Dr. Umar Explains Systemic Black Male Disenfranchisement

[00:00:00]serious organizations, not the Al Sharpton type, not no, but serious, right? And so, that almost brought America to its knees. I don't think black people realize how much we almost caused a significant transformation of direction in this country. So, after they murdered Dr. King, they said, "Okay, we still got to get the final five." So, the final five was A.D. King, Dr. King's brother, because they feared he would take his position.

[00:00:28]>> Mhm.

[00:00:28]>> Geronimo Pratt of the Black Panther Party, who was a decorated Vietnam War vet, and he was one of the leading Panthers who taught the military science.

[00:00:37]>> Yeah.

[00:00:38]>> He was feared. Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, who was the leader of the Slauson gangs in L.A., the largest gang, and he was also leader of the Panthers in L.A. He had to go. And then there was Fred Hampton, who they got on December 4th, 1969, coincidentally Jay-Z's birthday. That was the day they took out Fred Hampton, and then August 21st, 1971 was George Jackson. So, after they got rid of King, they said, "Let's get these last five." And that last five was George Jackson, that was '71. Then they said, "We got rid of all the serious black leaders."

[00:01:12]Now, there were other groups that were trying to form, but the government said, "Let's break the economic back of black men."

[00:01:20]No more training skill programs in the high schools, no more factory jobs, no more skills that paid the bills.

[00:01:26]>> Yeah.

[00:01:27]>> Once they took away the skills that could pay the bills, black men were in a state of economic and psychological depression.

[00:01:34]>> And do you think we've come out of that?

[00:01:36]>> No. And the reason we haven't coming out of we haven't come out of that because number one, we're still dealing with crack.

[00:01:43]>> Yeah.

[00:01:43]>> To this very day, right? But not only that, you're not only dealing with crack, you're dealing with all of the collateral damage of crack.

[00:01:51]>> Yes.

[00:01:52]>> Single motherhood comes out of crack.

[00:01:53]>> of it.

[00:01:54]>> Absolutely.

[00:01:55]Uh you could even look at some aspects of gangster rap.

[00:01:59]>> Yeah.

[00:02:00]>> Grew out of that. Because what did crack do? It decimated the the the fabric of the family. So now economically I can't find a job. I got crack. I'm either going to smoke it to drown my problems away, or I'm going to sell it to try to solve my problems. Either way you're going to jail.

[00:02:17]>> Yeah.

[00:02:17]>> You see that?

[00:02:18]>> All right.

[00:02:19]>> With with with the with the 1970s being the decade of the economic destruction of black men, 1980s come with the crack.

[00:02:27]So basically the economic destabilization was the mice trap.

[00:02:33]And then the crack was the cheese on it.

[00:02:35]>> Mhm.

[00:02:35]>> You see that? This is the trap. The crack is the cheese.

[00:02:39]>> With poison.

[00:02:40]>> giving y'all no jobs. We're not giving y'all no training. You can smoke it and feel better, or you can sell it and try to pay the bills.

[00:02:46]>> Yeah.

[00:02:47]>> That's what sent the black men to prison. Then they came with the welfare programs, which were not designed to help black women with children. The welfare programs were designed for black women to forget about their black men.

[00:02:59]>> Mhm.

[00:02:59]>> It was a substitute for the masculine figure in the home. Let the government be the husband now. Not because we care about you or your black children, but black men and black women united posed too much of a threat.

[00:03:11]>> Yeah.

[00:03:11]>> You see?

[00:03:12]>> Yeah.

[00:03:12]>> So then Bill Clinton comes in 1990, your first black president, right? He comes in 1990 with the Bill Clinton crime bill. And for the first time in American history, if you got caught with the crack three times, you could go to jail for the rest of your life. Three strikes and you're out, right?

[00:03:28]>> Yeah.

[00:03:29]>> And not only did Bill Clinton bring us the three strikes and you're out, he gave us mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses. This is the first time in history. And you know what else he did? Bill Clinton was the first president in American history to criminalize child support.

[00:03:43]>> Mhm.

[00:03:43]>> So now if you had to pay child support for your child, you were effectively brought under the Department of Justice as well, because failure to pay could get you arrested, yeah. And I don't think we recognize secondary to crack.

[00:03:56]Secondary to crack. But I don't think we recognize how effective the criminalization of child support has been towards taking fathers out of children's lives because when you go to these child support courts, and I've seen this in myself, the judge will tell that young brother who may have a high school diploma, right?

[00:04:19]But no livable wage skill.

[00:04:22]I want to see you back here next week.

[00:04:24]Let's say it's Friday.

[00:04:26]I want you here next Friday.

[00:04:28]With 5,000. You owe us 10.

