Recently, my college friends and myself were discussing a recent article in Vibe magazine on the experiences of a flamboyantly gay man at Morehouse College, and the response of the school’s president. I shared the two articles with family and friends, and the inevitable question “what has happened to black men?” came up. It seems clear to me that the main things which have happened are the reasons I despise Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan. The war on poverty brought us welfare, which pushed a lot of black men from homes in the name of easy (or easier) money. That was Johnson. Reagan escalated the war on drugs, which further devastated the black family, especially the black males. Can anyone really claim that it is better for a black guy to be locked up for smoking or selling weed, rather than going to a community college and getting himself a job some day? Is controlling what someone does with his own body so very important? Is promoting the creation of drug gangs, then promoting the increase in the intrusiveness and violence of policing something we can really describe as “good?”
Because of these two factors, black men have fewer male role models. Many men emulate their mothers, unsurprising, as so many men are reared without fathers. Some of those mothers are educated, so that is fine as far as education goes. These men will pursue education. But they do not act like men. This is true even of many heterosexual men. Among any sufficiently large population, a number of gay people is to be expected. I do not find it surprising that a segment of the gay population would take emulating their mothers to an extreme that the straight men would not.
I predicted years ago that black higher education would become increasingly gay, and specifically, effeminately so. The war on drugs has devastated the ranks of black men in black communities to such an extent that female role models are, all too often, the best role models for success that black boys have. The testosterone has been depleted from the segments of black society most in need of it. This is one of the many tragedies brought to neighborhoods across the nation by the desire to force moral choices on others “for their own good.” And, while I targeted those two presidents for specific criticism, we can hardly “blame whitey” for this one. There are lots of people who are black drug warriors. Pretty much every black politician, including Obama, is a drug warrior. Eric Holder, his pick for Attorney General, is an especially fervent drug warrior. As far as I am concerned, we should treat blacks who support the war on drugs the same as we would treat a black guy doing a minstrel show in full blackface at an NAACP meeting. They deserve nothing but derision for being essentially black slave overseers. They profit from promoting oppression.
(Crossposted at The Libertarian Standard)
Slightly less Random Ramblings 
Amen, brother.
Comment by John McAlister — January 4, 2011 @ 3:28 pm
Very well said, and thought provoking – I used to ‘blame’ the same emasculating effect solely on the break up of African families due to the nature of slavery in the US – for unlike the caribbean and a few other slave markets of old – families were readily broken up at American slave auctions every single day. Children born to slaves where sold once old enough to benefit their ‘owner’ via labor etc. hence the more linear continuum of african culture in the Caribbean versus the United States.
Also, due to the historical realities even before the War on Drug’s devastating effect on the black community, many black men were forced -post slavery and through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily – to become migrant workers in the burgeoning industrial centers or, as you mentioned in your “coming” article, by becoming preachers and government employees. this combined with the result of the Jim Crow laws in the South, and overt racism in the north, it can be said that generally speaking black woman were left with the primary responsibilities of raising and instilling proper values in the subsequent generations – and nearly always under the dire-est of economic circumstances. Another factor I see, depsite or perhaps in direct correlation with the decrease in overt racism and discrimination within society at large -ie: there is more tolerance and appreciation for “multi-culturalism” than ever before- but the flip-side of that is it seems many black men are psychologically attracted to white women (be it the psychology of the forbidden fruit, or whatever-no matter) the effect is not insignificant within the the black community. Obviously I’ve no issues with ANY voluntary associations between people of different races, religions, financial status ad infinitum – but there are unseen and often unconsidered side-effects of what is otherwise a joyous change in social paradigms. Granted it is well past my bedtime and I am just rambling now… but your article got me thinking, and you did say to write LOL – thank you for that!!
Oh, on an aside, I once has a terrifically stimulating conversation with the musical genius Branford Marsalis (I was his intern at the Tonight Show w Jay Leno in 1992) about “cultural memory” – be it in DNA, or what have you. The premise being the obvious similarities of rhythms specifically from native African regions which have resurfaced (without direct linkage) in jazz, R&B, Hip hop (and all other african born American Music genres) despite the near impossibility of passing such components of culture from generation to generation so systemic to the break of the most basic and vital social entity – that of the family.
thanks!
Joshua
Comment by Joshua Rosenblatt — September 6, 2011 @ 11:11 pm