BlackEconomics.org®
Introduction This brief essay would have been best penned by a Black American female economist. Arguably, Black females have experienced certain historical opportunities to enjoy more favorable outcomes than their Black male counterparts. Therefore, Black females may have unique insights concerning how Black males could or should address this essay’s topic. Black economists value Black females for, inter alia, their display of discipline, strength, power, and intellectual prowess, which have been essential to Black American economic development. In the end, it is a fundamental truth that “the hand that rocks the cradle can rule the world.”(i) Is it not the long-term goal of Black/African people globally to recapture our rightful place as world leaders? What is our aim? To highlight certain realities whose implications are already in view. However, they can produce longterm favorable or unfavorable outcomes. We will be brief.
Feminization
It is well known that gender hormonal expressions in youth today is at earlier ages and more feminine than at previous points in history. This is attributable, to a significant degree, to the consumption of hormone-contaminated food and to training that is designed to make males more docile. The expression of more feminine traits goes beyond the physical, mainly because our culture, which is influenced heavily by the media, also carries pro-feminization causing content. A feminine nature does not signal always and everywhere a reduction in the ability to display violence. However, if physical bodies reflect more feminine traits, then they are likely to be smaller, weaker, and unable to exhibit the type of violent force that might otherwise be on display during physical conflict. In a phrase: The effect of all this is reduced warrior capabilities among Black males. Nullification In 2011, Black economist and Professor, Dr. Gregory Price, stated that Black males can be observed as exhibiting a “withdrawal from every venue of society.”(ii) Black males’ unemployment rate is higher than Black females. Black males’ incarcerations rates are considerable higher than for Black females. Black males are killed by police at a much higher rate than Black females. Black females’ educational attainment supersedes that of Black males at all levels. Is this too coincidental to be coincidental? In a nation of about 335 million, such outcomes occur under two conditions: 1. Black males seek to withdraw; or 2. the greater society seeks to force their withdrawal. In a phrase: The upshot of all of this is to inhibit/reduce the role and existence of Black males in the American society.
Weaponization
Must Black males be reminded that: “Self-preservation is the first law of nature???” No rational living creature seeks its demise prematurely. Therefore, it is rational that Black males have been, are being, and will be, weaponized to respond to the combination of our feminization and nullification. No doubt, some of that weaponization is reflected in self-destructive behaviors; a desired outcome by our puppeteers.(iii) However, Black males must be strategically cautious about other expressions of our weaponization. Like the mythical frog in a pot of water with a rising temperature, we should not suddenly awaken to long-standing efforts to ensure our demise and strike out violently and randomly. Rather, we should use our historical race consciousness and intellects to consider our circumstances, and then formulate and operationalize plans to stymie, halt, and then reverse our ethno-gender-genocide.
Conclusion
If you believe this essay results from an overactive imagination, then please consider the following facts:
- Assuming that it was and is favorable to do so, Black males and females lost, to a great extent, our capacity to sustain, reinforce, and enforce our joint commitment to each other and to Black People after Jim Crow Laws were eradicated and integration policies were promulgated that facilitated the limited but easy interaction between races and genders in economic, educational, and certain other social environments.
- Even the first Black President’s, Barack Obama’s, stature in the annals of American History has now been diminished, overshadowed, and superseded in less than a decade by the one he prepared and ushered into the presidency—Joe Biden. The latter is now touted as one of the greatest presidents in the nation’s history. According to former President Bill Clinton, in response to a pandemic and an economic crisis, President Biden: “…healed our sick and put the rest of us back to work.” And he passed the greatest test of anyone in power: “He voluntarily gave up political power.” In recognizing the latter action, Clinton placed Biden ‘s legacy on par with the nation’s first President, George Washington.(iv)
- Kamala Harris is the prosecutor who will battle her criminally indicted foe.
Of course, she must not only be tough on crime with Donald Trump, she also must display that attitude toward all Americans. Unfortunately, most Americans have been programed by the media to believe that “Black male” and “crime” are synonymous. Moreover, a check of almost all Black candidates (male and female) who have sought political offices at the local, state, and national levels in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles have featured a political platform that prominently included a “tough on crime” plank.
Consequently, conditions are likely to worsen for Black males in America before they turn for the better. The good thing about all this is that Black males have the power to determine how and when it gets better. In this regard, we should be forever reminded of the following few words uttered during the 1995 Million Man March.
B Robinson
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i Generative AI (2024) indicates that this famous quote is derived from 19th Century English writer William Ross Wallace’s poem: “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is the Hand that Rules the World.” (Ret. 082324).
ii Brooks Robinson (2011). “A BEV for BAF Interview with Prof. Greg Price.” BlackEconomics.org; https://www.blackeconomics.org/BEMedia/pricecf.mp3 (Ret. 082324).
iii It is noteworthy that, while the Black male suicide rate for 2022 ranked 3rd out of five (14.8 per 100K population) ethnic groups, it was far below the White male suicide rate (28.2 per 100K population), and the Native American suicide rate (39.2 per 100K population). See Sally Curtin, et al (2023). “Vital Statistics Rapid Release: Provisional Estimates of Suicide by Demographic Characteristics: United States 2022.” Center for Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr034.pdf (Ret. 082324).
iv Jennifer Earl (2024). “Watch: Bill Clinton’s Full Speech at the 2024 DNC.” CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/watch-bill-clintons-full-speech-2024-dnc-transcript/ (Ret. 082324).