NEWS FLASH!!! Martin Luther King Jr. is dead!
on August 30th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
During the recent special news report on ABC titled “Out of Control: AIDS in Black America”, the host mentioned 5 reasons why the AIDS crisis in Black America was not being “adequately” addressed (later this week I would like to address this entire program in greater detail. I felt kinda prompted to at least address one of their reasons after reading this article). One of those reasons mentioned during this program: “Failure in Black leadership to address the AIDS crisis” really got my goat (so to speak).
The question that immediately came to mind :“WHAT IS THERE TO ADDRESS?” There are two main ways the AIDS virus is replicating itself in the Black community: intravenous drug use and causal unprotected sexual intercourse (and not some green monkey roaming the streets in the black community biting the necks of our children).
If you are black in this country, then unless you were abducted by an alien as a child and are just returning to earth you have been told in some way, shape or form the dangers of having sex outside of the realm of marriage (this is the part when someone will bring up a few cases where individuals came in contact with the AIDS virus within marriage. Let me stop you right here by saying that while it may be true, this does not represent nowhere near the majority the AIDS cases out there). Although these warnings were mainly religious in nature (“God would not be pleased”), the fact remains that we were still warned about casual sex. While some of you will try to discount those “religious” warnings, let me point out to you in our past history when we actually heeded these “religious” warnings–the AIDS virus was non-existent in the black community! If you are an American (or at least do not live in a third world area), you have been hammered over and over again via television, Internet, school, radio, concerts, albums, songs, stage plays, movies, t-shirts, fund raisers, rallies, lectures, walk-a-thons, workplace, etc. on the dangers of having unprotected sex. But somehow for blacks (according to some) we still need a “leader” (a MLK 2.0) to further address this issue?
Forescore and many years ago, if a young man wanted to date a young woman, he actually became fearful about his “meeting” with her FATHER (depending on the family, it was a “meeting” with both the MOTHER and FATHER). By meeting with the parents (especially the father), this young man knew from the start that he was to treat this young lady with the upmost respect OR ELSE! The parents of the young lady also held their daughter to high expectations.
Now I know by this time at least some of you are rolling your eyes because “…that was then and this is now!”, but I bring this up all for a reason. Anytime I hear the words “Black Leadership”, the first thing that I think about are the men over the years (especially my own father) that helped me to grow from a little boy into a mature man. These men never had an entourage, never appeared on cable news, never held a press conference, never pastored a church, and in some cases never took the black pilgrimage to see the grave site of Martin Luther King Jr. These were just ordinary men who took the time to train me how to stay “on the straight and narrow”.
I get so tired hearing questions that start with “If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today…?” To be blunt, if King was alive today, he would be seen as nothing more than just another “foaming at the mouth” black preacher who may get a lot of press time, but still remain virtually unknown to our young people except during white-vs-black conflicts. As much as I love the great legacy of MLK, it is time for both the mainstream media and those that accept their perception of the black community to update their definition of Black leadership.
May MLK finally rest in peace and may leadership from our own men come forth!
