A Black Man’s Guide to Overcoming America

Reality has spoken; Black men natural-born in the United States are an objective on the agendas of many institutions. From the cradle to the grave, each American institution have ready-made labels and stigmas that flag Black men as either irresponsible, dangerous, or unproductive. Though many Black men have proven these labels wrong, the stigma never goes away but is magnified time and again.

Whites are not totally to blame for these inhumane images, but sad to say, many Black men themselves fulfill the labels by simply believing in or accepting them unawares. If referred to often enough as projecting a certain behavior, most people will automatically behave that way out of either spite or rebellion. In other words, Black men have been socially conditioned.

Proving these images wrong is not enough because whites themselves have been socially condition from generation to generation to believe and indirectly promote social negatives about Black men, so Black men will always war against this negativity.

Instead of exerting our energy in proving the images wrong, Black men must do nothing more than live life day by day. However, in our day-to-day, we must know what traps have been laid and are recorded by various institutions that attach these negative images and behaviors. Below are list of the basic behaviors white America (and other socially conditioned minorities) have come to expect from Black men.

In Educational Institutions Black men are expected to:
1.    Be less motivated
2.    Not take school seriously
3.    Be slow learners
4.    Have behavioral problems
5.    Drop out

In the work force Black men are expected to:
1.    Steal product
2.    Be late for work
3.    Be slothful (lazy)
4.    Find ways to get out of work
5.    Do or sale drugs

As a family man Black men are expected to:
1.    Not support their children
2.    Leave their wives (for white women)
3.    Have babies by different women

As a citizen Black men are expected to:
1.    Commit crimes
2.    Become violent at times
3.    Carry  a gun
4.    Sale drugs (use drugs)
5.    Rape white women
6.    Join Al Qaeda (new)

Rather one believes this list or not, it is true. These are characteristics that whites have been taught throughout the generations, even to the point where Black men have been convicted and sentenced for without actually committing the act or as scapegoats to white criminals. Remedies to these characteristics would naturally be the opposite, which would be:

In Educational Institutions Black men should:
1.    Focus
2.    Pursue
3.    Complete
4.    Behave
5.    Graduate

In the work force Black men should:
1.    Save money
2.    Increase learning
3.    Start a business
4.    Be there everyday

As a family man Black men should:
1.    Love their wife
2.    Love and respect their Black woman
3.    Love their children

As a citizen Black men should:
1.    Live honest
2.    Ignore foolishness
3.    Carry concealed legally
4.    Distribute knowledge
5.    Ignore white women
6.    Join (start) a community group

As stated before, even though a Black man does all these things, the negative images will remain prominent in society as long as whites continue to battle their inward demons and fears of Black men. And even though many Black men already do these things yet have not received the respect they should, we should continue and go a step further to begin classes for our young Black men in every urban area to learn.

After reading the list of expected behaviors, many will contend that they may know Black men who do these things on their own and actually possess these characteristics. Most people will not attribute any of the characteristics to other races or people in general. But they would believe these characteristics as most fitting for Black men, which is the result of social conditioning.

Reasons behind Black men (or any man) that possess either of the negatives should come as common knowledge and basic understanding of human nature. However, Americans have been dumb down and are not taught to think toward individual characteristics but stereotypical and selfish ones, i.e., we cannot attribute these behaviors to others or ourselves because society aims these negatives mostly at Black men.

Human nature says that when people are positioned in certain environments, they will exhibit certain behaviors. But this logic is not applied when the above social negatives are publically displayed. However, in the case of Black men where education is concerned, most young Black men are disconnected from the basic educational curricula such as American history, politics, and the English language. Though the subjects are easy enough to comprehend, young Blacks could actually care less because the curriculum does not represent their own culture and history. It is not that Blacks cannot learn; it is the resentment toward the subjects they are forced to learn.

Throughout America’s schooling history, Blacks have been forced to study their own oppression in addition to the so-called successes of Europe and white America. And over the years, this revelation, over and over, generation after generation has not only indoctrinated most Blacks into a semi-slave mentality, but instilled an anger against the general white society that surfaces later in life in forms of rebellion or indifference against that society.

Likewise, it is not that Blacks are lazy and do not want to work, but Blacks are again resentful for the positions pre-assigned to them in the workforce. It is not that Blacks are natural-born thieves, but when they see whites acquiring wealth seemingly much easier than themselves, while they struggle against racism and prejudice and false notions of opportunity, they seek out ways to make things easier by getting over.

Blacks have always fought against the system where their families are concerned; from separation of families during slavery to the social systems of today. Holding together a family as a Black man is more difficult than anyone (even Black women) realize, especially because of the expectations of Black men in relation to their families, which seem to magnify greater over the years seeing the state of the Black family today.

Raising children in the Black world has become even more difficult for Black men and women and the social stigma of Black families have also brought a prophetic destruction to the Black race. Thus, it is not that Blacks do not desire to raise and love their children, but social pressures, vices, and uncompromising political and legal situations have forced the Black man to make hard choices, choices that white men rarely face.

Where white men have jobs basically given to them, Black men have to compete and prove themselves first only to receive the lowest of the jobs in the market. In addition, Black men with education, skills and experience come second to white women, which is an unspoken reality. 

As an American citizen, Black men are the targets of mostly every system that leads into the justice system, stemming anywhere from school detention to legal judgments to traffic tickets to criminal charges and eventually to prison. Black men are looked upon as suspect in many areas rather they want to believe it or not.

Black men are white society’s default suspects. We are watched, tracked, tailed, followed, monitored all for the sake of whites having a reason to justify and have a scapegoat for their own criminalities. We are up against a cruel and sneaky people and must know what tactics they use against us. We cannot live in America as dumb animals believing that we are “equal” to their own image of themselves.

Though we are a people of our own caliber, we learn, think, and understand life differently and not as they do. The more we attempt to learn and think like them and the way they expect us too, we will never be able to perfect the people we truly are. We are where we are because this is not our land and these are not our thoughts, our history, neither our natural characteristics. We simply cannot be them.

We must develop an understanding behind our characteristics and behaviors and resist those of his expectations. These feats take reaching deep within ourselves and discovering what we truly believe, desire, and know to be true. Thus, the Black man’s guide to surviving America is to be who you are, not what they want you to be.