By Jeffery A. Faulkerson, MSSW

Visit me online @ www.practicalwritingeditingconsulting.com

Several months ago, I received my copy of Steve Perry’s book Man Up! Nobody Is Coming to Save Us (Note: Buy this book at http://www.manupbook.com/home.html. It will make you think.). The book is a quick read, taking a “hard-hitting, hip, introspective look into what the Black community must do to save itself.” As a black American male, I understand where Perry is coming from (we have to stop waiting on the next Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to arrive on the scene and lead us to the Promised Land), but as a born-again Christian, I’m having a difficult time supporting his assertion that salvation cannot be found in one man.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gave all of humanity a new lease on life when he was crucified dead and buried only to be resurrected three days later. This one selfless act paid the penalty for our sin. And the bible tells us that whoever believes on him will not perish but have everlasting life. But that’s not the end of the story. The bible also tells us that Christ has scheduled a return visit to Earth to unite the body of believers with God the Father.

PRAISE GOD!!!

But what must we do to be in this number, this body of believers? The Apostle Peter is reported to have replied in Acts 2:38-39 (New International Version) that we must first “repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Perry is correct in writing that many black Americans are waiting on another messiah to help them take hold of their 40 acres and a mule. At the height of his ministry, Dr. King was considered a modern-day messiah. But to those other individuals who emerged from the Civil Rights Movement’s golden age to see another day, Dr. King’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968 seemingly caused Black America to lose both its moral conscience and sense of purpose. As a result, they believe that generations of black children and youths have been growing up with a false sense of what is required to take advantage of educational and vocational opportunities in America.

I still recall how these false sentiments played out among many of us black American students at Kingsport’s Dobyns-Bennett High School (Tennessee). From 1982 to 1986, a number of us managed to graduate from high school to attend college or serve time in the military, but countless others made choices that robbed them of opportunities to lay a firm foundation for individual prosperity. Many of these others sold and used drugs, later serving time behind bars. There were also the ones who had children out of wedlock – the mothers becoming dependent on the welfare system, many of the fathers continuing to live the lives of Rolling Stones.

What these others failed to exercise was their moral consciences. Their moral consciences would have allowed them to choose righteous paths over unrighteous ones. Rather than selling and using drugs, they would have been excelling in school and serving others in their communities. Rather than having children out of wedlock, the young fathers and young mothers would have been able to foresee the consequences of their fornicating ways. They would have realized very early in the game that individual and collective prosperity awaits those individuals who save themselves for the true love of spouses.

And when our moral consciences operate from positions of righteousness, we are more likely to have an accurate understanding of our purpose, both individually and collectively. Deep down inside, I think we all know that life is not about participating in a never-ending party of drugs, sex and violence. Life should be about leaving behind legacies that serve as testaments of our love for God (vertical relationship) and neighbors (horizontal relationships). But our actions are reflective of a human culture whose members are consumed with getting to the top, forgetting those individuals who have yet to catch up to us.

If you need proof, let me direct your attention to the evolution of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. Reducing the poverty rate was a national concern during the 1950s and ‘60s. We can never forget that during this period in our shared history, the nation was recovering from The Great Depression and World War II. But out of this concern came such programs as Head Start, food stamps, work study, Medicare and Medicaid, to name only a few. But in the early 1990s, the federal government began to view the poor in a different light, one that blamed them for the onset of their problems.

Our leaders now believed the more we give them (the poor), the more they want. “To them,” they seemingly would say behind closed doors, “it’s free money.” Ultimately, this mindset would lead the Clinton Administration to place a five-year time limit on the assistance that the poor could receive through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Those most affected by this measure were single, black American women.

As a student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, my professors in the College of Social Work would often share case studies of black American women with children who entered the ranks of the impoverished after separating from and/or divorcing their spouses. The nature of why these black American queens opted to have sexual relations with unreliable males was not explained to us. But one thing was for certain, a large proportion of our black American men weren’t trying to be like Ward Cleaver, the white American patriarch in the hit television comedy Leave It to Beaver. Truth be told, they didn’t want to be anything like white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant males. The lives that they led resembled the one led by the black American character Priest (played by actor Ron O’Neal) from the 1972 film Superfly.

Priest was a cocaine dealer in Harlem, New York who began to realize that his life would soon end with either prison or death. For black American men, Priest represented progress because he was a self-made millionaire. Because of this warped mindset, this glamorization of criminality, many of our black American men grew up to become criminals themselves, conducting open-air sales of heroin, marijuana and cocaine in cities across America. Unfortunately, the very nature of their profession forbade them from being shackled by the demands of parenthood.

And this is why we find ourselves fighting tooth and nail to save our black American children and youths from the streets. Our children and youths equate being black in America with the drug dealers, gang members, pimps and prostitutes. Even though these individuals make their money through unrighteous maneuvers, they are still respected by our youngsters. They are the controllers of their own destinies, their necks finally being freed from the nooses of white racism, prejudice and discrimination.

But what they fail to see is the trail of dead (and living dead), black bodies that are left in the wake of the black underworld’s unrighteous maneuvers. Black Americans are disproportionately dying from murder and drug overdoses. Black American children are disproportionately being removed from their homes to be placed in foster care. Ultimately, black American adults are disproportionately being incarcerated for black-on-black crimes.

You would think that these outcomes would encourage our children to excel academically and vocationally. But they aren’t. They are blinded by the bling-bling, thinking that the most important color is green, not black.

In the final analysis, though, we Blacks must see the error of our ways, simultaneously dropping to our knees to repent. Not just for the sins we commit against our neighbors here on Earth, but for forgetting that somebody has already saved us. But after we have made amends with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is imperative that we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our steps in helping ourselves, our peers and our group's youngest members capture the impure thoughts that prevent them from taking hold of this nation's prosperity.

You see, taking responsibility for self begins with a single thought. These thoughts can make us feel either good about ourselves or bad. That’s one of the reasons why it is so important for us to man down (become selfless rather than remain selfish). God wants us to feel good about helping our brothers and sisters find their way to the well of salvation (Jesus), not the hottest drug on the street. Once they have tasted the water from this well, they will be more motivated to work with like-minded individuals to bring about positive changes to Black America and, ultimately, the world at large.

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