Looking out: If not, why not?
By Brandon Astor Jones
Recently I listened to a radio broadcast out of Atlanta, Georgia. The talk show What's Going On? is hosted by Ryan Cameron. It is a good social and civic forum for African-Americans and Americans in general.
The topic of this broadcast was "interracial dating". People with every possible point of view called in to share their views. As with all things racial, there were some strong and impassioned opinions voiced.
A young Caucasian-American, David, called in and went on at some length about his penchant for dating black women. He stated that while he was not "anti-white women" and had tried to date white women, he preferred black women. When Cameron asked him how many interracial relationships he had been involved in, he replied, "Two dozen". David added that he does not have "a chocolate fantasy".
Later, an African-American named Mercedes called into say that while she did date a white man once, on a dare, she did not enjoy the experience. She said a good deal more. Her voice became impassioned as she declared that we black people are hurting ourselves by pursuing mates among other races. She closed by saying, "We need to lift up our black brothers!"
A woman whose name I've forgotten took issue with Mercedes and asked Cameron, "Why should a black woman have to uplift a black man, when every time you turn the corner you see a black man with a white woman?". She explained how she had been in a very pleasant relationship with a white man, and she seemed to be concerned that Mercedes was promoting a hypocritical double standard.
What I would like to do here is provide readers with an insight into a situation rarely if ever seen, let alone considered. The USA's prisons are literally bulging at the seams with men of colour. It is repeatedly said that one in four men of colour have been caught in the racist and class trap of the USA's so-called "criminal justice system".
In fact, thousands of black men are being released from prisons and jails each week in America after having spent a few months, or many years, in prison.
Equally worthy of note is that when black men walk out of these prisons, rarely are the women who eagerly wait for them at the prison gate women of colour. Moreover, while black men are doing month after month and year after year in the dehumanising bowels of prisons, the women who befriend and care for them, for the most part, are not black.
This, despite the fact that black men while in prison desperately try to connect with black women outside — to no avail. It is as if black women are saying that black men in prison are incapable of redemption and unworthy of human or friendly interaction.
So the next time that black sister who called in turns sees a black man with a woman who is not black, I would beseech her not to judge the brother too harshly, because he may well be one of those "out of four" black men who while in prison was so roundly rejected and ignored by black women despite his continual efforts to reach out to them and to rehabilitate himself.
I would like to think that when she sees that couple, she will ask herself if she will take the time to befriend, write a letter to, or even visit a black man in prison, month after month, year in and year out. And if not why not?
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]