Making Black History Everyday

Essentalizing Black Masculinity runs a slippery slope. Often times we have rather dangerous tendency to compare ourselves to a hegemonic ideal. By that, we tend to subscribe our identity to rather co-op our identity to a set of constructs based on the foundation of exclusion. Now what does all that mean? In short, because we have been blinded, and in some cases operate as willing accomplices to the isims of capitalism, sexism, self based racism and of course materialism. Because of these isims capitalism is a rather nasty notorious game we are forced to play. How does this all work into the hegemonic construct? Hegemonics, a term from Antonio Gramschi, is based partially in the thesis of Dos Kaptal by Marx. Where as Marx looks solely at economics being used at the epicenter of class struggle, Gramsci explores the notion of culture and those who control culture very much on the schematic of the Bougoie and the Proletariat. That being the case, if we look at culture and how our this post modern American culture functions on the ideology of materialism, well, unfortunately we have become to accept the myth as now fact. The more stuff you have, the money you have, the more powerful you are perceived to be.

That said, I can speak on this only because I, with all due deference, represent a part of the talented 10^th who have been afforded the time, the life chances and other opportunities to wrestle with these power dynamics and pontificate upon them on demand or at will. The converse of this goes back to my power thesis. Power in this country is personified by money and material items part due social systemic reinforcement; the media, the court system; the social systems. Sadly, we as Black folk are not critical of these messages we receive and thus we easily accept it. Black men are not supposed to show emotion, Black Men are to act as patriarchs, we’re suppose to have this cool pose that Majors and Bilson talk about. The reality is that we are supposed to be Teflon. Its not possible but we try to do it. This in turn leads to illness and premature death by black men at the hands of other black men, white men, and even black women.

Everyday I don’t flash, loose my cool, loose my self respect, stay out of jail, get closer to that Ph.D.—believe it or not, that’s how I make Black History everyday.