rəˌspänsəˈbilədē/ :
- the state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.
A few weeks ago, I received a text message from my mother. It read, “I’m getting ready to take your little cousin some dictionary words and a book! I’m his mentor now!” My little cousin, who we will refer to as Dre, has been struggling in school for quite some time. It’s not that he’s incapable of the work, it’s that he doesn’t try. To be fair, life hasn’t been all that simple for him lately, but we feel as though he has the duty to succeed in school, I mean, after all, it is his only job. Anyways, he is the oldest of 4 boys. My problem with him not trying isn’t that he is doing bad just for the sake of it, it is that he is the big brother and he should feel a sense of obligation to do well because he is the oldest. I just feel like he should have a sense of responsibility to lead and guide his younger brother’s in a world that has been very unforgiving to uneducated black men, or just black men in general.
Fast forward to tonight, with all of the death and disparity that has been happening around me lately, I am inclined to think that the black community has a victim mentality. We want to blame everyone else for our failures but take responsibilities for our successes. Just as a reflection of the state of black America, I believe that we have to start taking responsibility for where we are as a people, immediately. The moment we acknowledge the role that we play in our own downfall, the sooner we will be able to help ourselves. You see I believe that if we simply blame others for our shortcomings, it leaves us defenseless, hopeless. As if we are unable to do anything to change our community. But if we just say, hey, what is it that WE can do differently, how can WE help our community, help each other we can begin to make a change.
We have to acknowledge, yes slavery happened. Yes, Jim Crow happened. Yes, the war on drugs happened. Yes, the murders of Michael Brown, Kajieme Powell, Trayvon Martin, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice all happened. But did you know that approximately 93% of black homicide victims are killed by other blacks? Did you know that black’s are robbed by other blacks? Did you know blacks are burglarized by other blacks? Sometimes I feel like there is something larger at play, well actually, I KNOW that there is something larger at play. But I honestly wonder, how much of what’s at play by the powers that be would matter if we could all manage a way to stop hurting one another. What if we took RESPONSIBILITY for the rolls that we play in our own downfalls? I just imagine a day where we can all be one, where we can realize that our ancestors, fought, were beaten, degraded, lynched and killed for our right to be apart of the world of white people. I find it hard to believe that they went through such a struggle only for us to hurt each other more than white people EVER could.
Say what you want about Donald Trump being our president-elect. But I hope, and I pray, that he divides us enough to the point where we have no choice but to band together and depend on one another for EVERYTHING. But that’s another topic, for another day.
What are your opinions about the lack of responsibility in the black community? Do you think I am over simplifying the issue? Leave a comment below.
astoldbymickb 