The Black Titanic Ship

This blog is to help put into perspective the situation within the black community for those who can’t see it. I get plenty of hate mail and after a while it becomes annoying. It never ceases to amaze me how many black people are in DENIAL about the OBVIOUS dysfunctions around us. Today it is not the white man…it’s us! We are our own worst enemy. I hope this helps…


Setting: The Black Titanic Ship
Starring: All members of the black community (rich, poor, Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive etc). A list of black leaders and politicians: Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Maxine Waters, and all others.
Time: Past & Present day


The Black Titanic has been sailing the Atlantic since the end of the American Civil War. The ship has seen a number of captains beginning with Frederick Douglass. First starting out the ship was STRONG. Many were amazed by its massive size and strength. Black men and black women were marrying and starting families in large numbers. A community began to form. Black businesses were popping up all over the ship. There were banks, newspapers, a black woman with a hair care product, and insurance companies.


Some outsiders resented the newfound freedom of the former black slaves. They started a terrorist organization called the Klu Klux Klan. White pirates would come aboard the ship in the middle of the night in order to cause chaos. This was the first major iceberg to hit the black titanic—RACISM. Lynchings, rape, and beatings took place. Some black businesses were destroyed. Still the ship kept sailing.


A few new captains came along during this time. First there was W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey. Malcolm X entered the picture along with a black progressive, who would eventfully change the Black Titanic forever, Martin Luther King Jr.


By this time some black people aboard the black titanic became restless/resentful of their place in society, and sought equality outside of the black titanic. These individuals strongly believed that the only way to equality was if we (the black passengers aboard the ship) got off and joined the rest of the world in every sector of society (including interracial marriage). They jumped ship and abandoned a number of prosperous black businesses aboard the black titanic. This was the second iceberg to hit the black titanic—INTREGRATION.


Unity among black people on the black titanic began to break down. Black people began to separate themselves by class, education, and ideology. Non-blacks were allowed to come aboard the black titanic. Interracial marriages began to pop up more than ever before. Still the black titanic kept sailing with those black people, who vowed to stick around. A number of black industries prospered during this time. Soul Train was on the air. Berry Gordy and Motown were going strong. Black athletes and entertainers came into their own. Then it happened! The third iceberg hit—the captain of the ship, Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down (years before his co-captain, Malcolm X, was also gunned down). This left the ship badly damaged.


A new captain of the ship stepped forward—Jesse Jackson. Under his leadership came a series of damaging icebergs—WELFARE, ROE V. WADE, GANGS, VOLIENCE, SINGLE MOTHERS, THE SELLING OF BLACK BUSINESSES TO WHITES, AND CRACK COCAINE/DRUGS. With this series of icebergs the black titanic become permanently crippled and many of it’s inhabitants began to worry not only about the welfare of the ship, but the direction of the ship because along the way Jesse Jackson picked up a co-captain—Al Sharpton, a race baiter more blunt and vigorous than any before him.


Under captain Jesse Jackson black fathers were sent to the bottom of the ship and black mothers were given welfare if needed. The black family began to look more and more like a matriarchy. Black women gained the right to kill off their offspring. Planned Parenthood clinics began to pop up all over the ship (along with liquor stores and crack houses). An estimated sixteen million black babies were killed off due to abortion. Tookie Williams and friends became pirates to the ship and gang violence erupted. Drugs invaded the ship with the gangs. Through all this nonsense the captains of the ship assured the passenger that everything was fine. “If anything pops off just use your race care to gain sympathy, respect, and a competitive advantage. Don't ever forget white America owes you...in every way that matters," they said.


Those who began to question the direction of the ship also began planning for what was sure to come. Productive blacks began investing their money, buying land and homes in the suburbs (islands), planning for their children’s education outside the black titanic, securing their preservation by purchasing lifeboats, and separating themselves from the masses aboard the ship. They also openly questioned the leadership of the ship’s captains only to be hit with a harsh backlash from the masses, “You act white. You’re not black enough. You’re a sellout.” So, they decided to keep quiet and wait for the day to come…


That day those productive blacks saw coming is now…present day. The Black Titanic is sinking. The last series of icebergs to hit the ship were—AIDS/STDS, OBESITY, HIP-HOP/RAP MUSIC, A GENDER WAR BETWEEN THE SEXES, AND INDIFFERENCE FROM THOSE OUTSIDE THE BLACK TITANITC TO THE WELFARE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS.