[00:04:31]You better have five next Friday. So let me ask you a question. If he don't have no livable wage skill, can't find a job, right?

[00:04:38]The judge said, "I need 5,000 Friday."

[00:04:41]He got 7 days to get $5,000. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that the judge just told him to go commit a crime.

[00:04:50]You see that? The judge, without saying it, the judge just told him, "You better go rob somebody. You better go stick them up. You better go sell some crack."

[00:04:58]You see that? So we have to look at how the criminal justice system is one of the leading perveyors of crime when it comes to child support. All that came under Clinton, a Democrat.

[00:05:10]>> It's funny you mentioned that because it's something I want to transition into, which is the dynamic between men and women.

[00:05:16]Um why is the conversation, whether it's online and personal, so hostile when it comes to black men and women, though?

[00:05:23]>> This is where I think social media stokes the fire to keep that conflict going for clicks, views, and money, right?

[00:05:31]But I will say this.

[00:05:33]One of the biggest reasons why we cannot resolve, or at least come to an understanding between black men and black women as it relates to the relationship crisis, is because both populations are reacting to previous trauma.

[00:05:47]>> Come on now.

[00:05:49]>> Trauma cannot solve a problem because trauma only seeks to be understood, not to understand.

[00:05:54]>> A lot of I mean >> So, I'm hearing you, but I'm not listening to you. You're hearing me, you're not listening to me. And when you go emotional, when you begin to emote psychologically, you go unconscious. And when you go unconscious, all the past memories of every trauma you've been in from every relationship back to your daddy when you was born, that automatically invades your mental space.

[00:06:16]And now you think you angry at me, but you're really angry at all the men who mistreated you.

[00:06:20]>> Yeah.

[00:06:20]>> So, until we get a handle on the trauma, it's going to be difficult to process this. Because what are three things you need in order to help somebody process their trauma? Number one, patience. When you watch these podcasts on relationships, there's no patience in there.

[00:06:35]>> Yeah.

[00:06:35]>> Everybody think they know more than the next person. Everybody's the master, everybody's the expert, everybody's cutting each other off, but you better not cut me off.

[00:06:44]>> [laughter] >> Number two, there's no humility.

[00:06:48]I apologize. I really didn't know that's where you were coming from. I apologize.

[00:06:53]I really didn't know that's what you meant. So, you don't have the patience, you don't have the humility, and then you don't have the compassion, either.

[00:07:00]>> Yeah.

[00:07:01]>> I don't even care about black women no more.

[00:07:04]So, you can cry in front of me, I don't care.

[00:07:06]>> It's that lack of empathy and all of that.

[00:07:09]>> Absolutely. And the women does the same thing.

[00:07:11]>> And it's even selfishness, too. You when you said something about selfishness.

[00:07:15]We're so traumatized that we are so focused on self now.

[00:07:18]>> And this is where I spoke in Detroit yesterday. It was a seminar on health. I did mental health.

[00:07:24]And I talked about the reason why we have such a big ADHD crisis is because children are losing the natural attachments to the caregivers you get when you're being raised. In other words, I don't see my mother enough. I see her once a week. I don't see my dad enough. I see him once a month. You see that? The attachment is ruptured. When they go to school with a ruptured attachment, that's why they can't sit still and pay attention because my world is disoriented. We call it a behavior problem. It's not. It's an attachment rupture. Why am I bringing this up? When a boy has a healthy relationship with his mother, okay? When the daughter has a healthy relationship with the father, they are so rooted in a healthy male-female relationship system, the tree is planted so strong cuz my mother taught me to love black women. My mother showed me how to love black My mother was the example of what a black woman should be, right?

[00:08:19]>> Right.

[00:08:19]>> It don't matter how many poor relationships I enter with a woman.

[00:08:24]I'm still going to go back to loving and respecting them because I was rooted in the love with my mother.

[00:08:28]>> Yeah.

[00:08:29]>> It's the same thing with the woman. If that was a deep-seated love with her dad, because I say your first love affair is with your opposite-sex parent.

[00:08:36]It's not sexual. It's psychosocial, right? So, if that girl had a deep love affair with her biological father or father figure, and it's rooted, it don't matter how many men do you wrong. You still got to go through your pain. You still got to go through your transformation. You still got to go through your growth, but you're going to come right back to I know I can find a man and make this work with him >> Yeah.

[00:08:56]>> because the love with your father rooted you in that black-on-black love. But if my mother abused me, if my mother abandoned me, if my mother always put her boyfriends above me, if my mother constantly reminded me of how much I look like my father who she hated.

[00:09:14]The root is damaged. Do you see that?

[00:09:17]So, look, if the root is damaged and it's not deep, right?