The Knock Out Kings

The beast is being well fed. Fox News, Right-Wing media outlets, supremacist leaning organizations and website are having a field day with the latest videos of black teens gone wild and sucker punching unsuspected innocent bystanders as they peacefully stroll down the street.  The victims’ heads often hit the hard pavement as they lay there motionless.  There has been at least one fatality reported as a result of this “game”.  The media has and will always continue to push fear and doom.  These video images of “black mobs” and “black thugs” terrorizing citizens of the white populace are now receiving wall to wall coverage because the victim count is growing, slowly.  Yeah, hide your kids, hide your wife because they punch’n errbody out here.

My generation (and I’m sure those before me) would consider this “game” cowardice.  Why; because it’s a small gang attacking a single person.  Many times the attacker runs up from behind and strikes their victim. Many times they target the homeless, women or the elderly.  Yes they are cowards. 

That’s my way of thinking but psychologist Troy Melendez explains it a little bit differently.  He states that “They’re not trying to show their courage, they’re trying to show their strength. Watch what I can do, watch what level of damage I can inflict,” Melendez, who works with teens and adolescents, said “this type of behavior is often considered a right of passage, especially for young men. They’re now an adult, a man, someone to be reckoned with, someone to be afraid of and I think our society holds that up as valuable.”  Really…our society holds that up as valuable?  I mean we are a country that was born of violence but we really need some different types of “rights of passage”.

Random acts of violence aren’t anything new. Random acts of violence especially committed by teens of all ethnicities against other ethnicities aren’t anything new either. However from the Scottsboro Boys to present day, young black males will always be considered a violent threat, even when there isn’t one present.

In the case of the “Knock Out Game”, the scenes during the “game” do impact you and I.  We clearly see the attacks on video. They repulsively bring truth to the stereotypes.  They tell the already segmented, racist and paranoid facets of our society, “See this is why you need to be afraid.  Black men are gonna hurt you”. It gives white women a reason to clutch their purses.  It makes other ethnicities not want to get on the elevator with the black male or sit next to the “colored” on the train. These video are the excuse needed to “Stop and Frisk”.  This is the mental justification used for pursuing an unarmed black teen and killing him because he could get away and become the next “Knock Out King”.  This is mental validation used for killing a black male or female who has just gotten into a car accident and comes to knock on your door for help.

The Right-Wing media and supremacist websites are upset that the Main Stream Liberal Media is committing a cover-up because you rarely see images of a black males on TV as criminals (sarcasm). They believe that the savage black youth are completely out of control. They don’t care about the hard working, tax paying, law abiding, morally responsible black citizens who are disgusted by this foolishness.  In their eyes blacks are still a problem that hasn’t been resolved which is why they “want their country back”.   They want to go back to the good ole days when darkies knew their place.

According to some of these sites, blacks are breeding and producing the teens you see in these videos.  Blacks can’t get their young boys under control, so they will control them for us by locking them away (and why they are at it why not make millions in the process within our for profit prison system?). So just because you and I don’t condone or conduct ourselves in the manner as these teens, we are still a problem that needs a solution.  Blacks need to be stereotyped, harassed and profiled because even if they didn’t commit a crime they know about it because blacks don’t “snitch”. But wait, is this the “white man’s” doing?  These are free willed black teens randomly knocking out, mothers, sisters, fathers, sons and grandmothers.  The white man is not forcing black teens to video tape their violent actions in hopes of getting their 15 minutes of internet fame and be glorified on hip hop websites that cater to these violent acts. 

Are These Hate Crimes?

Some of these Knock Out assaults especially in New York are being prosecuted as hate crimes due to the victims being Jewish.  I have my issues with “Hate Crimes” as I’ve stated before.  Nonetheless ask yourself these questions; would the NAACP not classify a group of cowardly white teens that attacked a black person as a hate crime?  Would there not be an outcry from the GLAAD and the LGBT community if a group of black or white teens attacked a gay couple?  As a black man I know the negative history of this country and completely understand the plight that blacks collectively experience but why isn’t there not more of an outcry from the black community?  Could it be because blacks have been terrorized by black violence from within for years to the point that we are desensitized to the black “hate” crimes that are committed outside of the black community?

What Is The Solution?

As with many rants, does this one have a solution?  Nope, been there.  Well maybe that’s not totally true. These young men can change.  The black community is overflowing with powerful and empowering histories providing examples of black men who turned their lives around after troubled beginnings. For these young men to course correct and journey down the right path, the first step would be to learn how to properly dream and envision themselves within a more productive quality of life.  These visions can influence their mindset which can influence their actions.  Like the inner city black teens who won back to back polo championships; which by the way didn’t get nationwide coverage.  Who would be scared of young black males playing polo?  Another example would be the black teens that help build a biodiesel hybrid supercar and won the “Next Generation Award” from Popular Mechanics.  Come on, who would be scared of an educated black teen in a hybrid?  They can’t put that on the news. 

Clearly There Is Hope

I was on my way to the store when I can up to a stop sign.  A group of black girls who appeared to be in their early teens or pre-teens were walking in the opposite direction.  As I noticed they were all dressed similarly, tiny shirts showing their midriffs, extra tight pants and calf high boots.  Being that is was chilly out; they obviously were dressing for attention.  One smiled and waved, another blew a kiss and another put her hands on her knees and started gyrating (making her buttocks twerk), Yep, in broad daylight right there on the corner.  After I picked my jawed up off the floor, I shook my head and made my right turn.  I then saw another young black girl walking. She was around the same age as the other girls. She was dressed appropriate with a jacket and jeans.  She had a book cupped up to her chest.  I could not see her face because her head was down.  She was not texting on some electronic device. He face was buried in a thick book that she was reading as she walked.  I smiled.  Black people are as diverse as any group. Clearly there is hope.