Some people that read The Gantt Report think I am a Florida guy. When I used to coordinate a lot of statewide political campaigns, haters, particularly those in larger cities in the Sunshine State, would tell my clients, “Lucius ain’t nothing. He’s just a country boy from little old Tallahassee. He can’t do nothing in Miami or Tampa.”My clients would respond and say, “We didn’t hire Lucius to work in Miami. We hired him to work statewide!”
I was born, raised and did my early schooling in Atlanta, Georgia. My youngest years were spent in one of Atlanta’s most notorious housing projects, “Carver Homes”. By the time I reached 10 years old, my parents divorced and I moved with my Mom to a somewhat tough neighborhood called “Fourth Ward”. It included pockets called “Buttermilk Bottom” and “Bucket of Blood”!
Once I left town, I came back frequently to see my Mom, my family members and my old friends. I stopped the frequent visits after my mother’s passing.
Nowadays, when I go home some people turn up their noses at me and say to others, “That ain’t nobody. That’s Thelma’s baby boy. That’s Lucius’ son. That’s Sheila Gantt’s brother, a N-word from the projects!”
But there are others that say, “Look at how he walks. See how he dresses. Listen to how he talks. He is not the same.”
I am the same person but I am not the same! I graduated from college, attended multiple graduate schools and earned credits for degrees in Journalism, Philosophy and even a Master’s degree in Science.
But my friends remained my friends. I love them still but I took my own path to where I am today.
I didn’t go with the ghetto flow. I didn’t follow the project crowd. I only went with the flows that went in the right direction. I only followed the crowd that went forward, that went toward progress and the crowd that went the best way!
Birds of a feather flock together but all birds are not alike. I didn’t want to be a yard bird, or chicken, that spent his whole life in the yard pecking up bird seeds off of the ground. I didn’t want to be a buzzard that couldn’t kill anything and starved when nothing would die.
I wanted to soar like an eagle. I wanted to get a better view of the world from up high. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to fly, so to speak.
Too many African Americans are happy just to follow the crowd!
If weak, regressive, scared and incompetent negro leaders suggest that Black people follow them, too many of our people just do what they say. They follow the wrong crowd!
If your crowds hits and beats their spouses and children, you might think that’s what you should do. If your crew joins the gang, sells dope and shoots up the neighborhood, that’s what you think you should do. If your sorority sisters sleep around with their soror’s husbands and boyfriends, you might consider doing that too.
I say you should do the right thing whether the crowd does it or not!
Stay away from the crooked crowd, the corrupt crowd, the cowardly crowd or the clown crowd!
On judgment day, when it’s your time to be judged, you are going to be judged based on what you did and not on what the crowd did!
If you have to follow a crowd, follow the good crowd. Follow the righteous crowd, follow the smart crowd, follow the brave crowd and follow the respectful crowd.
Follow the crowd that will stand up and speak out! Follow the crowd that will fight for what is right!
A crowd can come in handy sometimes but only if that crowd is honest, responsible and loyal.
If you have a choice of being in a bad crowd or being by yourself, choose to stand alone!
The wrong crowd will lead you down the wrong path! (Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. And, if you want to,“Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook.)
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.