By Lucius Gantt
My oldest child once told me that every adult in a relationship is either a pimp or a whore. My interpretation of that is, in every relation there will be gives and takes that are normally unequal. Someone gets more and the other often gets much less.
Who’s pimping Black folk? Damn near everybody!
Economically speaking, non-Black businesses are getting our patronage, banks are getting our deposits, churches and mosques are getting our tithes, politicians are getting our contributions and what are African Americans getting out of that behavior?
Most of the so-called Negro leaders will be getting large sums of money soon to tell us how to progress in the United States.
They will give Martin Luther King, Junior Day addresses, Black History Month speeches and talk to schools, churches and community events nationwide telling you how partisan politics, infrastructure, increased military funding, unaffordable electric vehicles and better roads in affluent neighborhoods will benefit your progress!
Be careful when listening to pimp talk!
You know, pimps come in all races, creeds and colors but there are differences. There is little pimping and big pimping.
The Liberty City, Compton, Fifth Ward, Tobacco Road, Buttermilk Bottom pimping is one thing, but that ghetto, barrio and back road pimping can’t compare to that political pimping, Wall Street pimping, military industrial pimping or that casino and gambling hall pimping.
If you own a billion-dollar business and have billions worth of mansions and yachts and pay zero in taxes, that’s big pimping. If you are an auto manufacturer and you tell 500,000 people to give you $100 to reserve you a new car, that’s 50 million type big pimping.
The whores that work for big time pimps don’t wear miniskirts and push up bras, most of them wear three-piece suits.
Now, the Negro leaders that you admire will ask you to pay them to talk about how to improve yourself and your community. They won’t tell you how to buy land or create profitable Black owned businesses.
They will tell you their “message” is from God, so any crazy idea they suggest will have religious connotations.
They will tell you it will be better for you if you vote Democratic but they will not tell you that the olden day Democrats were once as wicked, devilish and racists as current Republicans appear to be.
Yes, how long will we be trodding on the economic and political wine press for the people seeking to pimp people of color?
I don’t care how much money a brother or sister has, they are being pimped if they work for the pimps, sort of like the Stephan character in D’Jango Unchained.
Think about it, throughout history there has been voices that have been quieted in favor Black community overseers, Nat, Denmark and Harriet were made speechless, Marcus, Martin and Malcolm were silenced and the strong Black voices to today will never get a chance to share their views with wannabe pimps that prefer to pillow talk than speak up and speak out strongly.
Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver encouraged us to do things for ourselves and our communities but how many jitterbugs, shorties and imaginary “G”s even know who those men were?
Freedom in America means financial and economic freedom. We can’t even try to persuade the corporate, political, religious and educational people that are pimping us to take us off the block or off the stroll.
Black leaders designated as such by news networks can’t even get a voting rights bill passed in Congress because we’re told to put politicians first while they always put us last!
If you are not progressing, stop listening to the pimp talk and start listening to Black men and women that started where you are and rose to better places.
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.