Black Men Lead in Dying From COVID-19 Deaths

by Kenray Sunyaru

Black men when we usually think of the Ebonic phrase "being caught slipping" it means not having a gun in your possession possibly resulting in being shot or robbed by another Black man. 

This time in a viral sense we’ve been caught slipping by the COVID-19 disease pandemic because our health was ‘slacking’ so our lungs are being attacked and shot through by the virus.

Unfortunately but expectedly due to racism and health irresponsibility as Black men we lead the U.S. in COVID-19 disease deaths. Our deplorable health slacking status in America has been an urgency racial health disparity issue for us to address for many-many decades. 

Black men are dying disproportionately to the COVID-19 virus pandemic

This COVID-19 pandemic has now fully exposed our slacking health neglect and fragilness as an emergency that's taking us out. Too many of us neglected our health pursuing expensive clothes, shoes, jewelry, and vehicles. 

Previously, the only deaths we were focusing on was Black-on-Black male murders which is important, however we weren't focusing on chronic diseases that have been killing Black men off hundreds of times greater than Glocks, AKs, Dracos, and AR-15s. 

Black men millions of us have been 'laid down' prematurely by Heart Disease, Strokes, Diabetes, etc. Yeah we've been focusing on Black homicidals, but not on our suicidal health slacking. 

For all the Black men out here who consider themselves rough-neck, hard-core, thug, and gangsters none of these 'tough identities' can protect y'all from COVID-19; add some health awareness to y'all's identity! 

To Black men who smoke cigarettes and marijuana every day y'all need to quit to save y'all's lungs; smokers are more vulnerable to contract the virus. Y'all need to learn about y'all's lungs and respect y'all's ability to breathe, cause COVID-19 is a 'dog-ass' breath taker for real!

Indeed the COVID-19 upheaval is a time of reckoning and resolution; it's a time for realization that the American system nor us in the past or the present have addressed the Black male health crisis. 

Now in this COVID-19 pandemic we're not dying from 'drive-bys', we're dying from 'airbornes'. Our current Black male health slacking crisis is what Rapper Kendrick Lamar stated when he rapped: "For generations we've been dealt a bad-hand with bad-plans."

As Black men during this COVID-19 pandemic let us now deal ourselves a 'good-hand', developing ourselves a lifestyle changing personal health plan! 

Black Man's Perspective on the Past Spanish Flu Pandemic and the Present Coronavirus Epidemic COVID-19: What Have We Learned in a 100 Years and What We Gone Do?

by Kenny Anderson

Black folks the current coronavirus ‘COVID-19’ is causing many of us to panic as if viruses ‘massive communicable diseases’ are new, unfortunately they are not!

From the beginning being the first humans on this planet our original ancient African Ancestors had to deal with viruses interacting with nature. When it comes to pathogens, viruses, and diseases nature is always creating them; since 1970 more than 1,500 new pathogens have been discovered.

These pandemics and epidemics are sparked either by the re-emergence of pathogens that have been familiar for a long time, but now threaten new, immunologically vulnerable populations, or are newly-emerging ones. They come in a daunting array of species of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites.

Some of these communicable viruses and diseases are facilitated by oppression, poverty, and ill-health; some are caused by man-made habitat destruction and global warming; some are borne in contaminated water or food; some others are carried in the air we breathe and by human touch.

The emerging pandemics and epidemics are coming from animals; this is a burgeoning threat, because animals are intensively farmed, transported for trade and kept in close contact with other species and humans in market places.

What we have to accept and understand is the uncertainty of life and the unpredictable power of nature including its ability to create new infectious threats to human health that emerge often without warning like being hit with a viral sucker punch.

Deadly U.S. Spanish Flu Pandemic

Also Black folks we need to know that a virus pandemic like the coronavirus COVID-19 is nothing new to the U.S. as Malcolm X once said that “the study of history rewards all research.”

History shows that in 1918 the U.S. was hit with a deadly Influenza Pandemic ‘Spanish Flu’, this flu afflicted over 25 percent of the U.S. population and killed over 675,000 people. In one year, the average life expectancy in the United States dropped by 12 years.

