I actually wrote this back on January 6th of this year. I’m not sure what I was doing or reading at the time, but it does bring up some interesting points. With three sunny days here in a row, before the break of Spring I don’t see why this wouldn’t be an appropriate time to post this.

• Is being black such a hinderence that it has remained an unanswerable question since slavery?
• Is racism still a heavy problem in America?
• Why are there no black superheroes?

I’ve been reading over this new year (and yes, I know its only January) and everywhere I turn it seems that the topic of discussion is the same: the state of Black America. Maybe that’s the topic of discussion because that’s what I decide to read but I obviously read it because it catches my attention…and it catches my attention because in the back of my mind I know there is still a problem.

There is a section in the Outlook section of the Sunday Post (Washington Post) dedicated to being a black man? There was a series of televised lectures on the State of Black America. But why? When I ask why, I speak in the sense of, “Why do we, as Black Americans, feel the need to discuss our plight in this country?” When will we take a stand and finally act on our own behalf?

• Did slaves hold conventions as lectures about how they were being mistreated as human beings?
• During the civil rights movement, did black people join together to demand equality for all races of people?

In reality the answers to those questions are yes. Slaves did meet and civil rights demonstrated did gather, however, there was a major difference in the effects of those congregations and what is happening today. There was action. Where is the action of the generation? We can talk until our face turns blue, but if there is no activity behind the threats and the realizations then all was for naught.

Do I have all the answers? No. I am no messiah. I’m not the second coming of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey, W.E.B duBois, Booker T Washington, or Fredrick Douglass. But neither are Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. All of those classical legendary men are one of a kind and there will never be another of them. So we, as Black America needs to stop looking for them. We need to stop looking for a Black Messiah to save us from our plight in this country. No America isn’t perfect. Its quite far from it, but the American system is not the cause for all of Black America’s problems. Some of Black America’s problems are deeply rooted in our psyche since days of slavery. However that does not grant us a “get out of jail” card for all of our problems.

I don’t have an answer to all of those questions. I’m still trying to answer them myself. But Black America needs to step up and talk about these problems. There needs to be another Niagara Movement….in every major, minor, and miniscule town in these United States. We, as a people, need to join together to solve a problem that affects us all: what is the plight of our people…and where do we go from here?