This was shared with me, and I thought that it was definitely "food for thought" to share with the brothers and sisters here. Please read on...
The Other Day,
A friend of mine came to my dorm room just to chat while her
laundry was drying. As we were chatting, two young freshmen came by.
One of the boys wanted to "talk" to my friend (as in date). She asked him how old they were, and both of the boys replied 18. My friend and I both laughed hysterically because we are both 22 years old. After my friend left,
the young men were still hanging around and one wanted to know how he
could gain her interest.
The first thing I told him to do was to pull up his pants! He
asked why, then said he likes saggin' his pants. I told him to come over to my
computer and spell the word saggin'. Then I told him to write the
word saggin' backwards.
S-A-G-G-I-N
N-I-G-G-A-S (*I apologize to anyone offended by the posting of this word)
I told him the origin of that look was from prison. Men in prison
wore their pants low when they were spoken for. The other reason their
pants looked like that was because they were not allowed to have belts
because prisoners were likely to try to commit suicide.
We as black people have to be the ones to effect change. We
are dying. The Media has made a mockery of Black-Americans.
Even our brothers and sisters from Africa do not take us seriously.
Something as simple as pulling up your pants and standing with
your head held high could make the biggest difference in the world's perception of us. It is time to do right by ourselves. We need to love
and embrace each other. No one is going to do it for us.
It all comes down to perception. What people perceive is what is reality
to them. We have to change not only the media's perception of us, but
we need to change our perception of ourselves. Remember all eyes are on
you Black Man. All eyes are on you Black Woman. All eyes are on you
Black Child. People are waiting for us to mess up. Many of us have not
only have allowed the Media, but our government and the world
to taint the pure essence of us. They have stripped our culture down
to the point where far too many of us have come to believe that we can
only become rappers and athletes. We are so much more.
To all my black men:
It is time to stand up. There are billions of Black Women who want to
do nothing more than worship the ground that you walk on. We are so in
love with your potential. We want to have your back, we want to love,
support and cherish every ounce of your being. But with that you have to
show that you are willing to be the head of our households. You have to prove yourselves worthy of our submission. We need you to be hard
working...not a hustler. We need you to seek higher education, to seek
spirituality. We need you to stand! And trust us; we will have your back. We know that it gets hard, we know you get weary. Trust and believe that there is nothing that a Black Woman and a Black Man can't handle with GOD on their
side.
To all my Black Women:
It is also time for us to stand up.. It is time for us to stop using our bodies
as our primary form of communication. It is time to be that virtuous woman
that Proverbs spoke of. We can not sit by the wayside while our men are dying by the masses. We are the epitome of Black Love.
It starts within us. We need to speak with conviction to let not only
our Black Men know, but the world know that we are the Mothers of this
world.
We are all so powerful, so beautiful! We need to love and embrace
every blessing that God has given us physically, emotionally and spiritually.
For all My Black Children:
We need to love them. We need to teach them. We need to stand up
for them. We need to protect them. We need to show them that there are
no "get rich quick" schemes. We need to tell them that they WILL die trying
if they submit to a life of crime and deceit. We need to teach our
children that no one will love them the way we can. And being a basketball
player, a rapper, or a drug dealer is not reality. It's not realistic and
only a small percentage of people ever make it as a rapper or professional
athlete. We need to teach our children that we can be more than
rappers and athletes. We can be the owners of these sports teams; we can be the CEO's of our fortune 500 companies.. We need to believe in literacy.
I am almost certain if we were to look back to the 1930's and 40's, the
literacy rates for Black-American children were probably more dismal than they are now. However, together we can change this.
Okay...I am stepping off of my soap box now. Pull Up Your Pants!!
All, be well.
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