I’m in my lifeboat with friends and family. As we’re paddling away from the black titanic we’re looking back in anger and fascination. Anger because we saw this coming and fascination because it is one hell of a sight to see.


My mother: “Von, maybe we should go back and try to help.”
Me: “Naw…screw that! They should have been investing in lifeboats like us instead of putting their money in weave, cars, rims, and bullshit. They partied right up until the last iceberg caught them off guard. I know they didn’t see that one coming, but it was predictable.”


I’m paddling as hard as I can to try to get away. There are black folks all around us begging for help.


A Drowning Man: “Von…please…please…let me climb aboard your boat.”
Me: “Hell no…If I let you climb aboard every drowning mofo out here is going to want to climb aboard and then you idiots will turn the boat over.”
A Drowning Man: “Please.”


He attempts to grab the side of my boat…rocking it with his weight.


Me: “I said no…asshole. You should have taken your money and invested in a boat instead of those 24 inch rims.”


I stand up and knock him upside the head with the boat paddle. He falls off the boat. We paddle away. Next a single mother, who is holding her young daughter, approaches us.


Single mother: “Please Von save me and my child.”
Me: “I told your ass a long time ago NOT to have a child you couldn’t afford, but you didn’t listen. I told you to take your birth control.”
Single mother: “I know. I was young and he played me. I thought he loved me…so I let him go in raw.”
Me: “Save the sob story for Lucifer, bitch.”


I catch sight of the two captains of the ship. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and a flock of black progressives are trying to escape unnoticed. I catch up to them.


Me: “Hey…waiting a minute! How the hell are you progressive blacks going to leave the ship you were driving? You’re supposed to go down with the ship.”


Jesse Jackson: “Now that’s where you’re wrong. We didn’t land on the black titanic. The black titanic landed on us!”


Me: “Yeah it landed on me too, but when those like myself tried to tell you guys that this ship needed to be repaired you either ignored our warning or deflected our issues. If you did acknowledge the issues it was to blame someone else…most commonly white America. The gangs, drugs, violence, single parent homes, piss poor sense of morality and the spreading of STDs could have been prevented if you group of manipulators had taken the time to talk about the problems instead of begging the white man for his table scraps, sympathy, respect and enabling those with these issues. You told the passengers on the ship to use their race whenever possible to get ahead while those like myself tried to encourage them to think for themselves and be more self-sufficient. Now they have nothing to show for their lives on the black titanic.”


Jesse Jackson: “You’re wrong…the white man will be here soon to rescue us all. They wouldn’t dare let the black race die. There would be a backlash around the world.”


Me: “Did you not see how large the LAST iceberg was that hit us? It was INDIFFERENCE from the general public about the plight of African Americans. After years of inciting ‘white guilt’ white America and everyone else has finally said ‘enough of this shit. You Negros are on your own.’”


Maxine Waters: “So what are you saying?”


Me: “I’m saying your damn race card has expired. No one gives a fuck whether the masses live or die. We tried to tell you it was coming…tried to warn you. Now look at you…leaving the scene of the crime with your tail between your legs…yet for years I and those who think like me were called sellouts to our race for trying to get black folks to take responsibility and stand on their own two feet.”


The boat full of progressive blacks look from one to the other.


Al Sharpton: “What do you suggest we do now?”


Me: “It’s too damn late to do anything. You have driven the black community to hell. My crew and I are going to take our food/water/money and sail to our home in the suburbs (our island). I’m guessing you and your crew will sail or try to sail back to America. Without your black nation…what do you have left to live for?”


They look from one to the other once again.


John Lewis: “Barack Obama…we have a black president now. Our hope lies with him.”


I shake damn head and paddle away.