What IS our problem???

I taught CPR and First Aid today to a group of foster parents and as I always do when discussing heart attacks and strokes, I began a lecture on how smoking is the leading cause of heart disease, and how diet is the leading cause of strokes through increased blood pressure.

I venture to say that this is not new information to these parents and I'm sure there were a few there who suffer from the ill effects of smoking and bad diet. If fact, one woman said after the class that she just started smoking AT 48! No reason...no catalyst...just started smoking.

During the discussion, an elderly gentleman was nodding knowingly throughout and when we were nearing the end of this section, he asked a very salient question: "Why do we do this to ourselves?"

He himself is anaphylaxic (severely allergic to seafood) and suffers from heart disease yet he did not have any antihistamine or his nitroglycerin with him. He admitted that he was wondering out loud about himself too.

But, let's look at the larger context here. In this society of supposed plenty, we overindulge to the point of gluttony. We ingest drugs (particularly nicotine) to the point of addiction. We rely on outside influences (government entities) to direct our lives to the point of dependency. We fall prey to the harmful influence of fast food, "historically black" foods, and the insidious innocuousness of snack foods.

As Black people, we do things which even we cite as "ghetto" yet we keep seeing them occur over and over again. Are gold teeth, rampant free-wheeling sex, and bling a lifestyle indicator or a ridiculous fad that has been foisted upon us by the video culture depicted by BET, VH1, et al?

• Why do we smoke?
  
• Why do we drink?
  
• Why do we do drugs?
  
• Why do we eat too many fatty foods?
  
• Why do we have so many unwed mothers?
  
• Why do we believe it is "ok" to dress like harlequins?
  
• Why do we allow Ebonics to be our national language instead of English?
• Why do our reading scores range so much lower when we are learning the same language?
• Why do we drive without seat belts even when it is against the law in many places?
  
• Why do we drive distracted without bluetooths or other hands-free devices when it is against the law in many places?
  
• Why do we give in to all the stereotypes that have plagued us for years, even centuries?

When I see an African, and I mean a "real" one, and they dress in their native garb, I see pride and dignity. I see many Jamaicans go into business for themselves, work hard, and live the finer life because it is what they subscribe to...then I must ask, what is our excuse? I see the Ethiopian or Somali brother go into ANY kind of entrepreneurial endeavor while we complain about minimum wage?

There may be a cultural breeding principle where one can say that we have never escaped the ravages of slavery and its psychological handcuffs. There may be an inculcated sense of parochialism because we live where we live and cannot believe we can actually live better. There may be the demoralizing effect of an inbred sense of white superiority that makes us feel discouraged and trapped.

But, with any of these, I don't think so.

I think that with so much available for us, even in our own communities, the horizon is one that is simply within walking distance. We don't have to say that we can never do/be better than we do today, or did yesterday. I don't think we have to feel that it is "acting white" to be a better American because we are all acutely aware of what it is to be a bad citizen.

• Our neighborhoods do NOT have to look like this.
  
• Our neighborhoods do NOT have to have liquor stores on every other corner while the "villages" in other communities have pharmacies and delis and boutique restaurants.
  
• Our neighborhoods do NOT have to have ANY drugs in them if we just turn the parasitic bastards in and be done with them.

This "live and let live" syndrome is becoming a disaster. We live lives of relativism where if "it ain't bothering me, I can let it go." Fool!! EVERYTHING is affecting you!! If you let even one foppish and idiotic jerk be the definition of what "being Black" is to everyone else, you have given over to the lemmingish mentality of self-destruction.

Further, if you realize that as long as it is in YOUR neighborhood, no one else is going to give a damn about it... or you. If you realize this, then who can you blame then? Republicans? The Klan? Democrats? "The Man?"

The source of nearly all of your maladies is right in your mirror...a darkened cracked mirror that reflects a lost soul.

So, I want to put this question out to all of you. Why DO we do these things? Why is our behavior so self-destructive.

And, what do YOU think we can/should do about it?

Thanks,

Don

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