When you look deep into my brown eyes for the very first time, what do you see? Please tell me what you really see. Can you see the pain that you left with me for generations to come, knowing what I know today; regarding slavery, and the way your people tortured my ancestors?… What makes us so different other than the colors of our skin? I know you see the frustration on the faces of my people; for decades we’ve been screaming out for help. Although you do perceive, you look us dead in the eyes with a smirk as if you are invincible. Are we not human beings just like you? Stated a wise man, “Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated.” – Kofi Annan

Growing as a young BLACK American, within a system made for “the black man” to fail, has desperately confused me, abused me, and not to mention used me, over the 19 years of my life. Nearly 80% of black households are single-parent homes, and the majority of the time it’s the mothers who are left alone with their children. Likewise, I too grew up in a single-parent household raised by one of many strong independent black women. This is just one of the major problems seen in black communities today. It was seen as early as 1965, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an American sociologist who also served as an Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Lyndon B. Johnson, wrote The Negro Family, also known as Moynihan Report. Although “humbling” is their generous way of saying breaking, it still happened. The major problem in the black community is the destruction of the black man which started in slavery, and continued its way up through “Jim Crow Laws” and “Mass Incarceration”, and the common thread is breaking the black man, or as the report says, “humbling” him which in turn destroyed the black family dynamic.

Without a family foundation, it is hard to build strong adults. This is why poverty is higher within single mothers’ households. The white man forces his superiority by breaking the Black man and weakening him to his woman, beating him while he is helpless or forcing him to watch, helpless, as he rapes his wife and daughters. Even when the slaves were freed, “Jim Crow” kept Blacks down so it was hard to earn a living, causing family tensions. After the 1968 civil rights bill, came mass incarceration. This allowed the removal of the Black man from the home, leaving the mother all alone with the children. As an incentive, the government gives that single mother “assistance,” but only if that Black man isn’t in the house or if she agrees to not allow anyone with a felony to live inside the home.

Presently this becomes a harder decision for the women to make. Not only do they need a male in their households, but they also need the money to provide for their families because the reality is black men have a harder time getting jobs. Those jobs usually pay way less, or there is a criminal record that comes into play. It’s all just a systematic set up for both parties to fail. Generation after generation black women had to be the glue to keep their families together, causing resentment, and the feeling of not “needing” a man. This is still seen in today’s world. These dialectics tell the truth as to why most black children grow up without their fathers!

Everything we see is a false reality. Their main objective was to separate us, causing curiosity and fear. While we’re worried about each other, they’re watching all of us at one time, itching to plot the next move. Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, “your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them.” We have to escape reality and this illusion they made for us, and the ones we’ve made for ourselves.

It’s sad to say, the white man fears an educated black man. Vividly speaking, a teacher of mine told me, “You will never be shit.” I smiled back graciously as if I had the last word. Comprehension is a key threat in which an educated black man opposes the worldwide system of white supremacy. Now, do you understand why our educational systems as a whole are created to suppress and obliterate the intellectual minds of the African American dissent?

So tell me, Do you know me? Our people? My vision? My thoughts would leave you haunted in this evil world without being able to quiet your emotions, while sending the haven of your own self-taught ignorance crashing upon you. Now you may ask yourself: do you really want to see this vision? They say I’m too young to think the way I do, but I know the world is not supposed to be this way. It can’t be.