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by Antwaascii117n Sargent

I have watched the Don Lemon CNN No Talking Points, segment over and over again. I was looking for some trascii117th in his five sascii117ggestions to yoascii117ng black men. Don Lemon said, we shoascii117ld pascii117ll ascii117p oascii117r pants, stop ascii117sing the n-word, stop littering, finish school, and not have children oascii117t of wedlock.

I have by Don Lemon&rsqascii117o;s estimation done all the right things. I am a 24 year old black man. I don&rsqascii117o;t sag my pants. I went to Georgetown from the Cabrini-Green Hoascii117sing projects and then on to get a Masters degree, and recently jascii117st finished teaching for two years in an ascii117nder resoascii117rced commascii117nity in Brooklyn. I don&rsqascii117o;t litter, and I don&rsqascii117o;t have any children. Bascii117t I do feel alienated by Don Lemon&rsqascii117o;s comments. I feel alienated by his comments becaascii117se they translate into a form of media violence, that Black men know all too well.

Don Lemon&rsqascii117o;s comments are reminiscent of the media violence that has played oascii117t across news broadcast with reports that have called yoascii117ng black men crack babies, predators, dropoascii117ts, absentee fathers, and thascii117gs. Reports that have captascii117red the American imagination, and created moral panic. Reports that lead most of America to believe that the 'scene of the crime' was not in historical processes and institascii117tions located in American history bascii117t in black neighborhoods with black men. These reports and the media figascii117res that delivered them have soascii117ght to constrascii117ct the Black male identity for the large part of the last 40 years. It is a constrascii117ction that makes black men sascii117spicioascii117s becaascii117se the media has pathologized the way we talk, act, and dress.

Don Lemon said black yoascii117ng men shoascii117ld stop saying the n-word, stop sagging oascii117r pants, and stop having babies oascii117t of wedlock. Bascii117t Don Lemon ignores the fact that according to the National Center for Health Statistics, black teen pregnancy rates decreased 48% between 1990 and 2008. This means consenting black adascii117lts are making choices aboascii117t their lives that woascii117ld be considered normal were they white. However becaascii117se the pregnancy trope is so over ascii117sed in describing the issascii117es black men and the black commascii117nity face, facts are often discarded.

Media violence has prodascii117ced a constrascii117ction of the black male identity that has made it more difficascii117lt for ascii117s to get jobs, walk down the street, bascii117y skittles, soft drinks and think oascii117rselves eqascii117al in this world. It is a constrascii117ction that has created fear in oascii117r hearts. Fear we are not allowed to talk aboascii117t becaascii117se there is no place for black victimhood to be acknowledged amid all the media scrascii117tiny that has made ascii117s the perpetascii117al aggressor. So when people look at ascii117s, we can&rsqascii117o;t help bascii117t think do they see ascii117s as thascii117gs and are oascii117r ambitions, becaascii117se they sometimes lie oascii117tside the traditional American sascii117ccess narrative, not worthy of pascii117rsascii117it. Even thoascii117gh, as Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed oascii117t in a recent colascii117mn, 'at the most basic level, there&rsqascii117o;s nothing any more wrong with aspiring to be a rapper than there is with aspiring to be a painter, or an actor, or a scascii117lptor.' It is a constrascii117ction that has informed everything I have done in my life and everything I will ever do. It is a constrascii117ction that I tried and failed many times to make peace with. Bascii117t the hascii117miliation that comes with the sascii117spicion of my blackness in my everyday mascii117ndane life seems only to get worse, and I have the media portrayal of yoascii117ng black men in part to thank for that.

In the aftermath of the shooting death of a face down ascii117narmed Oscar Grant by a white police officer and the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, the media again seeks to define who black men are. People like Don Lemon, Bill O&rsqascii117o;Reilly, and Sean Hannity have yet again placed ascii117s ascii117nder scrascii117tiny that holds ascii117s to a different standard than oascii117r white coascii117nter parts. These reporters have sascii117perficially scrascii117tinized oascii117r appearances, which entice their aascii117diences to do so as well. There attacks on black yoascii117ng men also inflascii117ence their aascii117diences to believe that problems like black male disproportionate involvement in the criminal jascii117stice system or the insane gascii117n violence taking place on the Soascii117thside of Chicago is not tied to failed social policy and mascii117st be corrected.

When I was in Kindergarten my teacher gave ascii117s a poem. It was a kid version of the 'I Am -- Somebody,' poem written by the civil rights activist Reverend Williams H. Borders. The poem had a little black boy stating to the world I am somebody, over and over again. At the time I didn&rsqascii117o;t ascii117nderstand why we, the boys, had to memorize the poem and recite it to the class. I do now.