As I sit here counting my change, I started to count my Pennies first. I put them in stacks of twenties. As I am making my stacks, my hand hits the stacks that I’ve already made and they all fall over. To my dismay I have to start all over again. As I’m making my stacks my mind starts to wonder. As I look at the Pennies some are heads up some are heads down. I thought to myself wouldn’t it be nice if they all would’ve been head’s up, but that wouldn’t have been logical because they are inanimate object’s and they fall as they may. Some heads up and some heads down that’s the way it is but again wouldn’t it be nice if they all were head’s up.
I then began to think about my Black Brothers and Sisters. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all were heads up? There is no reason why we can’t be. We are not an inanimate object like these pennies. We are humans with a head on our shoulders and a mind that allows us to think, so why do we fall like the Pennies do?. Why can’t we fall heads up? As I sit and wonder I began to look at the Head side first.
We are capable to think for ourselves, we can take care of ourselves, we can learn how to read and write and do math, we can also hold an intelligent conversation with anyone. Our race has produced some of the greatest and courageous minds that have contributed to science and products that we use every single day. We are capable of showing love one to another and having a good time getting along with each other. We have shown that we also can follow directions and can be law-abiding citizens. We are capable of being loving, caring, and nurturing parents as well. We can get up every day and go to work and hold down a job and own our own businesses. We have displayed how talented we are in singing, dancing, and sporting our ability to excel in these areas, making the world stand up and take notice, along with our knowledge for science and inventions. As I think about all of this I first began to pick up the Pennies that are Head’s up first.
I then look at the ones on the flip side heads down or in other words TAILS UP. I start to think about how is it that we are the only race that finds pleasure in hurting and degrading each other and take no pride in how we live (some of us). Even if we don’t have the best of things being neat and clean could be an option. Now we leave clothes lying around everywhere and dishes in the sink, our lawns are unkept, garbage is dropped and it is not picked up. The opportunity to go back to school or go to a trade school is replaced with reasons why it can’t be done. When/ if given the chance to do it, it still is a problem because of a lack of believing in oneself or in what they’re trying to do.
The children are left unattended, to do as they may with no structure or guidance and if someone tries to stop them from doing wrong then the parents want to fight or talk bad to the adult that is trying to keep their children out of trouble. So the responsible adult stops trying to help. I see a lot of people walking around dressed in any kind of way. Guys with their pants hanging low and the ladies with their dresses cut to high or is not covering up their body the right way. All kinds of crazy looking makeup and in all kinds of color and shades thinking that it looks cute but not! Going to job interviews looking this way and thinking that somebody is going to hire you and when you don’t get the job you want to say that you didn’t want to work there anyway cause they were racist.
Our thought process has seemed to change to disrespecting our elders telling them to “shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about” and trying to fight the very ones that have taken care of us from the day that we were born and now that we can “smell ourself” we think we don’t need them anymore. We worship degrading our women and their bodies calling them all manner of names and singing about how we want them to please us and what we’re going to do to them and how we want them to slide up and down a pole and dance for us with little to no clothes on. And what makes matters worse, is the women are going along with this and are displaying the same attitude to what they hear on the songs. We see them acting in this same like manner in their actions, in the way they dress and in the way they dance and in the way they present themselves. Then they want to get mad when a man calls them a derogatory name when your actions make you appear to be just what they are calling you. Don’t get mad if they get it wrong. Change your behavior so they will make the right assessment of you.
I see how that you thrive on selling drugs in your community as a way of getting rich or ahead in life to try and take care of your family as if selling drugs, robbing and stealing is all you know how to do or want to do. Don’t you know you can’t get away with that forever? If someone does something that you don’t like you want to fight and kill each other and think it’s ok. And here’s another thing, we know we have to be at work at a certain time but we leave our house 20mins before it’s time to punch in and because of traffic or an accident you’re late and now you want to cry and say that your supervisor is messing with you for no reason so you’re not going to do all the work that is assigned to you cause they have made you mad. How can you get mad when it’s your fault? The reason is that you don’t want to be responsible for your own actions and do the right thing. You’re always saying that you are the victim and never the one that is causing the problem and if you do own up to it.
We are playing a game that is an endless cycle of shame and I get it because I too was a participant of the same game myself. Until I got off that merry-go-round and started to take a look at what life really has for me. So as I started stacking the pennies that were heads down I saw that it was more of them than those that were heads up, so I looked at my pennies that were TAILS UP and said that’s how a lot of us live and why we are killed and not liked by other races cause we always have to act with our TAILS UP so my message to you is, start living on The Flip Side Of The Coin.
