Uptown Notes

In high school I remember purchasing Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black men in America and reading part of Sterling Brown’s “Strong Men”. I was really moved by the poem’s opening stanzas and periodically I’m reminded of our path as Black men in this country. Lately I’ve been reading a number of popular press articles that discuss my alma mater Morehouse College. This past year we graduated our largest class ever. This past year we also had some former Men of Morehouse take the life of one of their brothers for a paultry amount of cash. I’m not one to romanticize reality, the stories juxtapose each other enough to let me know we have a long way to go. But I am one to look forward and attempt to highlight signs of progress. After all, when in a stake of peril if you don’t have vision, you’re likely destined to stay in that place. At the Association of Black Sociologists meeting I went to a panel on “The Crisis of the Black Male” and realized that people have been “sounding the alarm” part time for the past 20 some-odd years, but the response has been less than favorful. Well, I do believe that we Black men still are in a time of crisis, but this story did make me remember that sometimes progress, which is a slow process, can be seen sooner than you think.