You ever wonder why hip-hop music is the genre that is most uniquely focused on big, white corporations paying black men to brag about how high and drunk they are? You think this is a coincidence? Sorry, but it’s not. There is a reason why an artist rapping about smoking and drinking will usually get a deal before a rapper who spits about being intelligent and hard-working. Much of this is because there are people who have a vested interest in seeing black men weak and easily built for incarceration or execution.
To understand where I’m coming from, think about the actions of a pimp.
When a pimp is seeking to control his hooker, one of the things he might do is keep his “employee” high, dependent, thoughtless and off-balance. If he/she needs their pimp for the drug and has a frazzled mind, the pimp will always have control. So, the point here is that America has been working to consistently pimp the black man (slavery was the ultimate form of pimping), and one of the ways they do it is by promoting imagery designed to make you want to be a high/drunk/ignorant/violent super thug.
Here are a few reasons why every black man in his right mind will avoid drugs and alcohol at all costs:
1) Because it destroys your body and your mind: It might seem cool to hit the liquor and weed every day when you are 20 years old, but it doesn’t look cool when you’re 40. I’ve seen a lot of guys lose their minds and develop severe mental disorders after years of drug use. It makes it that much harder to deal with the other stress already being put on you in a society that is designed to destroy you from birth (yes, there is a conspiracy to kill you, since intelligent, focused black men are considered a threat to national security, that’s why the government ordered the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, this was proven in court). To be a strong black man means being a warrior. A man has a hard time going to battle if his mind and body are torn to pieces.
2) Because it’s expensive: One of the greatest problems of the black man in America is the inability to accumulate wealth in ways that are legal or ethical. The last thing you want to do is give all of your money away to the same white corporations that won’t even give you a job. Learn how to start your own business instead. In order for the extreme black male unemployment rate to decrease, we have to learn how to build our own businesses. That’s the only option we have (other than sitting around praying and hoping that white people will suddenly decide to stop being racist).
3) Because it can easily ruin your life: I've seen a thousand situations where one bad decision on one fateful night led to someone getting 30 years in prison. Alcohol and drugs throw off your judgment and can put you in places you never thought you’d be. Even a black man who has been falsely accused is likely going to be forced to take a plea deal and end up in the criminal justice system anyway. If you sleep with a woman and both of you are drunk, a rape accusation alone is enough to ruin your life, especially since you may not even remember what you did.
The worst feeling in the world is to wake up and find out that you did something the night before that put you in prison for life. I cried when watching a video about a 19-year old kid who smoked some bad weed and went on a killing spree that put him in prison for life with no chance for parole. After hearing about all the things he did while he was high, he said, “I actually deserve the death penalty.”
4) It zaps your ambition and focus: Throughout all human history, nothing great has ever been accomplished by any group of people who stayed high and drunk all the time. Smoking weed all day doesn’t make you want to get up and work, it makes you sit there and watch life pass you by. Other drugs may perk you up, but they make you crazy and can even lead to mental illness after throwing off your brain chemistry over a long period of time. Whenever you hear about rappers dying young or having seizures, in many cases, it’s because of consistent drug use.
Malcolm X once said, “The white man will sell you the liquor bottle, and then lock you up for being drunk.” He then explained that this was the reason he worked so hard to convince black men to avoid the poison that destroys them, so they can be productive, positive, strong, healthy husbands, fathers and leaders. When the black man dies, the family dies. When the family dies, the community dies. So, I encourage any black man who wants to take control of his life to walk away from drugs and alcohol.
People are depending on you to be strong, and not spend your life feeling sorry for yourself. Racism isn't going away in your lifetime, so there is no point in waiting for white people to start being nice to you (I don’t care what the Democrats say, they don’t care that much about you either). The fact is that if you want something in a competitive world, you have to position yourself to go to battle and TAKE IT. Stand up, fight for what you want, and don’t let anybody stop you. Also remember that you’ll be in a much better position to fight if you’re not staggering on your way to the battle field.
Don’t let drugs and alcohol steal your destiny. You’re better than that.
Dr Boyce Watkins is a Finance PhD and author of the lecture series, “The 8 Principles of Black Male Empowerment.” To have Dr Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
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