(Photo from spokenwordblog.wordpress.com)
Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve watched President Obama’s speech twice, and I feel the supposed uproar about his “talking down” to the brilliant graduates of Morehouse College is mainly pure nonsense. Bill Cosby has been bashing the Black community for years, yet he gets barely a mention? Can you imagine the uproar if the president would have spoken to these young folks the way Bill has to others of the same hue for years? In my opinion, President Obama was on point with the discussion of excuses.
Many American college students, of ANY background, need a wake-up call concerning the importance of their academic endeavors. While many of them are drinking themselves into a catatonic state of ignorance in the bars of Spring Break-Their counterparts from other countries are raising the bar of academic excellence even higher. Many of them are worshipping the stolen legacies of Africa, posing as “Greek”, while getting the proverbial shit kicked out of them-for what? A brand on your arm means nothing if you sit on the sideline and watch others build a brand that you will eventually work for. Many foreigners set-up shop in the Black community for one reason=They feel Black folks will always be consumers, rather than producers of goods. Don’t believe it-Go ask one of them.
I’ll NEVER forget watching a young corner store owner from Jordan, in Columbus, Ohio, refer to his customers as “My Niggas,” in 2007. He then told me, a grown man,that he only takes cash, no credit. Instead of snatching his ass across the counter Radio Raheem Style, I chose to get into his mindset, and needless to say…it reaffirmed my commitment to finish what I started years before. It has also given me a laser like focus in helping my daughter achieve academic excellence-NOW, not Later. Call me condescending if I want her Math&Science scores to jump higher than any athletic prowess. Tell me I’m “talking down to her” if I’m trying to stress the “urgency of now” concerning her place in the future technology driven world. Tell me I’m being haughty for letting her know, that as we speak, somewhere there is a young girl starving, and drinking dirty water, as the result of a demonic caste system, that WILL find a way to rise above the poorest of circumstances with NO EXCUSES. If Bill Cosby, with his continual, Boule‘ based lecturing in front of both Black&White folks isn’t Booshie-Then neither is Barack!~Daryl
(Photo from uppitynegro.com)
