When you gamble, at some point, all bets may come off the table, because for some, either there is nothing to lose, or there is nothing to gain.
As a people, Blacks may have come to the point where all bets are off.
We've reached a point where everyone knows that they don't really have to care about us. There is no incentive to do right by us on any level because we haven't done what we need to do to control our communications, our economy or anything that we actually could have controlled.
And, sadly, things will only get worse, because the disparity in our society between those who have and those who have not will get worse, which means no one has a vested interest in playing with people who have nothing to offer.
America no longer has a moral line to toe-people recognize the conflicts and contradictions in religion and the lack of morals in every form of leadership.
All that's left is money, so there is no more fronting.
It's just not cost effective to care.
At one time in the past, we could point to people who were deteriorating and recognize that they were the result of families or communities that were rotting away. Accordingly, we could find ways to rebuild their families or their communities and raise the level of the national community.
But the people we see currently who are deteriorating are the direct result of society at large deteriorating, which means that it will be a Herculean task for any family or community to rebuild itself when everything around is falling apart.
The Black family is falling apart.
The Black community is falling apart.
At one time in the past, we could point to specific efforts to destroy Black men or to destroy the Black community. But sadly, the Black family and Black relationships which could lead to Black families came under attack from outside and from within.
Now, many of us believe that there are no attacks and that we are simply weak as a people.
Powerful tools were employed for such destruction, including media manipulation of our image and misinformation passed around as truth.
But those of us who are aware can prove that there are plentiful elements pulling at our community, which have been in place and which will not be easing up any time soon.
Many of those elements are legacies of destructive tools of the past.
From prohibited alcohol and to heroin and cocaine and to crack, illegal substances have been dropped in our communities, creating violence-based street commerce and the erosion of families as family members abandon everything good in favor of the addictive substance of the day-either to consume it and self-destruct, or to distribute it for community-wide destruction.
Access to capital has been strategically withheld, using former tools such as character loans before the advent of FICO scores and redlining in communities where we still attempt to live based on shared skin color.
Access to legitimate education has been withheld, leaving some to turn to alternative (and often illegal) vocations to pursue financial security.
Legal alternative vocations are limited, because training for vocational skills just isn't easy to come by any more.
Access to guilds and unions has been withheld, making it difficult to garner the most coveted jobs, protected by members of those organizations.
Take the sum effect of all the above-listed challenges and then watch the community tear itself apart. Come back after two or three decades and when the smoke clears, most of what will remain will be assimilationists perched to abandon the community and criminals preying on the community, with average citizens skirting between the two seeking a meager but steady existence.
However, many of today's assimilationists are taking with them some things previously thought to be left to the very poor to shoulder. These things include an abject embracing of brand names with very few valuable things stored for the future, poor role modeling for youth and of course, a seemingly unbreakable relationship with substances, including today's growing substance of choice-heroin.
Yes, baby, smack is back!
Drugs are now moving into middle Black America, and taking up permanent residence, instead of residing mainly amongst impoverished "hood" people.
Stop paying attention to rap records, stupid movies and the evening news.
Look around you Black people, because things are much different from what too many of us believe.
We may be over.
We had our shot.
In a boxing match, you have a couple of chances to land good shots and then push all the way through to a victory, or at least to a secure place in the arena. But first, you have to be a respected contender.
Let's be honest: No one has much respect for Black people. Not even the respect based on fear. There was always a threat of rioting or protesting, but now, riots are unlikely to occur with any real fervor seen in the past and protesting has been fully pimped out, tamed and commercialized by the likes of Jesse and Al, who are both disingenuous clowns who really mean nothing.
Contrary to the empty threats they make to the white corporate and political power structures, we are no longer organized. We have no cohesive tax based and really, no real community, so no one is forced to respect us.
We've essentially become a joke.
From "Independent Women" claiming not to need men, tacitly embracing the erosion of the Black family, to men in their forties dressed like hip hop clowns avoiding real adult responsibility--when did we become that and cease to be taken serious on any level?
When we began to embrace ignorant, self-effacing comedy as an industry.
We've become a less serious people. Comedy depicting us as horrible people is now the order of the day.
We are allowing ourselves to be commodified as less substantive, conscious responsible less interesting people.
The victims have to be the ones to stop the abuse. But we embrace it and become it-too many bitches, hoes and Niggers trying to live up to stereotypes and not aspiring to be about anything else.
Why would anyone respect that?
And, we live in a much coarser, shallow, uncivilized time anyway.
There has never been an environment where we have been so openly assaulted without retort-from Niggers to Nappy Headed Hoes-not even in the Fifties or Sixties. The most we had to endure in the daylight before were allusions to racist ideations, but in the current environment, the attacks are direct and visceral and shockingly, many of those attacks come from within our own ranks.
So, what can we do to stop the deterioration?
We're not so far removed from the best times in our existence in this nation where things are hopeless.
We just have to take decisive action.
We can take a page from the Jews, who immediately went about the business of healing and forward movement after the Holocaust. They wrote books, garnered therapy and ensconced themselves in specific industries to amass capital and wield power.
If we do these things, we can have another shot.
Then, we can step to the table with confidence and bet on Black.
Until then, all bets are off.
Darryl James is an award-winning author who is now a filmmaker. His first mini-movie, "Crack," was released in March of 2006. He is currently filming a full length documentary. James' latest book, "Bridging The Black Gender Gap," is the basis of his lectures and seminars. Previous installments of this column can now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com. James can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