The Spanish Flu pandemic swept the world from January 1918 to December 1920 killed an estimated 50 to 80 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus.

Within months it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history. The Spanish flu was the first of two pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza virus, the second was the swine flu in 2009.

Black folks it’s interesting, but not surprising that the overwhelming majority of us know nothing about the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic though we were hit the hardest by pneumonia deaths from it!

Seemingly there’s an ignorance of history that the influenza pandemic of 1918 has been overlooked by most of us who post on Facebook.

Blacks and the Spanish Flu Pandemic

When the 1918 influenza epidemic began its deadly tour across the United States, Blacks were already beset by racism caused major public health, medical, and socioeconomic problems that shaped how they experienced the epidemic and how the epidemic affected them.

By 1918, medical and public health reports had documented that Black folks had lower rates from the Spanish Flu pandemic than whites. Though Blacks were less susceptible to this influenza, however if they contracted it they died more frequently than whites because of their deprived social conditions and their susceptibility to ‘pneumonia’.

The great scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois contended the higher rates of pneumonia for Blacks was due to racial health disparities that reflected racist socioeconomic degradation, not racial susceptibilities; he stated “poor health is not a Negro affair, but an index of social condition.”

Learning Lessons from the Spanish Flu Pandemic

As Black folks what should we learn from the Spanish Flu pandemic? First is, we were more prone to dying from pneumonia when we contracted the Spanish Flu. This is not surprising, studies show that upper respiratory diseases was the number #1 cause of death for our enslaved Ancestors.

Indeed slavery stress trauma epigenetically compromised our lung genes. We know the coronavirus ‘COVID-19’ attacks your lungs and its worst impact is it causes death ‘pneumonia lung collapse’.

Yes Black folks we are more vulnerable of dying from ‘COVID-19’ due to slavery weakened lung genetic predispositions, chronic stress that causes inflammation to the lungs, and chronic diseases that compromises lung functioning. Currently Blacks lead the U.S. in respiratory diseases and die more from pneumonia.

Black Self-Determination and the Spanish Flu Pandemic

Although during the Spanish Flu pandemic Black folks faced racism, Jim Crow segregation, the Klan, shortage of resources, and a lack of health-care facilities, our folks mobilized themselves to provide relief activities.

In many cities Black women went into the homes of Black influenza victims to provide care and clean homes. Black women who were home economics teachers volunteered to cook at food centers, schools, hospitals, and nurseries.

Across the country Black folks assumed the primary responsibility for providing care for each other stricken by the Spanish Flu; they clearly understood that their health was not a priority of the American government.

In 1918 Black folks faced the Spanish Flu pandemic being on the bottom socioeconomically degraded; aint shit changed still today we face the COVID-19’ pandemic in last place with too many of us sick and suffering from socioeconomic degradation.

The Spanish Flu pandemic was just over 100 years ago, now in 2020 we as Black folks face the coronavirus ‘COVID-19’ pandemic, do we have any internal self-reliant health contingency plans to address this new pandemic?

As Black folks if the COVID-19 virus disease continues to spread and we are more vulnerable to die from it because of our compromised health due to suffering ‘super-significantly’ more from chronic diseases, so what are we going to do every day other than just gossip, worry, panic, and spew conspiracy theories?

Do we have any other possibilities other than praying, hoping, and waiting? Is our only plan to stay at home and maybe get a $1,200 Trump coronavirus check? Does our organizations (Urban League, NAACP, NOI, Churches, etc.) have alternative relief plans?

Right now where I live I don’t see hospitals doing much for Black folks who’ve contacted the mild form of the coronavirus other than sending them home to stay indoors and take a Tylenol.

Since we have to deal with the reality of social distancing, how do we best use social media (Facebook, Zoom) conference calls, etc. to provide immune boosting health literacy, stress management, and direction?

If push comes to shove and we have to go in the homes of our family members, relatives, and friends who’ve contacted the coronavirus to assist or save them shouldn’t we be buying some hazmat suits ($62) and training ourselves of how to use this protective suit? Or is it going to be every Black person for themselves and God bless us all?

