The Black Love Syllabus
Introducing a new segment for the Literary Lightworker. In a series of posts, we will provide some resources on cultivating and maintaining Black Love.
Love Is In Need of Love…
A cursory scroll of any social media app will reveal a disturbing phenomenon. Post after post demonstrates a complete lack of love between Black men and women. Varied opinions rooted in traumatic experiences and, in many cases, misguided social perspectives trend strongly as the algorithm absorbs and feeds this content to nearly every African American on social media, even if they only frequent one app. Podcasts have sprung up seemingly overnight, but just about all of them have the same agenda: feed the dysfunction of Black male-female relationships by sensationalizing the worst aspects of us and normalizing half-baked solutions that keep the Black masses rooted in fear and suspicion of each other. The missing ingredient in all of this dialogue and drivel is enlightenment about love.
Once upon a time, Black music framed love for the community in its poetic song lyrics and beautiful musical arrangements. Soul music legends such as Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Luther Vandross, and ‘90s era artists such as Jodeci, Boyz II Men, New Edition, Keith Sweat, Karyn White, and a host of others meticulously crafted songs that allowed a kind of Black vulnerability rooted in the power of love and all of its expressions. Today, love songs have nearly gone extinct; with many songs speaking directly to empty sexcapades and boastful bitterness after heartbreaks.
Black Love is a revolutionary remedy that will cure the ails of our communities. The presence of Black Love can dismantle this white supremacist ideological hold that’s running amok in our lives. Despite being in a society that is not rooted in love but rather capitalism and oppression, Black people can overcome by truly adhering to the adage, ‘we are all we got’.
To combat the vitriol in this social media stratosphere, I have been hard at work on creating a sampling of texts & other cultural pieces that can help us as a community rebuild, revise, and reinstate Black Love in all the spaces and not in a select few, as we are seeing that it is splintering under the maliciousness of our wounded selves. The overall aim is to approach Love for its cleansing power, its healing grace, and its merciful compassion. In a series of posts, not necessarily in order, a resource will be presented for its contents on how it contributes to a collective goal of fostering more Black Love and less Black Dysfunction. Don’t expect all of these pieces to be flowery and light, instead some of these pieces will be intellectually hefty because there are some definitive issues that must be addressed.
Are you ready?
Definitely needed. I have grown frustrated with the wrong type of representation being put out in the media.
Chandra Kamaria: First, for what follows to put in context: I am 76 (white) and have been married to the LOVE OF MY LIFE -- Nancy -- for 51 years.
But in my professional and neighborly life, i meet DAILY wonderful black women to whom, in an alternative life, I could love.
Plus, my professional life has had me work with many wonderful, professional black men, who are kind and cultured and compassionate.
So the idea that relations between women and men are not good in the community is a mystery to me.
Maybe I am naive to something.
But in society at large there are so many men who are rats in the life of any woman unfortunate enough to know them.
Is THAT the phenomenon?
If so, I can assure you, that is not limited to the Community.
That phenomenon is a powerful motivator for a LONG TIME to the feminist movement.
The feminist movement is based on a strong foundation of the strength of women and how well societies do under the administration of women.
But bad men also contribute to the passion of the feminist movement. The Playboy clubs and all were part of Gloria Steinem's insistence that women are SUBJECT, not object.
So that is not new. The bad man.
Is that what you are talking about? I am no stranger to that.
But I have had so many professional contacts with black men and women, each a good, often wonderful experience, that I have cognitive dissonance with the idea that there is something amiss with black men-women relationships, UNLESS, it is like the society at large, with so many bad men disrupting the relational life of women.
But my wife thinks Armando is clueless anyway, so maybe as a man I just don't get it.
How are gay or lesbian relationships in the Community?