Pull up those britches!!


The Other Day, a friend of mine came to my dorm room just to chat
while
her laundry was drying. As we were chatting, two young freshmen came
by. One
of the boys wanted to "talk" to my friend (as in date). She asked him
how
old they were, and both of the boys replied 18. My friend and I both
laughed
hysterically because we are both 22 years old. After my friend left,
the
young men were still hanging around and one wanted to know how he
could
gain her interest.

The first thing I told him to do was to pull up his pants. He asked
why,
then said he like saggin' his pants. I told him to come over to my
computer and spell the word saggin'. Then I told him to write the word
saggin'
backwards.

S-A-G-G-I-N

N-I-G-G-A-S

I told him the origin of that look was from prison. The reason their
pants looked like that was because they were not allowed to have belts
because
prisoners were likely to try to commit suicide. And also if their
pants
were saggin under their butts that meant the man was available for
sex!!!!

We as young black people have to be the ones to effect change. We are
dying. The media has made a mockery of the Black American. Even our
brothers and sisters from Africa don't take us seriously. Something as
simple as pulling up your pants and standing with your head high could
make the biggest difference in the world's perception of us. It is time
to do
right by ourselves. We need to love and embrace each other. No one is
going to do it for us.

It all comes down to perception. What people perceive is what is
reality
to them. We have to change not only the media's perception of us, but
we
need to change our perception of ourselves. Remember all eyes are on
you
Black Man. All eyes are on you Black Woman. All eyes are on you Black
Child.
People are waiting for us to mess up. We have let not only the media,
but the government and the world taint the pure essence of us. They
have
stripped our culture down to the point where we only believe we can
become rappers and athletes. We are so much more.

To all my black men:

It's time to stand up. There are billions of Black Women who want to
do
nothing more than worship the ground that you walk on. We are so in
love
with your potential. We want to have your back, we want to love,
support
and cherish every ounce of your being. But with that you have to show
that you are willing to be the head of our households. You have to
prove
yourselves worthy of our submission. We need you to be hard
working...Not a hustler. We need you to seek higher education, to seek
spirituality. We
need you to stand! And trust us; we will have your back. We know that
it
gets hard, we know you get weary. Trust and believe that there is
nothing that a Black Woman and a Black Man can't handle with God on
their sides.

To all my Black Women:

It is also time for us to stand up. It is time for us to stop using
our
bodies as our primary form of communication. It is time to be that
virtuous woman that Proverbs spoke of. We cannot sit by the wayside
while our men
are dying by the masses. We are the epitome of Black Love. It starts
within us. We need to speak with conviction to let not only our Black
Men know,
but the world know that we are the Mothers of this world. We are so
powerful. We are so beautiful. We need to love and embrace every
blessing God has given us physically, emotionally and spiritually.

For all My Black Children:

We need to love them. We need to teach them. We need to stand up for
them.
We need to protect them. We need to show them that there are no "get
rich quick" schemes. We need to tell them that they WILL die trying if
they
submit to a life of crime and deceit. We need to teach our children
that
no one will love them the way we can. And being a basketball player, a
rapper, or a drug dealer is not reality. It's not realistic and only a
small
percentage of people ever make it as a rapper or professional athlete.
We need to teach our children that we can be more than rappers and
athletes.

We can be the owners of these sports teams; we can be the CEO's of our
fortune 500 companies. We need to believe in literacy. I am almost
certain if we were to look back to the 1930's and 40's, the literacy
rates for
Black American Children are probably still the same.

Ok...I am stepping off of my soap box now. Pull Up Your Pants!!