We need to really think about contingency relief efforts that includes tapping into the spirit of Sankofa, identifying historical prescriptions, practicing the 7 Principles of Kwanza, applying the healing insights of Dr. Sebi, Dr. Laila Afrika and other local healer leaders of how we are going to self-manage the coronavirus pandemic.

If we don’t try to manage the coronavirus, who will? Talk to me!

Black History Month: The Racist Sexual Molestation of Enslaved Black Men on Plantations

by Kenray Sunyaru

Black Folks especially Black men, Black History Month is a time for truth, the truth is that historians and everybody else will talk about how Black women were raped, but nobody wants to speak about what happened to Black men and boys sexually.

Most of us know the truth about 'Lynching' a white male supremacy tool of castration to emasculate enslaved Black men. What we probably don't know the truth about is 'Buck Breaking' another white supremacists degrading effeminate tool of anal raping of enslaved Black men.

A degraded and humiliated Buck-Braked Black male slave

During slavery white male plantation owners had something that’s very rarely talked about called "BUCK BREAKING". This is where they would look out on their plantations and take the biggest, the baddest, and the strongest Black male slave that there was and they would take this slave and tie him down spread eagle naked and then in front of all the women, the children, and the other male slaves, they would repeatedly run up in his anus as a means of not only effiminizing him but to let all around know that they had no protection.

As Black men deep in our psychological DNA and generational subconsciousness is this racist ghost of 'dicks being chopped-off and assholes busted out' that insideously haunts us.

This sexual molestation unconsciously drives our insecurity which influences a sense of powerlessness, impotency, inadequacy, and over compensating 'super-machoism'; this is coupled by the extreme lacking of the 2 dominant universal Manhood attributes 'Providing' and 'Protecting'. 

Indeed as Black men under institutionalize racism, we are both systematically and socially-engineered kept economically and militarily weak!! We operate in the world with a 'baby-boy' psychology and get treated as such. 

In Black communities we as Black men and our sons daily give our monies to non-Black male store owners whose businesses dominate us. Moreover over 70 percent of Black households are headed by females; increasingly I see little Black boys being escorted by lesbians. More and more Black gay men our being promoted by the white controlled media. 

Yes there is a Black male crisis! This Black History Month, Black men we need to analyze and address the serious identity crossroad we face. There are forces externally and internally trying to make traditional Black manhood confusing, irrelevant, and obsolete through unisexualization.

A Black Man’s Perspective on Mother F**ker Its Use Toward Racism and in General

by Kenray Sunyaru

White linguistic scholars don’t agree on the origin of the word ‘Mother Fucker’, but they do agree that the first documented use of the word was by Black folks. 

According to Black folks’ etymology the word mother fucker was based on the experience of Black male slaves who used the Ebonic term to refer to white slave-masters who raped our foremothers in order to break the Black family down physically and psychologically; and the word ‘MF’ also served as a means to avoid calling your slave-master your father.

Since Black folks used the word first I’m going to roll with our meaning of the word mother fucker. Growing-up as a child I constantly heard Black older folks and elders say with disdain when talking about racism was “them dirty-rotten white motherfuckers,” and I heard many young adult Black males often say disdainfully "mother fuck them racist crackers." 

I also would often hear Black men with pride say in an ignoring sense "mother fuck them white people they aint important" meaning don’t pay attention 'get caught-up' in white peoples looks, beliefs, values, standards, and what they think about you because they’re ‘messed-up’; that they ain’t special 'superior'; you don’t need their approval so stop approval-seeking and be proud of your own Blackness!

As I grew older I heard many conscious Black men say the white man has fucked us and is still fucking over us, in this sense fuck means to deny, neglect, and take advantage of ‘exploit’. These same Brothers would also say the white man has fucked our minds up 'mentacide' causing dependency, doubt, distress, shame, and self-hatred.

