May I Have A Word With You?

"Cruisin'" by Smokie Robinson

...baby let's cruise, away from here / don't be confused, the way is clear...

I am watching the movie "The Express". It's about the Syracuse University football team of the 1950s with two African American players on it. Oh yes, two Black players in the midst of the notorious American social revolution.

The scene I just saw motivated me to write. The two Black players discover two Black girls, one who attends the college and the other her friend visiting from Cornell. The two players walk over to the table at which the ladies are sitting and introduce themselves in such a cordial, respectful, sophisticated manner.

I wondered, "Where have those kind of manners gone?" Initially, I wanted to say what happened to Black people, to Black men that the kind of cordiality I just saw in that scene? Then I reassessed and I think all of American culture is less respectful, or so it seems. Maybe the greetings and exchanges of yesteryear were too artful, too decorated, too much and we have just consolidated all the words into a few pleasant grunts and sorry waves. I don't know.

But Lord was I blown away. I wish our Black men still believed in our wonder and trusted our love like it seems they used to. I am unsure of what happened to Black culture and American culture in general, but women are far more objectified now than when they were actually objects...nothing but housewives waiting for children and husbands to return home from their lives in the world.

The disrespect I encounter from my men, my Black men out in the world is aggravating and saddening at the same time. Those men out there, those Black men out there, should see their mothers, their sisters, their aunts, their grandmothers when they see me, when they see any Black girl. Because I am or will be all of those things to someone. On that account, they should treat me with the respect we Black women wish for our Black men.

Can you believe this picture I found on Google? I can't either. Copy that joint to your desktop as evidence of the bull.