Not to speak in generalities . . . but White folks love to tell belittling jokes about Black folks, it’s like a national pastime. To insult and slight Black people is a hobby for millions and millions of White people: “How do you keep a secret from Black folks? Put it between the sheets of a book, they’ll never look there!”

However, as an educator, I can’t count the endless occasions when the teacher, a Black teacher is trying to orchestrate their math/science/ English/ Black history course and the Black students refuse to sit-down, be quiet, pay attention or participate - it is a given. Now go down the hall to the strategically segregated snow white “honors/Advanced/IB” classroom and the students are so quiet . . . you can hear a rat piss on cotton.

I’m unquestionably offended and irritated by these racist insults, yet tragically like with most stereotypes there is a measure of truth to them. I’ve worked in a major urban school district for 20 years and sadly there is more truth to that insult then we, as a people, want to admit.

But wait, there’s another slighting dig I’d rather address.

“How do you keep 4 Black men from raping a White woman? Give them a basketball!”

This insulting jab does illustrate the ‘Basketball Jones” Black folks maintain, we’ve got some blind love affair with basketball which baffles me, and I’ve been black all my life, went to the LA Form to see Jabbar’s Lakers hoop, I get it, but yet . . I don’t get it. Like I don’t get this man-luv/Bromance for Jordan. I’m blown the hell away by all the interest in the ESPN series, ‘The Last Dance,” it’s unbelievable. No more than when Kobe and his daughter perished in the helicopter crash. Sure, I thought it was both sad and tragic, nevertheless the monumental morning for them far exceeded anything we saw for the late, great Congressman Rep. Elijah Cummings, or what we'll see if Black Panther Founder Bobby Seale passes, Black Power icon Angela Davis, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, or name just about anybody who did invaluable work for the overall benefit of the Black America.

Why?

Well as Michael Jordan just stated: to defend his disconnected from reality statement about not supporting Harvey Gantt, the Black candidate over the semi Klansmen Jesse Helms decades ago: In the series, Jordan copped to making the “Republicans buy sneakers too” comment, but insists it was in jest. He said activism is just not in his nature. His lone focus was his craft. “Was that selfish? Probably,” he admits in The Last Dance. “But that’s where my energy was.” President Obama, too a part of the special, told the filmmakers he also sympathized Jordan’s reluctance to take a political stance. “He was still trying to figure out, ‘How am I managing this image that has been created around me,'” said Obama. “And then, ‘How do I live up to it?'

Negro please . . . ! “Republicans buy sneakers too . . .” ain't that a bitch?!

Politics, national and global issues discussed at Big momma's big table were not an interest/concern or care of the hardwood Black gladiator, nor was it an area of interest for most Black folks. And that’s the tragedy of this unsettling reality. Black men, generally speaking aren’t well-versed in politics, science, math, history - that's why so many intelligent well-versed worldly black women find themselves without a man - their educational deepness scares and intimidates the 45 year-old Black man whose still sporting $300 Jordan’s and a Chicago Bulls jersey - sports, music, fashion and women - the only subject matters most Black dudes feel comfortable and knowledgeable talking about.

We, as a people, specifically and particularly Black men have been dumbed down.

They are the products of a “perfect storm” which has brewed for the last half-century within the US public school system: disinterested single mother, detached if not absent Black father and disconnected white missionaries as teachers who have “gutter-low” expectations for Black students - this is not the rule, but it is the norm. It is what happens when Black America abdicates our most important responsibility - the formal education, the enlightenment process to White America – when we recklessly place our children's academic and emotional growth in the hands of white folks - 75% of which blindly and proudly backs the Klansmen in the White House. Trump’s America, i.e., most of White America could give a damn about preparing and academically equipping black kids to compete in US society.

Trump’s America would rather mass-produce “niggers” then intelligent, well read, “uppity” Afro-Americans!!!

Please, explain how Black folks “thought” they were immune from the Coronavirus. That’s all I heard from January to mid-March! Only a slightly, mildly educated individual would seriously consider that childish notion. But if you never took a science/health/chemistry class in high school . . . never paid attention or even passed one of those classes (which are at the 8th grade level) hell, that ridiculous thought may be true, right? If you grow-up in a house with high school dropouts, no books on the shelf, no CNN/MSNBC/C-Span ever watched . . . then this nonsense makes possible sense to you. We are being devastated by this virus, disproportionally, nonetheless we are fighting to get back up n’ da club. Please someone explain and justify that full-grow adolescence teenager mentality to me!

It explains the standing room only, “butt to butt” Chi-town parties that we see on the news.

So MJ can use societal ignorance as an excuse for his lack-of enlightenment, but what’s as disturbing - he pays no price for that cop-out with Black sports fans, because they too don’t caste an intelligent vote in political contests, they don’t offer a well-rounded point when asked about politics or economics. They forgive Jordan because gee, they don’t know no better either. We don’t want to talk about the Black jocks who back Trump; Jim Brown, Mike Tyson, Shaq, Tiger - it’s both pathetic and trifling. Someone needs to pull their Black man ID cards! Useful idiots!

I’ve been advocating for years that Black Americans, instead of playing “Spades,” we ought be playing Monopoly, as to educate and enlighten ourselves as to how the world works - because we are economically/socially ignorant - we spend our money with other people, live beyond our means on credit trying to keep up with the Joneses, buying cars/clothes/bling/phones and TV’s which depreciate before we get out of the goddamn mall parking lot.

I’m just saying! Stop me not when your feelings are hurt, but rather when I’m lying and making these observations up.

Look-a-here, I love sports, love the NFL, boxing, golf. I am a former Letterman on a state ranked team, went to school on half-ass athletic scholarship, and still today stay active, love to hike and ski - so I’m not an anti-sportsman nerd, my kids are very athletic, but they too can read and write at or above grade level!

Hell yeah - I am disappointed in my people - our collective lack-of interest beyond the “Housewives of any hood USA” and the NBA season is a part of what’s wrong with us. Sure, they’re low information Trump-backing white folks fighting for the right to get a haircut and get their nails and roots done, of course, but as we know, they can afford to be that dumb, we can’t. When white folks have a cold, we Black folks have Coronavirus.