by Dr. Jeanette Delaney Manns…(May 7, 2001)
Black man coming in many shades, don’t you know its not what they call you that makes you like pure gold? It’s the gift you are that makes you special. You are my father, my uncle, my brother, my cousin, my son, my nephew, my husband and my lover; but most of all you are my friend!
You are very special! Without you our race would not be. You are the cold black earth under my feet. You are the reason our race will not and can not accept defeat. My people have been under all kinds of stress. During the time of slavery you got your hands and feet cut off struggling to return to your family. No matter what happens you knew your destiny was to be there where God placed you, at the head of the household.
You kept your head up high although deep inside we all knew you wanted to cry. You were chained and bound, feet cut off trying to keep you down. You fought repression, struggling with chains and what appeared to be un-surmountable bondage, but you keep marching and you keep singing, “set my people free!” You march for peace in this free land. You fight for our country in the Middle East. You came back home to a country that gives broken signs of true freedom. What you really came home to was your Black family. You stood with your friends as a legacy to other young men. Remember no man, no woman…can stand on your back unless you lay down on the ground.
Our people need you…Stop your Friday night thing! You don’t have to be down, my man, you will always be my King! I will always be here to hold your hand. You owe it to yourself to hold your head up high. The days have gone when all you can do is sit around and cry. Drinking, drugging, and getting your brain fried. Taking up guns and killing your brothers and sisters is not the way. We’ve got to go back to the roots of our history. A dead person my friend can’t tell the story. We need you to help us to give our young men the true legacy. We need you to help us tell our young men it’s not the seeds you plant but how they grow.
Remember you are my father, my uncle, my brother, my cousin, my son, my nephew, my husband and my lover but most of all, you are my friend! You are the true future of our race! Can’t you see there are things you have to say? Being behind bars is the slavery of modern day. Don’t talk harsh to one another, ready to shoot and put others away.
Stop and think! Think! Think! Each thirty seconds you just killed another brother…another sister. Now who is going to save me? Not you my man, you will be going to jail. Is this the end??? The only witness to your story, to my true story is YOU!!!
–My Black Man!
St. John 3:17, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world, through Him might be saved!
