Judgemental Community VS. Black Men

JUDGEMENTAL

COMMUNITY VS. BLACK

Antwan Johnson

There can be a question “can a man born in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s or even in the 2000’s be upright according to society, community, or religious standards today?”. Many will say no for there are no good men, all men are dogs, a real man should make this amount of money, can’t have a record, should have this many records, talk like this, look like that, should have this many baby mamas, or none. However, let’s put this in perspective what if there was a male child that was born to a woman who became single before giving birth and to a father that was raised in the projects of the south side of Chicago, what would you say then. The odds were against him based on those two factors society already said he would not make it in this world at all before him being born. What if the single mother had some sort of agreement with the father, then the father got killed when the child was not the age of three yet? The judgmental community would say that a child’s future is a failure or that woman might as well get her bond money ready at an early age. Not one time has the community said “let us help her make this son a man”, instead, the same community that says “it takes a village to raise a child” will place traps before both the mother and the son. Traps such as drugs, gangs, poor housing which is causing one to be mentally unstable, debt, doubt, and more. What if that same male child decides instead of turning to the streets such as joining a gang, robbing, killing, or doing or selling drugs no matter how high the household bills are or how hectic the household is? What if working to take care of the household needs is not a fun opportunity for him? He decides

to go into debt so bills can be paid even though those same bills were not originally his. There comes a question, how can a child especially a male child overcome such obstacles? Fortunately, some male sons were born with a strong will to be upright; not allowing the communities they were born in to define their destiny. Everyone isn’t born with that will unfortunately and when one does not have any will at all to do the right thing that is when they will fail the parents, community, or even religion. What if a male child has a strong will but their family or community will not give them a helping hand? That is when the burden of darkness of the impossibility is truly upon their shoulders. This kind of weight is not easy, not even for a man. Society tends to close its eyes to a man that struggles to be a man such as a male child becoming a man at an early age because the single man has some sort of sickness. Should only that male child be responsible for that mom? No! The next question should be the is the male child the only one responsible for that household? No again. His family and his community should give a helping hand. What happens when the family and community turn a deaf ear to the male child? The male child will struggle and will fall short in some shape form or fashion in being the man according to what that society may deem necessary. It’s time for the family and community to stop saying what the male child did right or wrong, it’s time for the family and community to stop saying what the mother did right or wrong. It’s time for the family and community to stand up and say “What must we do to help”.