The Misperceptions Some Blacks Maintain About Black People:
-A Gibbs Editorial and Approach-

Several weeks ago, I visited San Bruno Jail as a part of a speaking panel with several other speakers. Not to my surprise, the majority of the inmates were young Black males, many of whom think that the way of incarceration is the way to Black manhood and proving Black authenticity.

Some of these young men seemed almost beyond reaching with common sense and reasoning, and yet I sat waiting my time to speak and listening to the speakers who went before me.  I recognized that what I had to say would probably be boring and nonsensical to many of them, as the speaker before me appealed to the lurid aspects of having dealt in dope, crime, and experiencing multiple levels and episodes of the penal system early in his life--the same road these inmates are now traveling.

I wondered about that testimony and approach to normalizing many of these young men who did not necessarily see their plight as abnormal from the daily lives of other Black males. By the time it was my turn to speak, I concluded that I would not ideate or romanticized crime and their condition.(1)  Someone had better let these young incarcerated Black males know what they were doing to themselves and to the main of Black America who are stereotyped with them and even by them. As I assured them that I and most other Blacks had never smoked dope, had never done drugs, and never lived the risqué  lives they tout and ideate on daily, most of them may have felt that I was some type of unique Black person, but the fact of Black American life is this: I am the norm of Black America and they are not. Contrary to their belief that their lives are "real life, man" and  "this is the way Black folk live," they are terribly wrong and really have little understanding of what majority of real Black life is about.(2)

This misperception about Black people by young inner city Blacks is an egregious and shameful disservice to themselves--they have no idea of the great legacy they are a part of and now are shaming. Their ignorance fosters the notion that they are behaving as other (the majority) Black people behave, when, in fact, they are not!  These ideas and responses to them are just some the harms we do to ourselves. Yes, there are real harms that America deliberately inflicts upon us, but there are also real harms we inflict upon ourselves and allow others to inflict upon us through our behavior or failure to behave in certain ways.

After a few days of sadness, at seeing these dying young men, I and a friend discussed the idea of what Blacks do to themselves and what we allow others to do to us. We developed a strategy for exploring that concept: Gibbs will pull together a number of Black scholars, activists, thinkers, and concerned male and female writers to explore this idea in a series of essays/articles; thoughtful discussions that are intended to shade light on this concept, not just heat.

While we agree with the observation of Dr. King, Jr., that systems of aggression have been set up against Black people in American, there are things we [Black people] do to ourselves that harm our own interests and sometimes cripple our young. And there are things we allow others who do not intend any good to us to do against us that we can prevent but often do not. These are areas that need delineating. We need to see ourselves clearly and honestly, for no people can be a great people if they cannot or will not honestly look at themselves and see themselves, warts and all! And Black people descend from a long line of greatness, which America cannot stifle.

In the coming weeks, we ask that you travel with us into those neglected and overlooked harms that we afflict upon ourselves and our progeny as we attempt to move into the twenty-first century with confidence and vigor. At the end of this series, which we estimate may take six-months to complete, our publishing arm, Mirror-Gibbs Publications, will compile these essays into a paperback anthology and place it in bookstores for public consumption. This will be a serious scholarly effort from many who have given and will  give serious thought and attention to this issue of how we harm ourselves and allow others to harm us.

Be assured, we are Gibbs Magazine, not Black political  conservatives (3)  who seem to major in negative Black opining  and pronouncing guilt and shame on Black people that they may ingratiate  themselves to white America and its money interests. Furthermore, we are an Afrocentric magazine and publishing house, yet Afrocentric thinkers look honestly at our foibles as well as our strengths. That is what this series intends to do.

Thank you for reading Gibbs Magazine;  tell a friend to read us and pass the word on; that is how we have grown so that 65-70% of our readers come to us directly!

Frank A. Jones, PhD,
CEO of Gibbs

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1.) "Sing sin, and thin gin," as Gwendolyn Brooks characterized it in her poem, "We Real Cool."

2.) According to the latest statistics available from the US Department of Commerce, 70-73 percent of Black America lives above poverty standards; that means that 26-30 percent of Blacks live within the definition of poverty, depending on how poverty is defined--and the definitions do change. These numbers are much too high, but they are not as many young Blacks who tout criminality as some type of authentic blackness and manhood think they are. Furthermore, even while there are serious systemic injustices in the American system of "justice" there are approximately 40 million Blacks, 22-24 million are females and 16-18 million are males. America has approximately two million people incarcerated and under court and probation charge in state and county administrations. While too many of these are Black, (maybe 45-60% of those are Black) one need only to do the math; the majority of Blacks males are not in prison proving some supposed manhood.

The point of this recitation of statistics is merely to displace the notion that our incarcerated brothers represent the norm for Black male life--they do not! This is one of those harms we do to ourselves: remain ignorant of who Black people really are.

3.) Note, most conservatives are not morally conservative, just politically conservative. They use the word "conservative" because it connotes a moral righteousness, which they usually do not have. And their political conservative nature is often a contradiction to moral principles. Indeed, some of the most corrupt and immoral people in politics and life are often political conservatives. 

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