Taking a "Stand" on the Black Male Experience

We've just finished cutting the trailer for STAND, my new film exploring the Black male experience through history, politics, music and culture. STAND features Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Dick Gregory, Bebe Winans, the late Isaac Hayes and some of my other dear friends as we travel to the birthplace of the blues to talk about and reflect on Black men who "stood" for something in the past and what it means as Black men continue to "stand" for something now.

Check out the trailer:

For more information on the film, go to www.standthemovie.com

Comments

[greeneink]

As a black woman being abandoned by her husband and waiting on the sheriff to put me on the streets any day now due to another black man's irresponsibility and lack of commitment to his marriage, this one is something I don't trust or believe any more. Most of the issues and society problems black men have they bring on themselves.

[greeneink]

If he doesn't pay his child AND spousal support/alimony, he'll just be another black man in jail blaming his lot in life on white folks, too. In the meantime, while I wait on a court date to see the judge, I will be living in a homeless shelter trying to re-collect what's left of my life after helping him build a prosperous business for 10 years.

[Enhager]

Tavis asked me and some other bloggers to come to his house to screen his new movie the Stand. With Obama's run for president looming in the background, Smiley dissects the national discourseduring a road trip through Tennessee with the likes of Cornel West, BeBe Winan and Dick Gregory. Check out what happens at http://www.leimertparkbeat.com.

[IGNSTHMD]

keeping the faith 2009

[olddognewtrick]

Blaxploitation 2009

[zepfan81]

I have a questiion. Does anyone else think that we are too dependent on one another? Maybe we need to be more independent. It seems we have to carry the entire weight of a people on our shoulders.

[nutterbutter]

We have been independent. Thats the problem. We don't wan to work together to support one another. You think every shop, restaurant, store in the Chinatowns across the country are self sufficient? They support one another and thrive. As does every ethnicity, except ours.

[valkyrie607]

Why is the sound quality from the CNN clip so bad? I couldn't understand a word Michael Eric Dyson was saying.

I, too wonder: why black men only? Are you going to follow this up with a similar series about black women, Tavis? I hear a lot of talk on message boards like this one that black men need to "retake their place at the head of the family" or some such nonsense. Re-enforcing patriarchy is not going to heal black families. Men and women need to work together to nurture and celebrate their families and their communities. I know that there are issues that are specific to black men, just as there are issues that are specific to black women, and these should be addressed on their own terms. I just don't want you to leave women out of the picture.

[HigherFrequency]

Did you ask Oprah when she's starting a school for boys? No and neither did anyone else. Actually her actions were praised as they should have been (accept the why not here questions). There has NEVER been a time when patriarchy was the norm for Black families; it's always (by necessity) been more egalitarian than the 'mainstream'. All throughout history in America, Black women have been involved (with key leadership roles) in organizations, dating back to the secret meetings during slavery. Black women were the spokesperson for the families. Up thru 40's/50's Girls were encouraged to get an education more so than boys who were to be laborers/farmers. Watch the Black list and I believe it was Toni Morrison maybe who said as much. Up until the late 60's men & women did work together to nurture & celebrate the family until those who used terms like patriarchy came around who were sure they knew best. Anyone taking a real close look would have seen that Black family life was far from patriarchy, but they didn't see Black people they saw research subjects.

But question: Is it that you guys just can't stand anything we do where you're not at the center? Because we don't think like that.

[HarlemFreeThought]

It serves little purpose to criticize Dr. West, Dr. Dyson, and Mr. Smiley. Their voices are part in the diversity of thought among African-Americans. Our conversations span include extremist like New Black Panther Party to the conservative principles of Thomas Sowell.
Contrary to some comments, Bill Cosby and Barack Obama are not the first AAs’ to foster responsibility. Hubert Harrison, Marcus Garvey, and Gen. Allen Allenswoth, men diverse in thought and background, instilled the concept of responsibility.
This weekend pass a 13-year old boy was shot in the head and remains in critical condition following eruption of a gunfight. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/04/27/2009-04-27_catch_whoever_shot_my_son_8thgraders_near_death_in_mayhem.html
We all a accustomed to rehashing the blight of AA’s in lower and now middle class AA urban area. But the question stands, how do you correct this stigma? When will certain behavior habits, not be tolerated any further?
Dr. Joy DeGruy identifies this stigma as Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. I came across Dr. DeGruy (pre-internet mind you) on the Gil Noble’s “Like it Is”. She continues favorite lecturer. If you get a chance, go catch her. http://www.joydegruy.com/store.php
PS did you catch Dick Gregory in the trailer? My Hero http://www.dickgregory.com/