The word mother fucker can be used to describe Black folks too, for example in the case of Black men who just want to fuck ‘have sex’ with Black women get them pregnant and don’t want to be fathers. MF used in another form to nullify ‘Fuck You’ can be said to many Black women who are damaged, never satisfied, selfish users, and play manipulative emotional mind games. 

Fuck you can be said to many Black folks in general who are ignorant and stubbornly stuck on stupid; have bad attitudes, addictions, unrealistic expectations, ungrateful, etc. Fuck you can be used as mindful self-talk by saying ‘fuck my own bull-shit’ to self-check your own unproductive mental chatter and negative thinking. 

Indeed fuck that, fuck them, fuck you, and fuck me can be used as a quick external and internal dismiss tool to keep it moving ‘don’t miss a beat’!

In recent years whites have taken the Ebonic term ‘Fuck’ and made a philosophy out of it and they have a manifesto book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck” written by Mark Manson. This book is a decent read and highlights some good general insights; the following are some of Manson’s noteworthy points:

*Not giving a fuck is not about being indifferent. It just means you’re comfortable with being different. Don’t say fuck it to everything in life, just to the unimportant things.

*To not give a fuck about adversity, you must first care about something more important than adversity.

*Whether you realize it or not, you are always choosing what to give a fuck about. The key is to gradually prune the things you care about, so that you only give a fuck on the most important of occasions.

*If you are able to not give a fuck about the pain your goals require, then you become unstoppable.

*The moments when we don’t give a fuck and take action are often the moments that most define the course of our lives.

*You are going to die someday. Everyone you know is going to die soon. And in your short life you only have a certain amount of fucks to give. 

Indeed, Black folks we give a fuck about a lot of petty BS that has much to do about nothing, aint got nothing to do with dealing with racism, nor self-determination and gaining more freedom. 

Moreover we have a lot of out-cold Black men who subscribe to a “I don’t give a fuck mentality” that’s self-defeating and self-destructive which drives Black-on-Black violence and murders. 

It ain’t just about not giving a fuck, it’s what you're giving a fuck about?

Sacrificial Living Black Males Old and Young

by Kenray Sunyaru

As a conscious Black man I have learned that we are born to die and white supremacy fosters - accelerates our death. Since death is inevitable, it should make us appreciate life. When I was young wise old heads told me “let death be your counselor,” it offers much insightful advice. 

Sadly, today too many Black men, especially young males, ignore the lessons of death and do not appreciate their lives. Hearing all their lives from the womb to the tomb ‘a nigga ain’t shit’, they do not view their lives as sacred, just sacrificial; they have a socialized death wish outlook, glorifying violence, guns, and murder. 

Too many young Black males live with a self-deceptive ‘hard-core’ mentality, instead of living with a ‘heart-core’ mentality. Believing their bodies are false armor and that somehow thinking a bulletproof vest can prevent death, they fail to realize it is the soft heart that keeps them alive. 

Living from heart-core means loving oneself. Too many young Black males die prematurely, not living long enough to love and appreciate their lives. Conversely, most older Black men die unfulfilled, not living in a self-determined manner. 

When most older Black men die their life’s summation in their obituary reads: veteran, job, family, and church goer. This is a very limited legacy! What about their Black manhood? What about their principles? What did they stand for? Did they struggle against racist injustices toward Black men? Did they express the best in themselves through self-reflective writings or poetry? 

Like younger Black males who sacrificed their lives for ‘capitalistic street dreams’, most older Black men I have known lived sacrificial lives; sacrificing their lives to ‘country’, ‘careers’, ‘job’, 'bread-winners' (family martyr), and prisons. The fear and anxiety about death for older Black men is not death itself, it is knowing that one is going to die not truly having lived on their own terms. 

For older Black men it is not the fear of death, but living throughout their lives being limited and afraid to self-actualize their Black manhood potential. In death, too many young Black males denied themselves early; too many older Black men have lived their entire adult lives in denial.  

While alive denying self-determined Black manhood is a living death! 

