Where Are We Going?
After journalist Gayle King asked former WNBA star Lisa Leslie some probing questions about Kobe Bryant’s old rape case, an earthquake erupted in the Black community like none before it.
Many Black people could not understand how a Black woman could help destroy a Black man’s legacy, especially after he passed away so suddenly.
Others threatened to kill King because I guess they are so pro-Black that the way they handle someone hurting a Black man is by killing a Black woman.
The hypocrisy is so ridiculous it defies logic.
Rap legend Snoop Dogg posted a video on social media calling King all kind of B’s and H’s.
Although Snoop has a history of disrespecting Black women in his music, despite having a wife, daughter and mother, the fact that he could disrespect one of his elders like King was low even for a dog.
To Snoop’s credit, after some encouraging by his mother; he issued a sincere apology to King.
That’s what real men do.
But it does not take away from the ignorance of his comments, especially since he has a following and people still look up to him as an O.G. in the entertainment game.
King might be old enough to be Snoop’s aunt so just imagine how Snoop would feel if someone spoke about his mother, aunt or mother-in-law in that way.
Snoop always claimed to be a “G.”
But real gangsters never disrespected women, their elders or children back in the day.
So Snoop’s definition of gangsta must be different than that of the real O.G.’s.
A time existed not too long ago when Black women would call out Black men for calling them B’s and H’s.
Those two words could even lead to a woman slapping a man back in the day.
Nowadays, some Black men find themselves defending Black women who do not even want to be defended.
It seems now some Black women respect the brother calling them B’s and H’s rather than the brother defending his Black queen.
In the song “Where Are We Going?” legendary Motown crooner Marvin Gaye sang, “Tell me, where are we going? Oh, what’s the future showin’? Oh, where are we headed? With all that’s going where are we getting’?”
With all that Black Americans have to deal with, it is totally unacceptable for us to turn against each other especially if we call ourselves conscious or woke.
Black America has to deal with a racist commander-in-chief in President Donald Trump.
Black America has to deal with an uptick in racial hate crimes under President Trump.
Black America has to deal with the 13th Amendment and the legal re-enslavement of Black Americans.
Black Americans have to deal with police brutality.
Many Black Americans have to deal with abject poverty.
But no Black Americans should have to deal with Black men disrespecting Black women for any reason.
Black men should defend Black women when they have been wronged.
Honestly, all men should defend and protect all women.
I am not saying that Black men should defend everything a Black woman does.
Wrong is wrong and right is right.
King was wrong for trying to get a specific answer from Leslie about rape allegations against Bryant.
But should men always protect women?
Absolutely.
And Black men know how Black women have held us down for centuries.
In a society that does not always value Black women, one would think that Black men would want to threaten people who threaten our queens and not actually be the ones making the threats.
Like many Black Americans, I binged watched the docuseries “Who Killed Malcolm X?” on Netflix last weekend.
At a time when Black people really caught hell from a systemic White supremacy, the Nation of Islam almost destroyed itself from within as a result of foolishness.
Yes, the FBI instigated and added fuel to the fire, but if those brothers and sisters had stayed unified, there is no telling where Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam (NOI) could have taken the Black community.
The Nation of Islam always talked about an eye for an eye and not turning the other cheek to White supremacy.
But when a brother from the NOI died as a result of police brutality, all of that talk about vengeance disappeared and nothing was done to someone killing a Black man.
Let’s be clear, I do not support violence in any shape or form.
But while the Nation did not lash out violently towards White people, despite all of the talk about so-called “White devils” (which is ignorant to begin with), the only violence they ever inflicted was against other Black people, especially members of the Nation.
That same fakeness exists today.
When a White reporter like ESPN’s Rachel Nichols brought up Bryant’s old rape case, she did not face the vitriol that King did.
However, when a Black woman like King asks similar questions, she gets called out of her name by her own people and receives death threats.
And the fact that we have Black men and women condoning death threats against a Black woman makes me wonder like Gaye where are we going as a people.
King did not do anything wrong by asking about the rape case the first time.
She did wrong by continuing to badger Leslie as if she wanted to force her to say something bad about Bryant.
The fact that King kept pushing for a different answer did show bias on King’s part.
Furthermore, her best friend Oprah Winfrey does not call out White men for rape as much as she apparently does for Black men.
But King and Winfrey are not the same person, and King should not suffer for the sins of her friend.
And her going a little too far with her questioning is not that serious when it comes to what ails the Black community.
Instead of insulting or threatening Black women, lets get all Black people to go to the polls to get another politician in the White House.
If that happens, maybe racists will not feel so comfortable or acceptable in this country.
Maybe they’ll go back into hiding or realize the error of their ways.
But shout out to Snoop Dogg for finally realizing the error of his ways when it came to his statements about King.
Hopefully his influence can lead to some unity within the Black unity instead of constant discord.