[HigherFrequency]

No one is above critique. AND its incumbent upon us to demand, raise & keep expectations high for scholars, (beyond barber shop riffing, signifying) especially those who have presented themselves as intellectuals. Although not a scholar, Smiley is a public entertainer and himself isn't above critique in terms of the viability and entertainment value of what he presents. West had an opportunity to do referred work and chose not to, missing out on an opportunity to bring more to the table.

But the question you ask IS the question: When will certain behavior not be tolerated.

Personally I've had about 30yrs too much of clinical diagnosis and Freudian syndromes from social sciences about 'Black life'. The slaves came out of slavery with their humanity intact (pre-Freud mind you) so the inherently flawed concept/approach I'm not buying. The STIGMA has been placed on Blacks, who've bought into far too much by the social science who never seem to be able to find any qualities about Blackness that's admirable. Have them go study White men for 40yrs!

Fredrick Douglass & Jack Johnson, my heroes: Johnson- A guy who not accepting that there was anything wrong with being Black celebrated his Blackness, embrace his freedom and lived AS IF and not as a reactionary political abstraction.

[Witkacy]

Thank you - I agree. Just as theology, philosophy and, later, biology and anthropology have historically been marshaled to determine the moral qualities and then to get the "measure" of black people, through the 20th and into the 21st century, sociology and psychology have served the same use. The psychological apparatus which "determines" post-slavery complexes out of a tangle of jargon and half-baked "research" is the same which generates something more obviously sinister like the Moynihan Report; or the Violence Initiative. Whether the theories built on this apparatus are promulgated by white or by black researchers, theoreticians, etc. makes no difference.

[IGNSTHMD]

what about the esteem
what about the diseffectedness
what about the spirit
what about the police

these are "normal" things?

there is no such thing as a quantifiable present not effected by the past

bea ten, rap ed ,estranged, demoralized, exploit ed, subjugated, dehumanized, impoverished, impris oned, ridiculed, mur dered, mutilated and thats just the first 300 years. are you telling me those stars pointing north didn't know the serenity of a free man.

it is the type casting the assumptions the suggestions that are the kind of slavery you can't get free from...or can you?

everyone has someone to answer to, yourself included

[bbbtmenw]

I think Black men need to start accepting that there are BLACK gay and bisexual men.

They need to change the "Down-Low" factor and be honest and open about their sexuality.

AND, they need to stop saying they are too big for condoms.

MY CONCERN IS FOR THEIR HEALTH. Black men and the black community have continued to increase their numbers of HIV infection. Washington D.C. statistics among the Black Community are equal to or higher than those in any African country.

The lack of condom use, the hiding of their gay or bisexual members, and the lying all need to stop because IT IS KILLING PEOPLE; Yours and MINE.

The "Down-Low" factor also instill that there is something wrong with Gay people. This attitude always helps to enable GAY HATE CRIMES that now happen every 6 hours in the U.S..

Black Men need to understand that Gays have been there with their fight for Civil Rights and equality every step of the way. Bayard Rustin was an openly gay man, one of MLK's main advisers, organized the most important marches, and developed the non-violent protesting practices.

Gays are liberals and are there in the voting booth, in congress, and in your families.
Attitudes toward gays enable bullies but also have increased gay teen suicide which is 6 times higher.

What about the little Black Man that killed himself because he was called a F/GAY, Are you willing to save kids like him?

