I am so thankful for J. Cole’s song “Be Free”. It set me free for a moment until I heard the young man speak on the killing of Mike Brown. The song screams for political freedom in the United States. It speaks on the desperation for African Americans to feel safe. Constantly we see young African Americans killed by police officers. I remember watching Oscar Grant die. In fact, I can watch it right now on YouTube if I wish. Over and over I see my brothers die. I watch young African American men die. Not only at the hands on institutional racism but at the hands of our own. We were taught in slavery to hate ourselves. Instantly, the family was destroyed. The effects transcended time. We have choices to make today and a steeper hill to climb than many. It seems so easy to give up on freedom.
I search for hope. It lives in the just. Not just by law, for the criminal system disproportionately convicts the poor and minorities of institutional power, at an alarming rate. Instead, the just ring a moral bell resting in our spirits. The one who holds courage’s hand when we witness wrong doing is just. Thus, we all must be brave. How can we be brave, when it is the brave we must fight? The police are supposed, “…to protect and serve...” the citizenry. My mother said, “actions speak louder than words”. I don’t want my mother to see me die when I become brave in an effort to protect and serve the community I live in more than the local forces. The police charge the African American community more than taxes to feel “safe”. We have to worry about the life challenges and the police maintaining a disproportionate criminalizing system.
My friend once asked me where the Black Man’s safe space existed? Where do we find protection, finally? The self-hate of slavery creates a tense comfort within the predominantly African American communities. While living within African American spaces, there are often challenges we face when engaging each other. Many a times, even in privileged spaces, we fear stereotype threats. The internal thoughts of confirming negative depictions can impose upon our decisions and character. In higher education, many African American male students attending predominantly white institutions find it difficult to not feel the pressure of confirming stereotypes.
In order to combat these notions, both socially and self-imposed, we must prepare responses to these traumatic experiences. Preferably, we would like one in time but we often we find ourselves in shock. Afterwards, we resort to outlets. Music serves as a great source of expression we can rely upon to exhale from the daily challenges in life. It offers a safe space to express our thoughts in response to minor and major trauma. As I witness citizens being gunned down by the police, dialogues of American injustice on college campuses becomes more important. Ignoring, the challenges of stereotype threat, creates more self-hate. In higher education, the effects of American oppression greatly influence African American safety, thousands of miles away. We saw Howard University respond to local forces in Ferguson with a picture of students hands held high, saying, “don’t shoot”. Along with J. Cole, the students plead to “Be Free”.
I think we can set ourselves free. We must read more books and learn the knowledge of society. Society affects our internal perspectives. The love we want from our society must come from within. We cannot receive the universe as it is presented to us. We must demand the universe become what we want it to be. That includes our society. I find it important to focus on the culture in which African Americans thrive.
Curating culture is important to establish the self-esteem of people who do not have a safe space. The safe space may or may not exist physically in higher education. Regardless, it must exist in the African American mentality. The safe space must travel in the mind of African American men especially, for they are often emblematic of America’s racist progressions. Reading plenty of books helps me to feel freedom. Especially books like Buck where MK Asante describes his experience growing up in Philadelphia. He speaks about having a blank sheet of paper being placed in front of him. He writes two words. From there, his teacher challenged him to write more. He began writing everything that came to his mind. He began finding his voice. The expression of his thoughts allows us to “be free”, if only, for a moment.
From writing or listening to music, our imagination becomes our source of freedom. We can embody the words of others into our mind to create mental safe spaces. For Asante, he found his freedom of mind in writing. He is a lover of Hip Hop and acknowledges how the music serves as an outlet of expression and creates a safe space for the student mentally. Many a times, the headphones we see students wearing on campus serve a great purpose.
