dis-appointment

 i got haircuts at Brown’s Barber College in Atlanta, GA for at least the first 10 years of my life. my dad took me. i don’t know how much haircuts were, but i vividly remember that every time i was done, dad would give me a dollar and make me go tell the barber “thank you” and give him the tip. what i didn’t realize at the time was that these were student barbers, and sometimes Mr. Brown himself (pictured above) would have to come “fix” my head. what i did know was that i loved going, and listening to old Black men, and young Black men, dialogue about any and everything under the sun. i was too young to contribute anything meaningful, but in my head i was right there in the middle, a full participant. 

that was the early 80’s, on Ashby Street. a decade or so later i would attend college on that same Ashby Street, and spend the next couple of decades in and around Atlanta, meeting a TON of thoughtful, well-meaning people from all walks of life. these people, like me, have waaay too much sense (or in some cases too little patience) to participate in the foolishness that is social discourse driven by both main stream media AND social media… and that’s the problem.

let me start with how i got here, today. Kevin Samuels passed a little over a week ago. i have defended his position as being a man, who most men basically agree with, speaking to women about how men feel, and having those women tell him how wrong he his. on its face, that’s ridiculous, but it’s also a conversation for another time. i basically agree with his message, while disagreeing with his delivery. BUT, it’s that delivery that gained him notoriety, and riches. had he packaged his message like i might have, none of us would even know him… now we’re finally getting to my point 

the people who earn prominence, whether it be in the political arena, the business world, or even lately on social media, are often the fringe elements of society, or at least the people who will go 2 or 3 steps farther than a regular person. it works. it absolutely works. it also means that the voices that we hear, and the opinions that the algorithms feed us, do NOT represent most people. most people are moderate, centrist, reasonable. those people take a back seat and let the crazies have the floor, unwilling to either yell over them or try to combat their craziness with logic and reason. 

we have given up, retreated to our pockets of “sanity”, and resolved ourselves to the notion that the world is headed to hell in a hand basket (i don’t know why i just said that). we let Tucker Carlson speak to and for the masses. so we shouldn’t be surprised when an 18 year old White man shoots up a store in a low income  neighborhood, replete with automatic rifle, plenty ammo, and a written plan to kill as many Blacks as possible. we, in effect, send internal memos about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the battle for gender and transgender equality, and racism, and socioeconomic prejudice, and a million other issues that we have an opinion on…

at some point regular people have to say enough is enough, right? …wrong, i fear