How Much is a Black Man Worth in the New Millennium?

Kris says:

Sometimes I feel like the value of a black man in society is like watching the stock market - sometimes the stock is up, sometimes it is down. Either way, somebody is profiting off of the stock…

This society has endemically placed a dollar value on blacks – as much as this society has advanced and pushed forward into advancement, on some level slavery mentality has not completely disappeared. The Sean Bell case proves that – and on some level the verdict should have sent a message into the gut of most people who have not yet been convinced that racism still exists. As much as people may say that the verdict came out the right way, I strongly believe otherwise – that on some level there is a natural revulsion of the idea of a man being shot that many times, and a judge could excuse the police officers for doing it.

Black men are consistently persecuted in society and the question is – what if the situation were reversed. What if it were rich white boys being persecuted and punished for being rich and white? What if Sean Bell were a rich and white male, about to be married to his fiancé and has a child? The answer is close to obvious – the lens through which the judge may have seen the whole situation (considering the heat he would have received for allowing two black cops to shoot a white man) would have drastically changed. The only people that he would upset if he let the cops off the hook would be black people – and what does he truly have to lose if the majority doesn’t care? As harsh as this sounds, I truly do believe this is the reality we live in. And I’m not saying anything radical here. These very thoughts have already been expressed in various forms throughout society.

The most intriguing aspect of this verdict, however, is the timing – we are in the middle of a presidential race in which there is a very strong likelihood that a black man may be able to become a President. (As mixed as Obama may be, he is still black [the “one drop” rule applies in this country]). The juxtaposition is uncanny – and very disturbing. From my perspective I think society is somewhat bipolar when it comes to black men – sometimes they are great, sometimes they are bad. And on some level, Obama has mysteriously been able to get Americans to see past his race and observe who he is – his charm, his intelligence, his experience, his - Obama-ness. I can guarantee most people didn’t even inquire into what Sean Bell did for a living – or what his little girl’s name is. Is this due to a class difference – elite versus non-elite within a black man spectrum? Perhaps Obama’s class status has “whitened” him enough so that he is not as black as he would be sans Ivy-League creds. Just food for thought.

As radical as this posting may appear, the whole point of me writing this is not to stir up debate. It is to encourage open-mindedness to the issues going on in this world. How much longer will we choose to ignore hate? How much longer are we willing to push off tomorrow what we can do today in terms of continuing Martin Luther King’s dream?