Afraid to Live But Not Afraid to Die: The Autobiography of Young Black Men

I often wonder what has changed to make folks, especially African American men, less concerned, apathetic and even irresponsible about their lives. The behaviors we display are not productive, and the things we do — from fighting, to not knowing how to use a belt, to making it rain in strip clubs, to gang culture makes me ask: Are black men afraid to live more than they are afraid to die? Biggie, now deceased, said it best with his Ready to Die album.

I ask this in all sincerity in an age where it appears that a large corpus of young black males would rather take the easy way out, denigrate the importance of education and think of all outcomes in terms of money, yet not show any penchant to work for what they want. I do not know if it a sign of the times, or the veneration of a culture that reveals drug dealing and making music about sordid topics more than the sustainable values of family and self-determination.

From ghetto street fights on Youtube to videos that display women as being nothing more than meat, many of us promote this under the guise of "keeping it real." We have more knowledge about the mundane than that which may assist our personal growth and development. We can make time to know about Lil Wayne but nothing else of substance.

Why? I cannot answer that question. Maybe it is easy to look at that which affects us the most or least in the form of media and parental influences. From clubbing to our concern for designer clothes and Air Force Ones, young males value a host of "things" more than intellectual development in an environment of an excessively sexually degenerate culture. Ours is a problematic state of being, for we lack knowledge of self, which is what causes us to participate in our own self-destruction. Maybe that is why we sing and have the bling-bling but no books.

Yes, I may be wrong in my terse examination of the state of young African American males, but I will state what I think is an objective reality. Gone it appears are the days of children wanting to be professionals and valuing education. This is the autobiography of young black men today, many are afraid to live but even more are not afraid of dying.

bet they want to be President some day

tony hey-ho

There are some things that we know are wrong and that should never be done. I guess G-Unit member Marvin Bernard (Tony Yayo) never learned this growing up. Recently, the 29-year-old hip-hop artist was arrested for physically assaulting a 14-year old child. The child was the son of Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond, the head of record label/management firm Czar Entertainment. The incident occurred when Rosemond's son left school and was on his way to his internship at his father's offices on West 25th Street.

According to reports, Tony Yayo and several of his friends were leaving Violator Management and saw Rosemond’s son walking down the street dressed in a Czar T-shirt. News reports suggested that Yayo then backhanded the boy with his jewelry-loaded hand and proceeded to curse at the child and towards Czar Entertainment. Witnesses claim that Yayo pushed the boy against the wall, showed him his gun that was tucked in his belt, asking why he was wearing the t-shirt and how old he was. While he was being transported by police, Bernard bragged to reporters “Fitty’ll get me out- I’ll be out tomorrow”.

The child’s mother released a news statement in which she described Yayo’s actions as a “cowardly act” and that it “was a step away from child molestation.” I honestly do not get what is wrong with folks who let celebrity and the so-called credo of violent behavior for the sake of keeping it real; make them not see right from wrong. I agree with the mother, this is a bitch move and we should not tolerate such nonsense anymore. In addition, we should be very careful about how and who we place on pedestals as a function of their celebrity status. Marvin Bernard from this vantage point is just another punk who should be in jail. The problem is that his fans, and the women how admire his lifestyle will still seek to be with or want a person like him in their life.