IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR BLACK PEOPLE TO BECOME EFFICIENT THINKERS

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR BLACK PEOPLE TO BECOME EFFICIENT THINKERS
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I recently posted a photo to Facebook that I thought was adorable. It was a photo of two children preparing to attend a “Kindergarten Prom.” According to the response, most people had the same reaction to the photo that I did, but because the children were dressed like adults, a handful of people objected to it because they inserted their own sexual attitudes into the mix instead of viewing the event in context. They complained that the dress the little girl was wearing wasn't “age appropriate.”
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When I looked at this photo of these children with the little girl straightening the little boy’s tie it made my eyes moist, because it reminded me of how my late wife use to deal with me. She’d let me go out and swagger and strut around in my masculine bluster like I was the man, but when push came to shove, she was running our family - and that’s the way it is in most functional Black families.  My wife and I didn’t break down our responsibilities in terms of a man’s role, and a woman’s role, that’s a myth. The way we actually broke down our responsibilities was, she took control of those things that she was best at dealing with, and I took control of those issues that I was best in. 
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When it came to having something done to the house, for example. My wife would decided what needed to be done, and she would hire the contractor to do it.  She was in complete control.  But if later, the contractor decided to play games and decided he was gonna try to rip us off, that was when my area of expertise came into play, and she would say, “Wait a minute, let me have you speak to my husband,” and I’d handle the situation.
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So when I saw this photo of this little girl straightening the little boy’s tie, with him standing there in complete compliance, yeah, it made my eyes moist, because it reminded me of my own life.  My wife would say, “Eric, come here and be still. You ain’t going out in the public with me looking any kind of way.” And then she would do whatever she had to do to make me look presentable, and I remember my grandmother dressing my grandfather for church every Sunday morning in the same way, just like he was a child.  So even though in public I would act like I was the man, and runnin' things, in private, I would follow my wife's  instructions and shut up and be still, because that was her area of expertise.  My grandfather was the same way. That's where I probably learned it. He had the key to a stable life. He used to tell me, "All I want from this whole damn nation, is a pretty little wife and a good foundation."  I learned that from him as a child, and later, it colored my life as a husband and father.
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That’s the way a functional family actually operates, and I saw that in these two kids. When I saw that young boy standing there in complete compliance, it became clear to me that they were already learning what makes a successful family work efficiently, and that’s exactly what makes the kind of activities they were engaged in so valuable to our culture. 
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Chances are, if these parents continue raising these kids with the excellence that they obviously are, later in life, you won't see this young man runnin' around with his pants saggin' callin' Black women "bitches" and "hoes." He's gonna get married and raise a functional family, and that's exactly what we need in the Black community. But many people are missing that, because they're focused on the negative connotations that THEY'RE CORRUPTED MINDS are placing on a little girl's dress.

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Now, these critics all seemed like wonderful and well-meaning people, but they completely failed to recognize that the entire point of the event was to give these children the chance to play adult for a day, and to give the parents the joy of seeing what their babies will look like when they actually do become adults - after all, some of those parents won’t live to see that in reality. So the people who are complaining are failing to recognize the positive benefits of parents and children bonding to enjoy a mutually pleasurable activity together - perhaps because many of them have never had that in their own lives. So if all they've ever known in life is ugliness and dysfunction, instead of recognizing the value of such moments, naturally it has caused them to get all worked up over children dressing up like adults.
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But that's their issue, and it has absolutely nothing to do with these families who have come together in a very innocent and fun-filled way that the children and parents will undoubtedly remember for the rest of their lives.  After all, we can't allow the dysfunctional views of a few to undermine the joy and growth of others. That's the kind of twisted thinking that causes our children to be shot down in the street for smiling while Black.
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My educational background is in psychology, and psychologists would say that the event that these families were engaged in was an excellent example of parents bonding with their children, and parental bonding is one of the healthiest activities that a parent can engage in with their child. But instead of recognizing that fact, these people are preoccupied with the kids dressing up like adults on a one-time basis as a part of that bonding.
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That's completely superficial, parochial, and ridiculous thinking. It reminds me of the antiquated thinking of some of the old folks who used to refuse to allow their kids to attend events because they played "THE BLUES" (or Black music) at the event, but they had absolutely no problem with letting their children attend a hootenanny (with White, country music) because they considered it just kids having innocent fun. I remember the frustration of that, because I play saxophone, and I remember how my very God-fearing grandmother used to tell me, "Don't be playin' that blues in my house." Those old folks failed to recognized that their attitudes were simply anti-Black.
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WHITE FOLKS KNOW THIS IS JUST A COSTUME
AND DON'T SEXUALLY OBJECTIFY THIS CHILD,

