The Life and Times of Mr.

Ghetto
Why Blacks in America May not Live out the 21st Century By Muhammad Bey
A Man is what a man does, so it is for an entire generation or an entire group of people. African American, blacks as they are called are no different in this respect. This article is not meant as a detailed examination of the black experience, there are plenty of book and lectures on that subject already with far better scholarship than I can offer in this document. No, the point of this document is to show that if blacks do not get their collective or individual games together, they will be wiped from the history in the United States all together in the coming decades. The world is changing all around us, the implication are economic, moral , even spiritual in scope and will define the world African Americans will inhabit in the future. Collectively African Americans are hard working; god fearing one might even say they are more conservative than conservative whites, though that is a question for another article. But these virtues have not spare the lash of disenfranchisement from the backs of African Americans. No, perhaps in spite of our effort African Americans has been consigned to the fringes of American life since the earliest days of their existence in the new world. Because of these impediments, African Americans share a collective set of failings which become more pronounced with every generation and every economic down turn, they have lower and lower standards and they accept these standards as the norm more and more every year. Thus it is my assertion that African Americans will not live out the 21st century in America, if the trend I and others see do not change there not be any African Americans living in the united states in 2113 and if there is they will be a most miserable and permanent underclass of an order seen today only in such places as the slums of Mumbai or Lagos. There are more than enough statistics and social observations to support this assertion so I will not quote all of them. But for those who need convincing, I turn your attention to the work of Dr. Claude Anderson, to American prison and incarceration statistics, drop out data in black communities. I turn your attention to the looming jobless rates for blacks nationwide, available from the bureau of labor statistics : http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm and to all too numerous accounts of black deaths by black and white hands as well as the abortion rate in black communities. http://www.blackgenocide.org/black.html . These effects on the black community would be devastating enough, but there is more.

All of this is compounded by traditional black suspicion of doctors, distain for the educated if not for education, our inability to trust one another, Black peoples unwillingness to try to trust each other, Black peoples suspicion of one anothers real intentions in domestic encounters, Black peoples lack of knowledge about American history and the role of technology in their relative destitution, a severe lack of knowledge about money, the differences in being wealthy and being rich and a stunning lack of interest in the American dream. Instead many younger black today seem to be interested in a black version of the American dream which substitutes possessions for a meaningful life. A American dream that is only skin deep, more flash and now, than substance and tomorrow, many African Americans are unable to defer gratitude and concern themselves with collecting things instead of sacrificing for a better tomorrow. Collectively Black people are like the frog in the pan of cold water which is slowly being heated, we are unaware the pan is heating up and by the time we notice, it is too late. Yes, institutionalized racism has played and very large role in all the accumulated, dysfunctional trends of the black community, but this does not excuse blacks from taking a role in their own collective survival and continued existence as a group. No one else will take up this mantle and it is a misread of human nature to think that any group or collection of groups will take up the cause of Black people in the coming years. So called Hispanics now outnumber blacks and are moving politically to have the agendas of the nation move from white-black agendas to whiteHispanic. Whites long ago abandoned blacks to their fate as a non-franchised, non-compensated, non-important work force. Blacks in America own less than 2 percent of all property, when I say this I am talking about the home you live in, in which you are a tenant if your mortgage is not paid and even when it is! I am talking about the new car you bought that you have not paid for yet. You do not own the movie theater you visited on the weekends, nor the department store you shopped in on Saturday, nor the market or even local grocers you sent Johnny to buy milk in, hell; you do not even own an affiliate web site on the web. One of the problems with blacks is that long ago it was determined that the economic destiny of blacks in the new world was separate from the destiny of everyone else..It has remained so till this day and most blacks are no clearer on this point than they were at the end of southern reconstruction. Add to this the effects of low emphasis on education in many black households, the effect of the extraction of black men from black households. The lack of a strong, black, logical male in a house hold often leads to young men and young women behaving in ways detrimental to their own future. And the failure of black communities to control out of control blacks in their midst, leading to an environment of socially unacceptable behavior such as walking around with one pants down.

Some of the specific character flaws exhibited by some blacks in the US today include: Lack of concern for the good of others in public, disturbing the peace. Being too comfortable in public and behaving foolishly, being too loud for example. Very poor clothing habits, such that make the individual look foolish or simple minded. An inability to control one passions , especially with family A belief that life is cheap and should be. Naming their children all sorts of strange things, impairing their ability to get jobs in later life. Doing foolish things in public that draw undue attention to themselves which effects other blacks by association. Continuing to harbor beliefs that white society is keeping them down, thus perpetuating ideas to our children that blacks cannot help themselves. Allowing their children to cover their faces in tattoos, eliminating them from 95% of all jobs and future work environment. Low self-esteem exhibited in the form of self-destructive behavior. If nothing is done in the black community to offset these problems, these and other ghettobehaviors will only continue to become more pervasive as time goes on, dragging down more young blacks with these toxic examples as time goes on. Let me offer an example. As I write these words, a foolish, young, black man is down the street, blaring noise from his ghetto wagon, with bass woofers and all the audio bling that goes with it! This has been going on for some time, namely because unlike my child hood when there was a man , a grown man living in almost every house in my block, now I am almost the oldest man on the black and the only one willing it seems to call the cops or otherwise do something about the trouble makers. Of course this is the crux of the problem, no one around this young man thinks his noise is a problem, the block is now full of young fools and old women, these black women have bought the medias insistance that you cannot speak to your neighbors because they might shoot or stab you, this has been true in America since the revolution in some places, but what concerns me is that while the negro is disturbing the peace, even the neighbors closets to him do not have back bone enough to say something, even though they are far more in the right to do so than I am half a block away from the disturbance, even at 9pm. the fools goes on, no one says a thing till I do, finally the police come and the noise stops. In my youth, half the block would have been down on his head, beating him about the ears which words of denunciation and indignation. He would have been shamed in to not behaving this way in the first place, but no more. Now our inferiors get the upper hand because old women do not want their sons and husbands to speak out to fools,

