by: Roy Douglas Malonson
You see, everybody is somebody but nobody wants to be themselves.”
This was stated by R&B duo Gnarls Barkley, who relays a true thought. If everyone would start looking at the worth and ability that he or she possesses within and stop looking at the next person; it would truly make for a better society.
Some people live a life that is completely full of emptiness, all because they are too busy watching someone else.
You have some Black folks who have no hope, no desire or no volition to rise above their circumstances. They have become content with dwelling in the same elements and environment their whole life. Yet, they have the audacity to criticize others when they try to succeed in life.
I mean there are those with absolutely, no motive or drive, just living from day to day; never worrying about what will happen to them in the next five to ten years. It appears as if they are just living!
One thing that causes me to really shake my head at society nowadays is that the culture that so many Black folks are insistent upon denying, other races are embracing and paying top dollar obtain. You have sisters paying to have breast and butt reductions and other races buying implants. You have Black people trimming their noses off and other races paying to widen theirs. I say it all the time, “There is just something about this Blackness that they will never understand!”
Therefore, we shouldn’t be like other people, we should search to define our own life and character. You should not want to live a life that serves to meet the approval of people who do not look like you, nor compete to meet the standards of those who do. A person’s life and legacy represents the true character within.
Black folks have always had the tendency of being different and set apart. That was for a reason! There is a mind-set in the Black community that we just have to keep up with the Joneses!
To that effect, I have to agree with Chris Hooper in his blog of which he expresses his opinion of the “Keeping up with the Joneses” mentality. “Let’s face it: We don’t like the Joneses anyway, so let’s stop trying to keep up with them! Instead we can let them drown in a pool of personal debt while we focus on accumulating wealth and saving for our retirement.” He goes on to inform of how, ”people are buying stuff they can’t afford, with money they don’t have, to impress people they don’t like.”
I see it happening everyday in the Black community. Parents are even going into debt trying to keep up with the latest trends and fads. Every time a new pair of shoes comes out, you have people from our communities rushing to the store to spend their last dime on something that will only be popular for a couple of months. All because they “want to be like Mike!” This is absurd!
At the end of the day, nobody wants to be him or herself. Everybody wants to perpetrate and be somebody else. All this notwithstanding the trials, tribulations, pain, misery and sweat that the next man had to go through in order to achieve the success that he or she has acquired.
Concluding, I would just like to state and remind the faithful and loyal audience of African-American News & Issues, that you will never be anything until you learn to live for something. Living without purpose and focus is destructive.
Finally, WE MUST UNDERSTAND… You will never have peace in life until you learn to LOVE yourself!
