about a well conditioned specimen for proper field work. The breeding process was no different than that of breeding a horse. He had no responsibility to provide for neither the child nor the mother. All of them were property to the slave master.

A1963 government study done by the Kerner Commission showed that the social, psychological and economic condition of the Black man today is a carryover from slavery and the condition of Blacks as people is worst today than they were post slavery. When an entire people have suffered such horrors as that of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade with 400 years of mind altering oppression and suppression; there is no way on earth such brutality can be overcome in150 years.

Although many women today have had to bear the responsibility of raising their children alone, God did not put in you what he put in men to raise your male children. I'll admit many of you have done an excellent job, but when you look at the condition of the young black male, we have to acknowledge something is terribly wrong. A 2006 study done by the Shot Foundation showed some 20,000 homicides in the US. About 9,000 or 46% of those were committed by black males on black males between the ages 18- 32. That's extremely high as compared to the percentage of Blacks in the population. More black males are killed in the US in one year, than the total number of US soldiers killed in Iraq in five years. 1 out of 21 Black males are likely to be murdered. Black males in the US comprise the highest incarceration rate than any other country in the world. There are 1.1 million Black men imprisoned in the U.S. That incarceration rate is greater than all incarcerated black males around the world combined. Although it is an internal problem in the black community, the system is designed against us and many of us are pawns in the hands of an enemy who is compounding the problem. Sixty seven percent of black children are born out of wedlock.

The Great Depression of the 30s brought many Black women out of the home into the workforce. This caused an even greater breakdown of the traditional structure of the family. Many women have now become so independent that most will not fathom the idea of male authority in the home. In the state of mind that this male generation is in, I can understand the rationale. The Black man must be raised up out of the condition he is in so that he can be respected, not by ethnic groups but by the Black woman. The church at one time was a strong foundation for that purpose, but you no longer find Black men there. The churches are filled with majority women.

If we are a 150 years out of the condition of slavery and our condition as a people is getting worst then will they find rufuge in the churches? We at N.U.B.I.A offer you solutions. Black men you are the head of your household; without you the family is out-of-control.