There's an old saying that states, "beware of strangers bearing gifts." It's a quote by a Roman poet Aeneid of Virgil during the time of Augustus. The passage referred to one of the stories of the Trojan War. The Trojan Horse strategy was a Greek "military deception" used to enter the city to subdue it.
The lure of the horse seemed harmless, mostly since the builders of the gigantic wooden horse was nowhere to be found or far away. And I suppose that if anyone attended Long Branch High School and had a teacher by the name of Mr. Ward (who loved every aspect of Greek mythology), would know of this devastating tale. The giant wooden horse was filled with soldiers that sprang out and overtook the city per the Trojan War story.
The moral of the story is that something that seems non-threatening can be dangerous, especially when it looks like a gift: case and point. Many Black children do not understand that their grandparents and great grandparents were not involved with gangs. So if your great grandparents were born in the 50s, for the most part, they did not have any gang propaganda that influenced them to illegal activity, or that prepared them to be a life long resident in the criminal justice system. That's not us.
Hence in response to the dismantling of Jim Crow Laws and Civil Right Affirmative Action successes, various economic divestments were enforced during the 70s to 90s. Some of those divestments that occurred in the early 70s were the execution and trumped-up charges that murdered and jailed civil rights group members after the murdering of the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King. (Stay with me because I'm going someplace with this narrative.)
Later, corporations re-located to other countries like Mexico and India. And the cost of living skyrocketed by design here in America. All in correlation to the enforcement of affirmative action and voter right enforcement. Because of said socio-economic factors, the Black family began to deteriorate. More and more Black men were in jail for petty reasons, and more Black mothers had to forfeit raising their children and, in turn, ended up working one or two full-time jobs to make ends meet. And as it turns out, leaving thousands of Black children to be babysat by the television made children vulnerable to the western worlds' devices and suggestions.
For example, during the 70s, 80s, and 90s, more media outlets always made Black men look like thugs and black women as promiscuous. In contrast to Black people's image in the 50s and 60s, as nurses, homemakers, classical entertainer, secret service agents, entrepreneurs, and ministers altered to pimps, hoes, and criminals in the 70s. All by the magic of TV!
After the 1980s, the initial flooding of crack cocaine throughout Black communities, plus gang propaganda, was introduced to urban communities that did not reflect the Black culture. To give you some background perspective to this point, most Black people didn't scar themselves with tattoos. That was too much like the branding that our people suffered during slavery. Also, although bad behavior was frowned upon in the Black community. Black folks recognized that a segment of their population would be self-hating because of unresolved issues and actions created during slavery. Hence, the communion of spiritual worship and gathering at church provided a community blanket in an environment where people could unlearn the bad behavior introduced to their people via captivity and Black code Jim Crowism.
But just like tik tok during the mid-80s and heightening in the 90s incomes this seemingly non-threatening club where kids wore colors and called each other family. In mockery, it imitated the Black Panther Party. A movement that was organized by Black college students to enforce the rights of Black Americans. These Black Panther youth continued to carry on the work of Rev Martin Luther King & Malcolm X. Because of Black Panther Party, we now have free breakfast and lunch programs across America for all children to be nurtured by. Black Panther Party developed and designed this concept along with racial profiling reports and other discriminating factors affecting Black America.
The problem with the current gang propaganda and the Black Panther Movement was that the Black Panther Party loved Black people and was operated by Black people. While gang propaganda taught Black children to hate Black people and was later proven by FBI studies, White Supremacist and Mexican Drug Cartels controlled American gangs. Unannounced or realized by unsupervised teens who joined gangs to make friends with other youth. Period. At this point in the game, many Black parents were working two or three jobs. Many treated gang affiliation with their children as a type of new Mickey Mouse Club that their kids came up with, not White supremacists and their allies. But nothing was further from the truth.
Once upon a time on the norm, Black youth graduated high school and went to an HBC or HBCU to be nurtured, valued, and prepared to enter the world. Ready to fight the good fight of faith. And become apart of the expanding Black middle-class that was on the rise from the 50s to the 70s. Out of nowhere, it seems Black teen's character and perspectives changed in the 80s. Black teens affiliated with gangs began to act out an old and familiar ideology that white supremacists used from back in the day. Such as spitting as soon as you see a Black person walking by.
