State of the Black Union

President Obama gave his first State of the Union address after being in office for a year. Once again, Black people were left out of the equation. Had the president taken a look at black America, he would have seen a rise in unemployment, more women filing for public assistance, test scores plummeting. He would have noticed that the matriarchial society we created was still firmly in place because Black men disproportinately populate the penal system.

The State of the Union for most African-Americans has changed very little. Despite the promise of change for all Americans, few claim to have seen it for us. We are still the largest consumers in the country, while holding the least capital. We are slaves to our passions, buying Indian hair to replace our own short and curly. We spend our money on clothing, hairstyles, name brands, but do not own computers or books. We watch Maury Povich rather than McNeil Newshour.

Some might think these observations are harsh. Perhaps they are so. But until we recognize our status, we can not change and in order for the Black community to over come its plight, change is vital.

There was a time in the Black community when children knew their place, when parents really parented, when the village cared about all of the children, not just one. There was a time in the Black community when we helped each other, took each other's problems as our own and then set about solving them. Those days are long gone, a memory that is slowly morphing into myth.

Today black women are less likely to marry. According to statistics, 42% of black women will never marry. While black men are incarcerated, they aren't in position to help their families. Often when they are reintroduced into society, a prison record can make them unemployable. In order to bring money into the household, many resort to selling drugs. The process then becomes a circular one. Black men cannot find employment and begin to sell drugs. Caught selling drugs, they go to prison. Upon release, they find themselves unemployable and so they are back to bringing income the only way they can. The cycle continues.

Our children are of the one world, hip-hop generation. They speak in ebonics and believe Dr. King's dream that we are all equal. Yet, these children who have spent their lifetimes submerged in hip-hop culture find that they are unemployable with dredlocs and BabyPhat clothes. Customer service jobs require a certain level of articulation. This is also lacking from our youth.

Blacks were incensed when Bill Cosby spoke the truth, harsh and candid as it was, about the state of Blacks in America. He cited lack of parental control, drug addiction, teen pregnancy. He urged young black men to pull up their pants and learn a useful skill. He challenged young black women to spend more time on what goes in their heads than what is put on them. We were urged to take care of ourselves, our parents and our communities. The result was a bunch of black people upset with Bill Cosby. He had aired our dirty laundry. It was fine when we knew that we were a dysfunctional culture. It's just not our way to tell everyone about it.

President Obama, pretending to know black culture, standing with one foot in each realm, being neither fully black or fully white doesn't have a clue as to the true nature of Blacks in America. Yes, he acknowledges that there have been mis-steps, that by and large we have been treated unjustly. Alright, he participated in community activism. He assisted with voter registration in the Black community. But admittedly, he came from a different world. Not many black people lived in Hawaii, even fewer attended Harvard. It seems that our president became either black or white on an as needed basis.

When the president speaks of the State of the Union, he tries to include the entire Union but it falls short. Change may very well be in the works, but not for Black Americans, and certainly not on a large scale. The State of the Black Union has been the same for a century.