Why are Black men such a threat to this very nation that brought us here in the first place? This same nation which was built in the most nonnegotiable way on our historically royal, powerful Black backs. This same nation that forced us to fight on the frontlines of battle in the name of protecting its soil. That same soil that our ancestors tilled through blood, sweat, pain, anger, fear, humiliation, and dehumanization in every form imaginable, for White, murdering rapists and opportunists to reap 100% of the benefits. Reduced to a version of ourselves that our African ancestry would not believe even if they saw it with their own eyes. Still, after 400 years of living hell, we are being slaughtered. We are still being treated as animals. Less than animals, because these same people who treat us this way will extend a kind of love and compassion to a stray dog that amounts hundredfold to what they will ever extend to us.

I reluctantly scroll through social media and see the news continuing to pour in. Another life taken for no reason. Another Black man EXECUTED at the hands of White men, seen by tens of millions of people thanks to a “concerned” bystander recording the act on video. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. But a video of the execution of a living human being… is a painting that leaves me speechless. There aren’t enough words in existence to describe the horror in that. The fact that someone, in some cases a fellow Black person, acts as the cameraman instead of jumping into action and assisting their Black brother who is having his life taken away right in front of their eyes… My stomach turns just thinking about how sick that is in itself. But this is the world that we, as Black men, are living in. Not the American dream, but as Malcolm X put it, the American nightmare. Our lives mean nothing in the moment. Over the course of centuries, the Black man has been painted as a villain. An evil person, who has no value to society. Less than a man. And as a result, the quality of our lives has been throughout history largely left out of our control. To this day we are enslaved (or as society today refers to it, “incarcerated”) at a rate that is absolutely criminal. Slavery never ended. In fact, it is still happening right now in West Feliciana Parish, Angola, Louisiana, just to name one of many locations. We have been stripped away from our families for fabricated reasons and for reasons that directly resulted from the former and current living conditions we are subject to. To survive in this country, the Black man has had to resort to, out of pure, genuine desperation, new means of earning a living in order to provide for his family and for himself. It is of no coincidence that those means happened to be in violation of the law, which was never written with Black people in mind. We were restricted from myriads of occupations, unable to build wealth in this country through the avenues that White men have been able to monopolize. No land. No properties. No businesses. No credit. No wealth. No hope. The white picket fence lifestyle that the “American dream” paints was never a reality for Black people as direct result of removing the traditional family structure from our community. Our people are known for broken families and raising children who do not know how to love as a result of not being raised in the presence of love. Without the Black man able to be present in the household, there is no structure. The man is the HEAD of the household. The man provides DIRECTION for his family. The man serves as a MODEL for his seed. The man serves as the PROTECTOR of the mother of his seed. This is the structure of any successful family. Everything starts at the top with the man and trickles down to his family. Without the head, the body will not survive. When you cut away the top of a pyramid, it is no longer a pyramid. When you cut off the head of living creature, it will perish. This is the systematic way in which Black lives have been reduced to nothing in this country. This FACT has been laid out publicly in documentaries such as 13^th, yet society, us included, still display our selective memory in regard to foundational concepts like this today.

Stress is defined as a natural physical and mental reaction to life experiences. The 3 leading causes of death for African Americans are Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke. Among this list, heart disease accounts for a staggering 23.7% of deaths. Black men have higher death rates than women for every disease in this list, as well higher death rates than any other racial group. What does this mean? Do Black men have more unhealthy lifestyles than women? Are our bodies naturally more susceptible to disease? No. The human body is a marvel, a machine that is capable of withstanding a long list of threats. Stress, however, is one of humans’ most lethal forms of kryptonite. Stress attacks the body from inside out, causing a health domino effect when gone unaddressed. It is of no coincidence that the 3 major diseases that plague Black men the most are directly related to stress. We are the most stressed out people on the planet. We bear burdens on a day-to-day basis that no one will ever know or understand. As a result, our women also suffer and so do our offspring. It is a cycle that has been continuing to worsen as time goes on. But it starts with us because we are the HEAD. 

With all that being said, I find it absolutely ridiculous that even in times of horror such as these, with movements aimed at justice for Black men who are victims of police (formerly known as the “KKK”) brutality, we are still somehow put on blast and on the back burner so to speak. I’ve seen countless posts about “Protect Black Women”, “Empower Black women”, “Black Trans Lives Matter”, “Black Gay Lives Matter”, “Respect our Women” and so on and so forth. This is exactly what is wrong with our people. Time and time again we have failed to unify for one common goal, the most important goal, the ONLY goal that matters this day in age, and have instead chosen to throw every iron in the fire that we individually feel a claim to. Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, even Rayshard Brooks, were neither women, gay, nor transgender. They were BLACK MEN who were EXECUTED by WHITE MEN on VIDEO. 

For every action in nature, there is an inevitable reaction. The Black man is UNDENIABLY the most mistreated, the most targeted, the most dehumanized living being walking on American soil today. With all the stress, all the turmoil that inflicts Black men both in today’s and yesterday’s world, how can we possibly even begin to execute our roles as leaders, providers, protectors, models if we are not supported and shown that we are unconditionally valuable? When is the last time you laid eyes on a Black man and placed yourself in his shoes and empathized for the aching soles of his feet? Feet that carry burdens and insecurities that must be hidden from the outside world or else be associated with weakness? The stress, the obligations, the doubts, the fear, the insecurity that subconsciously plagues his mind from living in a country that never was and never will be concerned about his well-being. We are rarely shown empathy, only disapproval. There is no escape from criticism for the Black man. Out of fear of feeling or being viewed as weak, Black men have no choice but to appear strong even when our world is crashing and burning around or inside of us. We get attacked on all fronts. Even by our own women, who reflect similar standards to that of everyone else when there appears to be a chink in our armor. Suck it up. Quit whining. Man up. Black men are opportunistically valued across the board. It seems as though we only matter when there’s a cause at hand that others can either benefit directly from or can use to catapult their own agendas into recognition. History has shown this time and time again, and it is bound to incessantly repeat itself if this pattern of ignorance continues.

As long as the patterns that we are seeing throughout our culture today of belittling Black men, discouraging the efforts to find ourselves as MEN, magnifying every imperfection or shortfall we have, attempting to maximize the importance of the body while minimizing the significance of the HEAD, Black women, children, and all other groups will continue to feel unprotected, disrespected, undervalued, etc. As Black men, we walk around this country with one hand tied behind our back and two strikes tallied against us from the starting gate. In addition to that, we are limited in what we can accomplish and facilitate because just like everyone else, we are only imperfect humans. 

Realize and completely understand that the Black man is the head of the Black family. He is the head of the Black community. As long as the Black man is put down, disrespected, devalued, conditionally supported, and not viewed as the royal priority that he is, I can guarantee you with absolute certainty that the lives of Black women, Black Homosexuals, Black Transgenders, Black boys and Black girls, will never EVER matter in this country. This is in no way, shape or form intended to downplay the injustices experienced by Black women or members of the LGBTQ community. We all deserve better across the board. It is our right as human beings to live freely. This is intended to highlight the fact that in order for us to reach that true freedom, we must start at the top. There is a long list of injustices done to our community. The best way to complete any to-do list is to prioritize and start from the top. The top priority in our culture is and always has been to reinforce, reassure, rejuvenate, reinvigorate, and reestablish the Black masculine, male figure as the royal leader that he is. It starts with us. It starts with the head. The fate of our people begins, ends, and depends on the state of the Black man.