How We Kill Our Sons Long Before They Die in the Streets

Ms. Melaninian

There are many Black women praying for “a good Black man,” but they are often the same ones who kill that very goodness in their own sons. They are the ones causing irreversible damage to his psyche long before the schools and society nail his coffin shut.

Unable to watch the recent horrifying moment of a mother beating her 7-year-old son and threatening to ‘break his face’ for disrespecting his teacher, I was reminded of how I killed my own son, long before he went missing 5 years ago.

This is not discipline! This is murdering the soul of your child!

Growing up, my son loved me more than life, but I made him fear me worse than death. I screamed in his face, I beat him for making messes, I threatened him for disturbing me, and I dared him to cry when he was hurting. I broke promises to him, I denied him hugs and loving arms. Above all, I broke the trust of my divine purpose as a mother.

A past that’s haunted me 40 years, resurfaced during the national coverage of a mother beating her son in Baltimore Maryland, several years ago. She was hailed, ‘Mother of the Year’ by media encouraging society to believe our sons should be beaten into submission because they must be no good.

I was outraged by her vicious behavior as many mothers were; some because they would never humiliate their sons in public in such a degrading way, and others because, like me, have long since lived to regret having violated their precious gifts from God in such a way.

Our sons suffer a slow, cruel, yet invisible death when their mother is the first one to call him bad, the first to yell no, and stop at him. His spirit is broken when she is the one who tells him he can’t do this, shouldn’t do that, and better not think of doing anything other than what ‘Massa’ allows.

I have heard young mothers say, “he just wants me to hold him.” But knowing so, ignores him. Or, “he’s just acting like a baby” when in fact, he is a baby. I have watched as she screams at him, calls him derogatory names, and slaps him around in public. 

At home, she shuts him up when he cries and ignores his need to be held and allows others to punch him around to make him tough. She will scorn him for exploring how things work and applaud him for acting like a clown.

When he gets older, she is the first one to take sides against him when he is accused of doing wrong and takes pride in embarrassing and humiliating him to impress his accusers. There is no wonder he turns to the streets with no regard for life searching for that familiar pain of that invisible death until it finds him.

Social networks are riddled with posts of Black women crying about the “no-good” Black men who ruined their lives and broke their hearts but how many of those women ever stopped to think that we as Black mothers are the ones who raise these men.

Truth is, there is no such thing as a no-good Black man broken yes, but no one comes into this life ‘no-good’ and no one aspires to be ‘no-good.’ No-good things would have to shape his world, and the womb is where his world begins. If he receives protection and strong enough love from his mother even without his father’s presence nothing in life could break him or make him a no-good man.

As with Monique‘s viral declarations of loving the Black man, many Black women feel the same but, nothing substantial can ever be said to heal the Black man’s wounds until we first offer the sincere apology for the wrong we have done as mothers to our sons who grow into these men. Then, as a collective, we must change our behaviors towards them.

While I can’t possibly recall all the despicable things I did to my son (and his younger brother) there are a few things that haunt me constantly; my intolerable attitude towards his need for play, my neglect to hug him, teach him, and help him learn on his own with compassionate tolerance, and for beating him for making mistakes.

Those things might have been reconcilable in his development had they been occasional incidences, but they were extreme patterns that slowly destroyed his ability to develop trust, curiosity, and self-esteem. 

To guise my horrendous attitude as a mother, I dressed him up in fine clothes, taught him to address me as ma’am, and speak only when spoken to, so I could show him off in public and get praised for ‘doing a wonderful job’ with him.

Then came the irreconcilable damages. His father went to prison before he was born and remained there for almost 10 years. So, I went on a quest to find another ‘good Black man’ - searching the nightclubs where I worked and played. Month after month, I was bringing different men home introducing them to my son.

My son stood by witnessing me sink into drug addiction with man after man and a host of unsavory friends coming and going, while I shuffled his half-nourished mind and body into his room and carried on in ways he should never have seen nor heard.

I began to wake up after one of my screaming rages frightened my son so bad (at 8-years old) he wet his pants. I began to clean up my act and would later find out about horrible things that happened to him by some of these dark characters going in and out of my house while I was in and out of consciousness.