lest they possibly be cut down by violence it is believed. True, violence does occur in these scenarios at times, but not all the time, not even most of the time. We are too afraid to act, to speak to one another, we have forgotten the examples of the past and the lessons of history, and that if a community is to be strong the neighbors must begin by speaking to one another, which few of us do. We have bought the lie, we believe that not only is the destiny of blacks separate from all other ethnic groups in this country, blacks themselves think their personal destinies are separate from each other in the black community! No wonder blacks cannot be a great people, only a people acted upon by outside forces, expected to suffer in silence, acted upon by outside other communities and other peoples laws. One wonders that blacks do not migrate to other countries like Asians, African, Cubans, Russians, The Irish and Arabs do and form communities and start businesses like other cultures, surely their history has taught them that they are citizen-outcasts in their own land, But while some visit the Caribbean, west Africa and even brazil, blacks remain resolutely at home in the open air prison called America where they take full in the face every insult the nation can dish out with little more than an occasional cry of righteous indignation, but never a plan to relieve themselves of the burdens of life in America. Instead many watch the news but do not see the message, they listen to people complain about America but do not hear the message, they run to church and spend half the day caught up in symbols, ritual and loud words but miss the message of salvation. The message is you must be the author of your own salvation, the lord helps them that help themselves! Burying our head in the sand and keeping it real with rims, ghetto blasters and two barbeques will not make for a better tomorrow for our children or ourselves. Two centuries ago men plowed their fields with their muskets on their backs, ready to take up arms in the defense of our freedom, today we live in fear of each other, of our government and each other. Malcolm X said it best when he mocked Negros who said: where ya gonna get a better job, than ya can git here? Where ya gonna find a better house than ya can find here? If only blacks began to ask this question with the intent of answering it. If they only began looking beyond the shores of America, or really began to look toward each other as populations around the globe are now doing there may be some hope for some of our people. People the world over from India, Mexico, the Philippines, China and all across Africa are migrating around the world; blacks in America for the most part are barb-bq-ing and watching TV on the weekends instead of planning for a better tomorrow. They are keeping-it-real and waiting for someone else to deal with it, the problems too big for them to be bothered with.

Regardless of who started the problems each of us face, regardless of who is to blame, each of us is the inheritor of the problems in our lives; it is up to each of us to seek a solution, be it alone or in some collective manner. The rise of barter sites, crowd funding websites, Multilanguage classifieds and mechanical Turk , freelance websites means that the future of man is one where we will turn as a human family to each other for solution, not to big governments which can do little more now a days than wage wars or keep the lights on for now. We must all begin to awake to the new reality, for those in the west know that in one sense or another, the west is in a slow decline, no one can say for sure when the end will come or what it will look like. But one thing is certain, those not ready for these changes be them slow or fast will face a very dire future. Education is the key; my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. The surest sign of a weak mind is one that never asks a question, one that is always sure it knows the answer. I am not saying become a prepper or pack up and move to the forest or new Caledonia, although those might be good ideas for some of you. No. what I am saying is thisstart asking questions, do not be swayed by the collective ignorance of your so called friends, each of them may be motivated by ulterior motive of which they are unaware, such as fear and a need to conform. Ask yourself: What do you want your legacy to be? What do you want to leave behind when you are gone? What do you want people to say about you when you are gone? What are your plans for the rest of your life? What do you now about trends in the world today? Are you happy with your life the way things are now, I mean really happy? Would you recognize when you were happy in the first place? I named this article The Life and Times of Mr.Ghetto to get your attention and draw you in to this conversation, not to further denigrate blacks in America. Most people would rather throw themselves under a truck then look themselves in the face! Humans in general are out of touch with themselves and their true feelings, with what motivates us to do what we do and even fewer are willing to investigate this question. The world is changing all around us, those who refuse to change with it must be left behind, at the way side. Change and growth is the birth right of all people, this includes you! The information listed below is only meant as a stimulant, to encourage you to think about ways to influence your own life rather than letting life happen to you.

Those of you, who are willing to begin this journey, I offer some resources for your consideration: Statistical data on African Americans http://www.grabstats.com/statcategorymain.aspx?StatCatID=20 Facts about African Americans: FactBrowser.com http://www.factbrowser.com/tags/black/

Black or African American Populations http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/populations/REMP/black.html On the other side of these links is a wealth of data that will assist you in beginning the journey to self-discovery which is frowned upon in our society. People behave the way they do often because they do not realize that another way is possible or because the lack the courage to change. The courage is in you, the heros journey..is your journey.