[HigherFrequency]

It's not 'Black men' it's the entire 'community' and the 5000lb elephant in the room is the church.
Which I don't get because in many many churches around the country EVERYONE knows that...say, the music director is gay. EVERYONE knows there are gay people in the congregation, how they (the Gays) sit there as the preacher talks about 'Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, just boggles the mind.

So if those Gays aren't willing to protest, stand for themselves, challenge the church, why would one expect 'Black men' in general to lead the charge?

By the way the 'Down-low' phenom was OVERBLOWN but there wasn't as much publicity in the recants...it was small print, small paragraphs in newspapers. Oprah gave it a big boost no one questioned the author's scholarship they just accepted it and the major media, Black media and Black women all ready to accept and believe the worst, took it and ran with it. Turns out the numbers were never there but of course true scholarship & research isn't the goal, high brow pontification is.

[bbbtmenw]

It didn't matter how many voted for Prop 8. What mattered is it is still very prevalent in the black community to deny their are gay men.

It is prevalent to have men not use condoms and the woman to let them.

HIV is prevalent.

Gay hate is prevalent, not just because of religion, it is a cultural thing now.

Yes, many gays do not stand up, and worse are those like conservative republicans being outed who vote against our rights and then hide their own gay trysts and relationships.

We are the only minority who is part of and hated by all other groups, but we can also hide and stay in closet, and many are so used to doing that, see that they will received harassment, hate crimes, and retaliation, as I have, many have, Mathew did and they are afraid, AFRAID.

We shouldn't need to be afraid, but listen to this woman, listen to the hate. Being afraid is understandable.

[urnumbersix]

Have hope.
Not all in the black community are brainwashed by nonsense. We got LGBTs people's back.

We love our gay siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts. We love our gay children. Many have a gay parent too. I always speak out against black-on-black homophobia. I don't tolerate hate. Let's encourage others to do the same.

When you see or hear "that mess," call it out. Don't let it pass. Be an example those ignorant ways are as passe as "colored only" signs.

[urnumbersix]

I will watch this movie with interest. I hope it's good.

HOWEVER, society must make note of that 70 percent of African-American women are single/unmarried.

That's right, 70 percent.

What this means is that black women have had to "move on" regarding "family" and "relationships." These stalwarts of human existence do not contain the (healthy) role of "Husbands" in the black community.

This fact the black man has lost this male role is affecting African-American men more than they realize.

[HigherFrequency]

But you didn't explain the why 'society should take note' of the 70% and no marriage stat for Black men? How can you mention the role of men, use the label 'husband' and not father? You can't force people into marriage if they don't want it or if they aren't ready and to attempt to do so is a waste of time. 'Husband' isn't a necessity, meanwhile, involvement (in the lives of children whether they are yours are not) volunteerism, mentoring of children, regardless of your race or gender IS viable and more easily realized that forcing marriage.

Is this about 'the children' or is it really about the women? Me thinks it's cloaking your issue under the umbrella of the children. If you're waiting for 'society' to put everything on hold, stop and address your marriage issues, you're mistaken. The unfortunate fact is 'society' can and will move right along regardless of those numbers, the world isn't stopping to address the 70% number. Don't make Marriage (your issue) into everyone's issue. Especially in light of the loud popular pronouncements about 'not needing a man'.

Also, how does 70% single/unmarried constitute 'moving on' in 'relations­hips'...se­ems more like stuck in place or moving in opposite direction? Maybe those 70% aren't married because no one wanted to marry them?

[Free2Speak]

When West says Obama is not as charismatic as a Malcolm or Martin etc. it proves he is injecting his bias.Obama drew 200,000 people in Germany.There's no one before or may be in the future that has moved people across this globe like Obama has in the last 2 years.The people in this film is preaching to the choir.Obama is the first black other than Bill Cosby to say "take responsibi­lity".Whic­h you will not here from Tavis and his few good men.At 70% of babies in the black community born out of wedlock and more black men in jail than college,how in God's name could you talk about anything other that.As long as kids are born fatherless you will have their future offsprings will more likely be single parents,no college and on a path of being housed by the government voluntaril­y(welfare) or involuntar­ily(prison­).