Eventually, I found a man to marry, having three more children. Turns out, my husband was tormented as a child too. He never trusted me because of the things he saw his mother do, and to a man, no woman on this planet is better than his mother!

So, if a man’s vicious mother was also a liar, cheater, or nasty man-eater, in his mind, no matter how good a woman may be, he subconsciously believes somewhere inside her exists the same terrible characteristics of his mother.

In the end, I had to escape from my husband, discover me, and ultimately become a different kind of mom raising my children with a different kind of life.

My son will be 45 next year and I have yet to apologize to him for the wrong I did while raising him. Though he went on to build a phenomenal conglomerate of businesses with other tormented men, I knew he was haunted by the past I took him through. But instead of looking him in the eyes and saying ‘I am sorry, I would lower my gaze in silent shame in those rare moments when he would come around so eventually, he stopped coming.

I tell this story, not knowing whether I’ll ever see him alive again, for other mothers making the same mistakes I made, and especially to offer a sincere apology to all the Black men who suffered at the hands of their cruel and unconscious mothers.

There is no redemption for me regardless of the changes I have made because I cannot go back and undo what I have done. But if this is heard in the way my heart is pouring it out, we as Black mothers can change how the world treats our sons from this day on, by changing how we treat them, raise them, respect them, and empower them with the everlasting effects of his first LOVE.

Right now, throughout the world, the black man is targeted for defeat because even at his worse, he is better than most when he sets his mind to it. It is our job as mothers to nourish their hearts, protect their minds, and flood them with our love to brace them for the tribulations society has stored up for them.

That is loving the Black man and we cannot declare our love for him while beating down his sons! Obviously, this is about our sons which by no means disregards our precious daughters. 

However, this should serve as enlightenment to what needs to be done for her as well, because if our sons are the target, our daughters are the bait.

The Impact of Black Enslavement More Powerful Than Nuclear Bombs

by Kenray Sunyaru 

This year 2019 marks the 400th year since the official beginning of Black enslavement in 1619 and we still haven't recovered. We're still devastated politically, economically, culturally, socially, relationally, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. 

Indeed the impact of Black enslavement has been more devastating than nuclear bombs.

In 1945 the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people mostly civilians. It took Japan about 25 years to rebulid itself after the US nuclear bomb attack, today Japan is the 6 most competitive nation in the world. 

Today as Black folks after so-called being free for a 154 years we're at the bottom of almost every socioeconomic 'quality of life' indicators in America though we have over 1.2 trillion dollars in purchasing power.

The devastating nuclear bomb of white supremacy has 6 major self-diseasing, self-defeating, and self-destroying features:

1. Spiritualcide - Destroying our spirits with white people being superior and godlike - the worship of a white Jesus Christ; irresponsible religious fantasy-protection and a false sense of favor; denigrating and denying the expression of Traditional Afrikan Religion (TAR).

2. Mentacide - Destroying our minds with a self-hatred inferiority complex, dependency, identity disorder, invisible man syndrome, and miseducation. Mentacide contributes to *Suicide, *Homicide, and *Fratricide!!!

3. Cardiocide - Destroying our hearts (heartbroken) by being traumatized, chronic acute stress, grief, anxiety, and heart disease (heart attacks).

4. Nutricide - Destroying our bodies with poor nutrition resulting in obesity and a host of physical sicknesses (chronic diseases). 

5. Chemicalcide - Destroying us with chemical warfare 'war on drugs' - the systematic saturation of drugs and alcohol to destabilize and criminalize our communities.

6. Culturalcide - Destroying 'reducing' our cultural down to superficial praying (begging, pleading), dividing (individualism, denominationalism, gangsterism, genderism), singing, rapping, laughing, dancing, sexing, playing (sports), dressing (European designer clothing), driving (expensive cars), hair styling, eating, buying (consumerism), etc.

As Black folks in order to 'rebuild' ourselves from the reverberating post-slavery effects of the racist enslavement nuclear bomb we have to reorganize and comprehensively address the above 6 features.