What should black parents and families do? What solutions are there?

Do about what?  Oppression? Poverty? Education? Health & Wellness?  That’s kind of a vague question.  There are solutions; but what problems are you asking about specifically?

I’ll just give you 5, or so universal thinks I think every Black family in the US should do, or be doing.

1. Redefine what family is.  That whole mommy, daddy, baby shit never worked for us.  I know a lot of Black Nationalist talk that “family values” bullshit, and traditional family bullshit they are only mimicking the White industrial nuclear family structure, that didn’t even work for White people.  Also, it’s really stupid to mimic that shit cuz we’ve never been in a position to have some ole ‘Father Knows Best,’ or ‘Leave It to Beaver’ situations in the US, under White Oppression and Exploitation. 

We need more dynamic and resilient family structures and support networks.  For African of the Diaspora family should mean all those of common cause, common ideology, common methodology.  Family, for the oppressed needs to be a Revolutionary institution where we are trained, equipped, educated, and inspired to secure liberation while at the same time being defended from White Aggression.  Just a mommy and a daddy can’t accomplish that alone, not even with a shit load of fiat currency at their disposal. 

We need to rebuild communes, clans, familial enclaves, multigenerational households, family industries and resources.  We also need to revisit polyism.  Simply trying to construct nuclear Western style family units is not only inadequate it has proven inherently dysfunctional.  We need to employ our world renowned Black Creativity to redefine what family and and the larger functions of the family unit.

2. Embrace socialism.  We have so many Black families that have wealthy, middle class, and impoverished members of the same damn family.  Every family should function like a miniature nations, where the collective wealth is pooled.  All resources and talents of the family need to be assessed and properly utilized.  If there are members of the family who can’t secure employment they the family should pool their resources and pay them for services or set them up in a small business. 

Every family should have a small business or cottage industry funded and controlled by the entire extended family.  It’s so simple, but our adherence to the nuclear family model has us functioning like sociopaths.  I know of people who live opulent lifestyles while their blood relatives live in abject poverty.  I see that shit too much, and that’s at the core of the overall erosion of family cohesion; individualism and selfishness. 

3. Accept that there is a difference between Family & Relatives. Family are the one you build with, you struggle with, you organize with, and you hold common ideology and principles with.  Relatives are people you are related to.  You don’t have to be relatives to be family.  You can love and cherish relatives and family e3quality, but you primary obligation is to family and those who hold to the family mission and protocols. 

4. Respect the elders and tend to them.  Nothing more needs to be said about this.  If you don’t resp0ect and tend to the elders you ain’t no kinda African.

5. Stop treating children like accessories, let em live and breath. 
I grew up poor but I had a full childhood.  Now I interact with as many middle-class, educated, and affluent Black families as I do with poor families; and for all their investment in their children too many affluent Black families treat their children like they are just an extension of their overall status, or status symbols. 

These Black folks got into the right schools, they pledged the right frats/sororities, they pursued the right career path, they drive the right car, they live in the right neighborhoods, they do all of this shit, then they want their children to fit into this box, to go along with all the other status symbols. 

You ask these kinda people about their children and instead of speaking about who their children are as people they will tell you about their “accomplishments,” the elite schools they attend, the awards they’ve won.  They will never say shit about who the child is as a person.  Like my son, he’s inquisitive, talkative, goofy, really into anime and animal rights.  My younger son has an obsession with fairness; I don’t look at my children as a fucking collection of accomplishments, they are people and that shit don’t define them. 

Most people don’t even know who the fuck their children are, what kinda people they are becoming, they only know their GPA, the number of languages they speak, and the schools they were accepted into.  It’s fucking insane.  I’ve met affluent Black families with children as young as 6 or 7 and they are telling me what college the little dude is gonna attend and what career they will have. WTF? 

My son is starting his freshman year (of community schooling), and I don’t know what the fuck he plans to do for a living, (beyond helping the extended family build the familial cooperative enterprises and our Pan-African organization and formations, that is, LOL); I know what he loves and is into today.  I’m not raising Human Resources, let the babies live, thrive, and explore free of our hangups and apprehensions. 

Also don’t push that “competition” shit on them, having them always trying to outdo the next kid; that’s why we have so many borderline psychopaths and sociopaths working around today, cuz we are raising them with sociopathic and psychopathic traits and values. 

Teach Black children cooperation, empathy, and kinship (with all Africans); and they will do better in life than all of these little fuckers trying out do the next kid, I promise you.  I wish I could tell every one of these affluent Black parents; “your little bastard is not the center of the universe, nor are they the final piece of your fucking vision board.”

So that’s 5 thinks Black families can do off the dome.  Hope it helps you.  

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Powered By WordPress | Podcast Guru Pro