[AdvancedDegree]

obama nor bill cosby were the first to talk about personal responsibility. it was actually elijah muhammad (the nation of islam) that did. if you listen to malcolm x, you will hear him both talk about personal responsibility and racism. he told black folks to stop using drugs, drinking alcohol, eating pork. he told them to stop asking the white man for a job and create your own. he told black men to marry and stop galavanting around with different women. he was unapologetically black.

our president, whom i respect and voted for, has spoken out about personal responsibility. but he has also been too apologetic for america's shortcomings (think of his response to Holder's comments) and he has not gone into urban areas and given the kind of talk that he should give. i know that he is watching what he says becuase he is a black man in america. but he has to do more to take both america and black america to the next level.

[Free2Speak]

I get your point,but Obama is doing enough just by his visuals,a black man and his family in the White House.Malcolm and Martin was good for what they did in their day,but that wont work today.You need some one who's very inclusive like Obama.I wish the black church and black local politician would take on the black family about education,out of wedlock kids and incarceration.

There is no shame in the black community about teenagers having kids.Even some well off black women and men having kids with no intention of getting married.There is no excuse at all about this circle of poverty.I just don't see many college educated blacks without a job or incarcerated.I think the black family structure has broken down which use to be the envy of the world.

Until the black church leaders in the community and parents see Obama and his family as a role model to strive (education­,marriage,­excellence­,devotion,­goal oriented,the past is the past,confi­dence,self­-esteem,)f­or then Tavis can have all the bus rides in the world but nothing will change...

[IGNSTHMD]

If the president thinks community organizing is important to people's well-being couldn't we say this problem begs something more than good advice.

[wappie]

Tavis Smiley is irrelevent as far as I am concerned. I can't stand seeing him on TV or hearing him on the radio. For someone is supposedly so well educated, he needs to quit speaking in terms of "right quick". I'm not interested in anything he does. Michael Eric Dyson needs to stop speaking in his little rap style. He's a professor and doesn't really know how to communicate in terms that anyone can understand him. Professor West just bothers me period! Tavis hates on Barack Obama and most blacks know that and have no use for him. We want him to sit down "right quick"!

[jeanrenoir]

Thanks for this great post. These black media "leaders" know that Obama has totally eclipsed them, and they're mad, like Jesse. Tough. Obama shows what lousy role models for black males these whiners have been for decades. Obama shows black men that they need only one slogan to stand up for themselves as individuals, in school, at work, and in the family: JUST DO IT! Do your job, and "social justice" will take care of itself. Obama's my hero, the best president of my 65-yr life. No whining. No drama. Just PERFORMANCE!!! The Michael Jordan or Bill Cosby or Oprah of politics.

[IGNSTHMD]

I would like you say that to common with a straight face 2pac or mary J Blige

[hlhicks]

I have a new hero.

[IGNSTHMD]

now that all our contemporary leadership is dismissed what are your indictments on behalf of the black population. you know we don't do so well in the school system; you heard about the segregation problem, right? If you favor your philosophy please share it.

[enh8g2]

I have to disagree on Michael Eric Dyson. You may not understand him but he is very appealing to younger generations and as a professor he should be. He gave a speech at my college when I was undergrad and I think it would be hard to find someone who did not take something from his presentation.

[RavenWest]

Not a very hard question, black culture is at it's core an effort to remain apart from white culture while still attempting to be competitive with it. Black people are no less competent or skilled, they simply lack the advantage of a single, far reaching culture that whites and Asians posses.

Look at both of these 'leading' groups, they stress the sort of values and mindsets that not only put our capitalist society to work for them, but enable mobility by removing friction points along the way. Asians clearly hold the major advantage here over whites - who's only real advantage is an established population and culture of upward socio-economic ascension.

Ultimately, there just aren't enough blacks to enforce their culture and rule-set, and because of American history, and world history in general, blacks will have to wait a little longer for the right changes in thinking to be made on both sides.

There are incredible strides made in this past decade, communication and simple exposure to one another makes the process smoother and faster.

[SkipHarv]

That is wrong on a couple of points. Black people have tried more than anyother ethnic group to "become" white. from the chemicals we put in our hair to staighten it to the skin bleaching products that are so prevelent in the "Black" publications i.e. Ebony. Jet.

