What's Going On?

I owe Essence Magazine an apology for some of my last post.  They actually put out a special Hair Issue and also did the October issue which was heavy on political food for us to eat for the mid-term election cycle.  I'm actually glad I was wrong and found good reporting still alive and well in our only high-circulation black women's mag.  My sentiments about their website and magazine articles that lately offer celebrity heavy content and too much fluff are still valid criticisms though. 

Now on to what's been on my mind lately.  Has anyone noticed the rage and venom at black women in the blogosphere?  I admit I was shocked and found the comments put forth in cyber-space about sisters from "brothers" to be jarring.  I put brothers in quotes because it got me to wondering, if someone says such openly vicious things about you, especially to the world, can you still consider these individuals brothers?  I mean family means a lot but I don't think anyone should allow anyone to step on their self-esteem, call them out their name and wish them nothing but hell.  And I do mean the attacks are intended to crush the self-esteem of sisters, they're not just venting angrily.  Then there's all the blame and responsibility that gets dumped on black women that's unreal.  How do we describe these black men today?  What kind of language can I use to describe them when many of us want to hold on to the idea that we are all brothers and sisters stuggling together. Is that corny and cliched in our crazy modern world? Or are we all  just black people with a common history?  I've read some postings where black men actually see black women as their ultimate enemy. And all this is going on in the time that we have a black President sided by his elegant and beautiful black queen.  I was just shocked.  I want to know more about these men and what their experiences have been. 

Their resentment is so palpable.  Is it possible that many of them as black men in a society that still degrades and disrepects them (even towards our in-office President) see black women as a threat to some control they did, and still do, exercise.  The black woman has been the one person a black man did have some control over in America, but with black women outpacing black men in education and income are they left feeling especially angry?  Now to be clear, this question pertains to the black men I've referenced in the blogosphere and the ones who share their rage, not to all black men.  Let me state there are great black men that are encouraging and striving to create better opportunities for themselves and aren't sittin in a corner somewhere mad at sisters.  But is there such a thing as black male privilege?  And are they feeling that they're losing some of it?  Just asking. 

And yes, I've grown a little tired of the recent spate of black relationship books that only address black women and what they need to know and do to get a black man. (granted most self-help books are geared to the female book buyer)  But come on, it's like brothers don't have any inner and outer work to do.  We can all roll up our sleeps and start dealing with mountains of stuff but all the books deal with the work women should do rather than on how black men individually and together with women need healing and honest dialogue as a start. (The Conversation by Hill Harper talks to the duo but not to brothers alone)  Are brothers being let off the hook from the inner emotional work they badly need to do only so we'll end up with a large pool of black women a little more enlightened and ready for a realtionship than brothers who just sit by waiting to be picked? (Hint, suggestion to Steve Harvey for his next book)