I AM Not a Cause

Lately I have found myself feeling some kind of way regarding this national movement that sees Black men and boys in some sort of perpetual victimhood state that requires saving.  I firmly believe that my ability to be employed, not incarcerated and educated at a relatively high level has NOTHING to do with my perspective or my condition.  Rather in my mind it has everything to do with my belief that I AM the captain of my fate and the master of my soul.  This is also not to say that I have not experienced the opposite of any of the above.  Furthermore, I am not constantly reminded about the social implication my race and gender can have regardless of my accomplishments. 

This notion that I am destined to a state of indefinite victimhood based upon my race and gender I am having a difficult time accepting.  The consistent preaching and teaching Black boys and men to see themselves as victims further emasculates the same population in which so many are interested in empowering.  Are their unique challenges that Black men and boys face relative to structural and institutional racism ABSOLUTELY YES.  But this engrained idea that I am somehow powerless in the process to affect change and subsequently impact my own outcome makes me an active participant in my own oppression.  To suggest that Black men and boys somehow must contort themselves in order to avail themselves to success and avoid adversity ignores truly who one is destined to be and places ultimate power in the hands of someone else. 

The above statement does not ignore the accommodations one must make in order to get from point A to point B, but I contend those are just not germane to race and or gender.  People like what they like and are comfortable with what they are familiar with.  Someone’s lack of discovery is their own limited thinking not some reflection of who and what I am.  The economics though of me owning that deficit changes the paradigm and thus has created a movement with saving my peers and I at its core.   

I nor any of the African-American men I know (from ALL economic and social realms) have a desire to be paraded through folk’s mental and social consciousness by the very same entities that have failed us (education, criminal justice and religious).  All of the aforementioned hands are dirty in terms of creating the conditions that have lead to the state of Black men and boys.  However, to have all coalesced and leading a campaign of redemption suggests a sense of innocence that absolves them of their role in the conditions they have created.   Each has to make amends for their role in the deconstruction of Black men and boys before they can be authenticated as true change agents.

Finally, the campaigns that suggest Black men and boys need to be saved, helped, etc never actualizes the who and what from which Black men and boys need to be saved from and what we need help doing.  This glaring oversight in my opinion further institutionalizes Black men and boys to a system of care that has always proven itself to be elusive at worst and insufficient at best.  Indefinite help creates dependency and elusive help is a lie and I am not interested in either.   

That’s my Truth and I AM sticking to it.

I AM

Dr. Irvin PeDro Cohen

"Change" and not the Kind in Your Pocket

In preparation for an upcoming talk I reflected upon some of the greatest challenges impacting communities like the one I work with.  While the challenges are many ranging from systemic poverty to structural racism, access to affordable healthcare to, violence the most underrated yet highly impactful is resistance to change.  Although you might not agree I would offer that change alone might not be highly impactful it’s the subsequent action or lack thereof that falls upon the perpetrator that has the ability to both serve as liberator and oppressor.

Action relative to change within communities that are impacted by negative social factors has the ability to move the social dial by simply making the participant do something different.  While I would again say there are many social factors that add to one’s situation it’s the repetitive behavior of doing what one has always done that leads to the same outcomes.  By the very definition of change at least another possible outcome is available.  Therefore, converting victim to liberated simply by a change in action. 

Within my daily work it’s amazing how something as simple as water versus juice or the attainment of a GED can have a ripple effect that not only impacts internal family bonds, but communal bonds as well.  Either of the aforementioned forces a different conversation whether its health or educationally related.  The close ties found in most urban centers makes the change previously mentioned impactful no matter if it’s in the house or on the sidewalk outside the house.  The change and impact is still real nonetheless. 

However, for most people living in urban centers the historical reference by which change is often thwarted finds a way to bind the people who can least afford to be stagnant socially, spiritually or morally to outcomes that don’t serve them or their families any good.  It is my opinion it is this same inaction that makes them an active participant in their own oppression by simply doing what they have always done.  I would go further to suggest that remedies to what ails struggling communities often times are bogged down in piles of mistrust based upon new solutions not looking and feeling like what members of the impacted communities are used to.  Therefore, recycled ideas being offered by recycled people with the same outcomes come and go and come again with nothing new being offered.

It’s amazing how “back in the day “ or grandma’s lived experience can serve as a strategic reference point and a strategic stopping point all at the same time. This is not to say either is bad, but it is to say both have their place.  However, as it relates to some particularly those living in urban centers both can serve as social, spiritual and moral shackles. 

Finally, this is not an attempt to blame those in struggling communities that are lost in nostalgia nor is it to say all change is good.  What it is meant to suggest is that through a different lens or reference point, change happens and when change happens the gift of discovery is unwrapped and when that happens true learning occurs.    At that point informed decisions can be made based upon fact and not antidotal information passed down and around.  

That’s My Truth and I AM Sticking To It.

I AM

Dr. Irvin PeDro Cohen