i'm no doubt showing my age here, but one of my favorite albums of all time was "The Score" by the Fugees. Wyclef, Lauryn, Pras, and about an hour of awesome sauce. one of the interludes was set in a Chinese restaurant, where the patrons simply wanted their wings fried hard, and some fried rice. somewhere along the way, the owner concluded that they wanted beef, not beef to eat, but the kind of beef that doesn't taste so good and ends up with me meeting Roy at the West Manor Rec and serving up a two-piece snack that even Sharkeisha would be proud of (but that was the 4th grade and i digress). so the Chinese man promptly hopped the counter, and gave them what they "wanted"...
there are basically two causes that i have a real burden for: the role and influence that the church has in the community. that is to say, why do we go to church on a weekly basis... and the crisis of inequality and injustice affecting the Black community on a daily basis. the church thing is a discussion for another day. what i'll deal with here is the unpleasantness that flooded my timeline from my "woke" brothers and sisters
but first, an analogy...
i was married, for 11 years. one of our "things" was the united front. when we disagreed (and oh did we have our disagreements), the discussions took place outside of eye and earshot of our children. what we felt that they needed was the knowledge that their leaders were, above anything else, single-minded in the ultimate purpose, which was the betterment of the household and their overall safety and well-being. so we went to a private space and came to some kind of common ground before we addressed it with the kids. when that was no longer a viable option, the result was divorce... which brings me to this week's mess...
the Black movement has desperately needed leadership, a person or persons to act as the face and voice, organizing thoughts and ideas toward a more unified, and thus a more powerful front. two of the voices that have emerged in the self-described conscious community are Umar Johnson and Sara Suten Seti. this week they both took to social media to challenge each other, not on intellectual or ideological grounds, but literally on some name-calling, meet me after school type stuff COMPLETELY unbecoming men of their status. it has undermined the message, and the movement as a whole. i won't even deal with the silliness of Dr. Umar's rant including an embarrassing moment where he seemingly paused his chest beating rant to answer a call from somebody offering help, to whit he claimed "i got this" several times... until his phone actually rang :-/ ...i can't do the whole thing justice... look it up
we gotta do better!!!