UNLESS IT'S ROY MOORE.

While these people may not see the correlation between these two issues, it's the same mindset. Just as the old folks, failed to see the negative attitudes toward their own Black culture that had been indoctrinated into them, these people don't the psychological dysfunction that has been inbred into them. And just as my grandmother failed to see that while learning to play the saxophone I was also learning valuable lessons about our culture, these people are failing to take into account that when these parents invested the time, money, and effort to bond with their children, they were making an investment that would reap huge benefits in the future. The people who complained never stopped to consider that. Instead, they inserted the ugliness of their own sexually dysfunctional attitudes into mix. If they tried to explain their objections to that little girl, she wouldn’t have had any idea what they were talking about.
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So just like the old folks in the past associated innocent fun with “the evils” of Black music, these people are associating HEALTHY parent-child bonding, and the fact that the kids were having the time of their lives playing “dress-up,” with their OWN dysfunctional sexual attitudes. That's inefficient thinking.  It’s the exact same kind of thinking that mindless bigots engage in when they associate Black skin with the completely false and negative images that they've conjured up in their minds about Black people.
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Thus, these complainers aren't thinking, they're reacting to an emotional response, and that's not good. It’s very important that Black people learn to think efficiently, because God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think. The ability to think is what separates man from all other beasts - and yes, we’re just another species of animal. The ability to think is what makes humans most human.  But according to their flawed logic, “Wearing a "sexy" dress is whorish, and that little girl is wearing a sexy dress; therefore, the little girl is being whorish.” Or in other words, “All dogs have teeth, and my cat has teeth; therefore, my cat is a dog.” 
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Epistemologist (scientist who study efficient thought) would tell them that their thinking is horribly flawed. They're engaged in what's called "making unwarranted assumptions." Just because dogs have teeth and a cat has teeth, doesn’t mean that a cat is a dog. Similarly, just because a child playing “make-believe” is wearing a dress that for some reason the critics associate IN THEIR MINDS with sexuality, doesn’t mean that child is being sexual in any way. They have to take other factors into account, like the reason she’s wearing that dress. Just because Shirley Temple wore a military uniform in the movies, that didn’t make her a soldier.
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Black people have got to start understanding the importance of efficient thinking. We weren’t forced into slavery because the White man could beat us up; we were forced into slavery because the White man had a knowledge of gunpowder and we didn’t. So in order to liberate ourselves we’re going to have to arm ourselves with the ability to think, and use knowledge as our weapon of choice. We can’t out-scream the White man, because he controls the media, and we can’t out-fight him, because we’re only 13.3% of the population, and he controls both the police, and the military. So the only way that we’re ever going to liberate ourselves is through the use of our minds, which means learning to become efficient thinkers. That entails being guided by our intellect, instead of our emotions. But the response of those who complained about the little girl wearing an adult “costume” was not being guided by their intellect, they're being guided by knee-jerk emotionalism. They've failed to use their intellect to take context into account. If the little girl wore that dress to a birthday party, yes, it would be inappropriate. But in the context in which she was wearing it, it was perfectly appropriate, and even adorable.
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So the bottom line is, as long as we allow ourselves to be guided by our emotions rather than clear and logical thinking, we’ll be easy targets for manipulation.  In addition, it will always prevent us from uniting as a people, because our emotions will always get in the way. So it is very important to make ignorance a fading part of Black history. 
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Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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