Accountability: We don’t want to be left out in the cold.

So, I’ve been thinking about this topic for a little over a week. After having some exchanges with a few people and hearing a Sunday sermon at my home church, I thought it was important to talk about accountability in the black community.

It’s no secret that African Americans have experienced problems and issues that are a direct result of institutionalized racism. It’s just facts.

Single-Parent households, alcoholism, sexual irresponsibility, drug use, high incarceration, financial instability, and illiteracy are all issues that are prevalent in the African American community that can, with little to no effort, be traced to some type of ploy used against black people.

As easy as it is to blame the "powers that be" for the cancers that eat at the black community, how many of us are actually willing to hold ourselves accountable for the part we play in this process?

Sunday night my Bishop gave a great example, alcoholism. The alcohol industry has purposefully place advertisements in African American communities. Look at commercials, billboards, and magazines ads. We see who they’re targeting. While they target our communities, nobody is forcing us into these stores. Nobody is forcing us to partake in something that we’ve ALREADY seen on MULTIPLE occasions devastatingly affect our community.

C’mon now. We have to take accountability for our actions.

Now ill-informed, albeit well-intentioned, individuals will say that this is a form of “victim-shaming” on some pan-level, but I don’t see it like that.

Example: Let’s say it’s the dead of winter. I have $100 and an electricity bill for $20. Someone steals $70 from me, leaving me with $30. Now, instead of taking $20 and paying my electricity bill, I go out and spend my $30 on a shirt because everybody else has the shirt. A few days later my lights go out. I have no heat. Whose fault is it that I have no heat in the dead of the winter? Sure. I can spend my time blaming the person that stole the $70 from me, but what say ye about the $30 I frivolously spent?

Listen. The game isn’t fair, but we have to be strategic.

 To add to that, we have to stop categorizing individuals who force us to look critically at ourselves as “Uncle Toms” or “Sell Outs.” The latter portion of Proverbs 1:7 says that “...fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Only a fool despises getting better. Only a fool despises growth. Only a fool despises edification.

Are we trying to be a group a fools or what?

Let’s take accountability for our actions. 

Let’s fight relentlessly for our stolen $70, but let’s be smart with the remaining $30. We don’t want to be left out in the cold…literally and figuratively.