Automated voice: This is Global Tel Link. You have a prepaid call from Jonnie. An incarcerated individual at the Correctional Training Facility, Soledad, California. This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded. You have a prepaid call. You will not be charged for this call. To accept this call, say or dial 5 now.
Jonnie: My name is Jonnie, I’m 68 years old, and I’ve been incarcerated for 19 years. This is titled “Message to the Black Man.”
One of the most powerful forces on earth is perception. Perception has the power to influence the thoughts and actions of everyone, everywhere. It affects men, women, children, religious beliefs, political affiliations, race, social class, and even one’s personal beliefs.
If you don’t agree, consider the perception that the world holds of people of African descent and its effect on their daily lives. Seven years after the Emancipation Proclamation, this country initiated a practice that, 154 years later, still persists—or, worse, is perceived as an established fact or truth.
That practice was the perception that criminalized all people of African descent and declared them a threat to the safety of others. Thus began the perpetual incarceration of our people in this country. 154 years ago, this country had no clear idea of what to do with free Black people, so they criminalized them, leading to lynchings and the aforementioned perpetual incarcerations.
While public lynchings no longer occur in the same form, the underlying mentality has not disappeared. Today, the powers that be continue to assassinate people of African descent. Shooting unarmed Black men and women to death is neither new nor rational. Those who do this feel a sense of entitlement, believing that these people are criminals who must be neutralized immediately, by any means necessary.
Although the magnitude of the shooting deaths of unarmed people of color does not match the reasoning given by the shooter, who often claims, “I feared for my life,” “I grabbed the wrong gun,” or “He was so big,” the public’s perception is almost always on the side of the white shooter—primarily due to the criminalization of Black men and women.
Why did he run? Why didn’t he obey the officer’s command? Why did he move? To add insult to injury, white Americans have even begun fundraising for the Shooter Defense Fund, all based on these flawed perceptions.
It is a deeply flawed perception to view people of African descent as a clear and present danger to the world at large.
To further illustrate this perception, think back to the young black woman shot down by D. C. cops with a child inside their car. Because the police feared for their lives. But a white man can fly a gyrocopter inside protected airspace and land on the lawn of the U. S. Capitol, get shot from the White House, and never be considered a threat.
The only thing worse than white Americans’ perception of people of color is the perception we hold of ourselves—especially toward our women—and our illiterate beliefs about what it means to be a man. These are some of the misguided rules of perception among Black men: M.O.B. (‘Money Over Bitches’) and B.O.H. (‘Bros Over Hoes’).
Or, “beat that bitch with a bat.” “Pimp the hoe.” “Bitches are subservient to my sexual whims and desires.” “Bitches are no good tramps.”
These rules don’t apply to bitches in my family. You talk bad about my sister or my cousin and you’re dead. Any other bitch is fair game. Someone once said, ‘Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.’
It tends to show that your intent is based on a faulty premise: that you and your opponent are equal in battle. Now, if your opponent is of sound mind and equal footing, and chooses to lay down instead of standing up, then he becomes the opponent’s narrator.
That is the crux of the problem with the world’s perception of people of African descent. We must change the narrative. We can no longer allow others to define us. It’s not only a disservice to us as a whole, but it also leaves hopelessness and despair for the next generation of children. Therefore, we must change.
We must change our behavior, our manner of speech, and the way we deal with problems. Having an ‘in guns we trust’ mentality is not only asinine, but it’s also unsustainable. We undoubtedly must change the way we treat our sisters. We must protect and uplift them as the very basis of our existence.
Anything less leads to extinction. The only concept that affects us all is change. So let’s be diligent in our mission to become people of substance. Let’s change the way in which we are perceived.
The stark reality is that without these so-called ‘bitches,’ our very existence would be severely threatened.
We do our terrible deeds and go to jail only to be bailed out by that ‘bitch.’ We impregnate countless women only to leave the burden of rearing these children to that ‘bitch.’ We need every aspect of making something out of this life that’s meaningful and productive for our children to hold on to or cling to that bitch.
We equate manhood with sexual pride and have the audacity to equate masculinity with the number of conquests we have. ‘Man,’ in its truest sense, means ‘mine.’ In order to get by, one must be responsible with thoughts and actions. Therefore, being a man means being responsible for ourselves, our women, and the next generation—our children.
When we hold these misguided perceptions, it leads us to other misguided souls, which only strengthens the stereotypes people have of us. A 0% faulty perception can quickly turn a profit. And just 1% of a faulty perception about people of color can be, and is, deadly. The perception that a woman ‘ain’t shit but a hoe on the street’ is held for each and every one of us. But ask yourself, those of you still dependent on women—can you be the man your mama was? Personally, I believe that we all have the capacity to be better men than our mothers and greater men than our fathers, who either abandoned us as young men or simply neglected us altogether.
I never knew my father as a man, nor did I ever feel close to him, but I remember what I saw and heard. Ironically, I became just like my dad. Through emulation and misguided perceptions, I became exactly what I disliked. This is why they believe it takes 35-plus years for a young man to begin to understand what it means to become a man.
And if that belief is true, then we have a lot of work to do. The perception that people have of us has become a narrative about criminals whose goal is to steal, kill, and destroy this country. We’re nothing more than tax-evading, welfare-dependent individuals, looking for a handout. The news media routinely crucifies people of color, with the only stories they broadcast being negative depictions of us.
They represent about 2 percent of us all. It’s an uphill climb, without a doubt. But we can prevail. We can change the narrative. And it starts with changing the perception that many of us have to embrace this factually. Many of us have allowed their narrative to define us, and we’ve put up little effort to thwart or even alter these faulty perceptions.
Necessity is said to be the mother of invention, and I ascribe to this school of thought. Let’s take it a step further. We, the people who are darker than blue, should not only alter the faulty narrative that was conjured up 145 years ago concerning our people, but we must also, out of necessity, invent—or perhaps create—an adequate narrative, one befitting the kings and queens who preceded us. This, we must accomplish by any means necessary.
