I was watching the BET special Hip Hop vs. America and felt compelled to vent my own personal issues with the "hip-hop mentality." While watching this special, a familiar question kept popping up in my mind: Am I my brother’s keeper? The question above is usually posed to young brothers on a path to righteousness, who happen to pass by countless of other young brothers not on the same track.
To many the answer is easy. Yes, I am my brother’s keeper. I do have the responsibility to help a fellow brother pull his boot straps up and do the right thing. But unfortunately, there has been a major shift in the black male community. For the past decade, young black males have been statistically unable to keep up with the overall genre of successful people in American society. Unfortunately they have let society’s dirty evils keep them off track. The bogus scheme of "keeping it real" has reared its ugly head. The glamorization of hood life, egotistical mindsets and the blatant disrespect for themselves as well as their female counterparts is now an epidemic.
The ghetto mentality has a definite effect on whether someone is going to succeed or fail in this journey we call life. It is not only the black males in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods that latch on to this phenomenon we call the ghetto mentality, it is also suburban-born males, rural-area males, as well as inner-city males.
All across the board, a handful of black, American-born males have this horrid mentality that seems to be spreading like a plague. What is the ghetto mentality really about? The pants sagging, the constant reference of calling a fellow friend or foe a derogatory name, the mindset that one does not have to work hard to have nice things, the lack of value on education, the notion that black females, or any female of that matter, is to be referred to in a misogynistic manner and is only good for one thing, and the assumption that all money is good money.
Don’t get me wrong. There are some brothers that are doing their thing on a legitimate basis: going to school, valuing education, respecting themselves and others. But I am not talking about the select few.
I say this with the utmost respect and love. I know the types of struggles males face on a daily basis. Being a young, black female, I have definitely had my share. But quite frankly, I am tired of some males using that as an excuse to be rude and refuse to adapt to the fact that the question has been redirected to the black females, who now vastly outnumber the black males on the pathway to righteousness.
There is nothing I want more than for this message to be a thing of the past. But with statistics on the rise and no change, I am sad to say that I do not see it in the near future.
Motton, a English junior, can be reached via [email protected]