Then you also have to realize that when we were slaves the masters would encourage divisiveness among us by treating the lighter skinned slaves a little better thaan the darker skinned ones. This still permeates the community today!

The last point about not being enough is wrong because WE DO NOT KNOW WHO WE ARE OR ABOUT OUR HISTORY! White people and asians can pinpoint where they are from to a village or town in a country. We can only say we came from a continent not a country but a contenent. Think about that for a second, that would be the equilovent of saying to a British person you are German cause you are both from Europe.

[jeanrenoir]

Why do blacks want to "remain apart from white culture"? Which blacks are you talking aboukt? Obama and Michelle don't. Oprah doesn't. Michael Jordan doesn't. Bill Cosby doesn't. Al Roker doesn't. Why not get with the American program and move ahead with it, and all these successful blacks who're loved by all Americans? Separatism sounds a lot like reverse snobbery to me, and Americans hate snobbery of any sort.

[IGNSTHMD]

you speak with a lot of generalizations and assumptions

[amoment]

I think Blacks want to live apart from whites but realize they have no other choice than to live with whites. Blacks, I believe, are afraid of whites, not physically, but emotionally. Just as whites have dinner conversation about blacks, blacks have dinner conversation about whites... both groups have angry conversations about each other at the dinner table. What is hard for whites is to believe blacks are angry with them, and even hate them... where blacks have had 400 years of knowing whites hate them and are angry about every little tidbit blacks achieve. The fact that we elected a black president means we were truly at the end of our rope (no pun intended). I think I should get a blog so my comments can be read and not deleted by huffpo.

[bichn]

I don’t agree with this at all. “Black people are no less competent or skilled, they simply lack the advantage of a single, far reaching culture that whites and Asians possess.” It is not culture but a society that has much higher expectations of whites and Asians than they do blacks. It is a fact that a child will live up or down to whatever expectations are put on them. That is on society, not blacks.

Blacks have not been treated equally. The justice system is a perfect example. Why is a black man more likely than a white man to do time for the same crime? Why is a black man statistically more likely to be pulled over than a white or Asian man? After they were “emancipated” whites in the south did everything in their power to control them. They were picked up for the slightest offences and either thrown in jail or put to hard labor. No wonder they don’t trust the system, it has worked against them for decades.

“There just aren’t enough blacks to enforce their culture and rule-set?” I don’t think their values are any different than mine. But working hard and doing well in school just doesn’t always translate into opportunity. A culture shouldn’t be ENFORCED but celebrated which many of them do every day. They just don’t get the television coverage others do unless they do something wrong, then the media is all over them. The struggle continues.

[Df7702]

Your right and the key word is opportunity .

[Genna]

Hilarious. The oh oh line is pretty good Michael Eric Dyson.

I'd love to see some depth. If I see another blaxploitation movie premiere, I might have to do the Republican boycott of Hollywood plantation movie making.

I don't mind men making a movie about themselves. I didn't mind the Million Man march either.

I will go see a womanist movie too.

If they do an across the board look at both men and women, I will go see that as well.

I was happy to see the Jamie Fox movie this past weekend too.

[joelaf]

Tavis, I am a white man, approaching 50. I grew up between 2 housing projects. When I heard "we'll take the white guy", I always went "damn, why not me?" Rural AL, or anywhere else was more about getting by, than race. Most of my neighbors in ATL are AA, and we get along better than I do with whites, because we have a common set of priorities. Had a great convo with a young AA man this weekend about how animals enrich our lives. People are people, races are just colors.

[IGNSTHMD]

It is 9:00 do you know where your child is

you are going to mind me or I will put you out

I can get more for myself on my own

he wont listen with all that attitude

should have listened to mom, now I got nothing to show

good people, bad habits, worse circumstance



I got everything I want and need

so do my friends

I don't go without

my mom and dad mean the world to me

if they were upset with me I couldn't face myself

now I see what my dad was talking about

Assumptions when the world reflects your view of what you deserve