You see, one of the Jim Crow rules utilized by White supremacist was that when a Blackman, woman, or child was walking on a sidewalk, a white man would spit on the street at them. This learned behavior would imply to a Black person you are lower and belong on the streets. Later, when an epidemic of tuberculosis swarmed America, the uncivilized mannerism of spitting at people was outlawed. People were not allowed to spit on the ground. And if they did, they would be given a fine and or jail time. But to my point, those disrespectful behaviors were originated by racist, now acted out by our children via gang propaganda.
As a culture, we must recognize who's teaching our unsupervised children these behaviors. And then be honest with ourselves. We know where the bad behavior training came from—the television. Propaganda utilized by media and sleazy people looking to make a buck, whether in the privatizing of jails or re-teaching Black children to act how penal colonists desired them to be. Easy targets for rape, exploitation, cheap labor, and death.
Strangely enough, the scenario hasn't changed. During the middle passage of slavery, African parents were dropped off in the Caribbean and South America. At the same time, a host of their children were left to the savage behavior of mostly exiled Europeans with whom we're either lifelong criminals, mental patients, or murders exiled to America. Like gangs, the target is on Black children, and Black people can't be okay with our children's brainwashing any longer. (The curse must be broken!)
The correlating factors that tik tok provides are similar. The short skits designed to influence children into a space that only they can enter and control are fraudulent. Our children were left alone with a device that would assist and lure them into a lifestyle of underachievement. Not to mention many of the children on tik tok aren't children at all. They sneak in hoes dancing with a hoe like instructions to teach children to act out in inappropriate behaviors that's not them at all.
And just like when gang propaganda came out, Black parents are still overly distracted by
economic woes
over-policing
microaggressions from co-workers & community leaders
plus unfair policy enforcements
This methodology over being distracted must end. The world is focused on making your child what it wants them to be instead of your child becoming all that they can be with purpose-driven value systems that do not include the dictates of racist politicians and money-hungry people of all colors.
So Black parents, guardians, teachers, pastors, aunties, uncles, and foster parents, we cannot drop the ball on this infraction against our tweens and teens any longer. We have witnessed how propaganda creeps in and encaptures or seduces our children's thinking processes. The power of suggestion is real. The jails being full are real. The graveyards, with too many of our youth in it, are genuine. And we must block the next wave of attack focused on our grandchildren & children immediately. If you witness bad behavior over and over again, per a media device, you will misbehave. If you see healthy behavior over and over again, you will be healthy. And unfortunately, since our children see the media device more than they see their caregivers, the media device begins to seem to be the go-to when nothing further from the truth should be happening.
Tik tok is a trojan horse that, like gang propaganda, stole from us the right and ability to see our Black children be all they can be. Let's not let tik tok be that subliminal resource used by money-hungry people who are piss poor morally and do not, and I repeat, DO NOT give a dam about our children.
Hence we have to go back to doing things the way our defiant ancestors did. Take children to church to obtain a code of conduct that they can fall back on to discern the difference between right and wrong. We must allow them to see Black leadership at work for them. Get the reparations owed to us so that we provide a more cohesive and settled living standard. And always put all of our Black children's needs first despite what special interest groups try to make us focus on. We are in a crisis that we can fix as long as we decide to call a lie a lie. And stop forfeiting our children to medias deep unethical desires.
Flip the script! Our children need to be re-introduced to the dignity that their African and 1st Nations ancestors lived by. They need to revisit the institutions that their grandparents built or utilized, such as local churches, NAACPs, Urban Leagues, and so many other places that we have forgotten about by design that were meant for all of our children's good and not just some. Many church services are on zoom. We have to renew our minds before we lose our minds, which is what the enemy wanted in the first place!
Thanks for reading this commentary. Please be sure to fight for the enforcement of reparations for Black Americans and advocate good things for the kids.
Peace out!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/girls-women-and-wellness/202008/the-irresistible-lure-tiktok-why-is-the-app-so-popular