Folk are really making it hard for me to maintain my cool while I grow my baby. So last week Luke saw some acrobats and aerialists on television. When I heard the Universoul Circus was coming to town I thought it would be a cool way for him to see them since he seemed so fascinated. I had planned to buy my tickets yesterday, so why did I turn on the news to see this foolishness? Pimps. Strippers. Cocaine. Weed. At the mother-freaking circus? Oh, but they brought it back to Christ so that makes it all good.
Could somebody please explain to me why black folk all of a sudden can’t do a goddamned thing without involving deviant, jailhouse, crackhouse culture? How is it possible that the same people who created American popular music and literature that makes me weep at its profundity, not to mention a liberation movement that is still inspiring the world find it impossible to create art anymore? Why is it assumed that our children are so fucking depraved that they need to hear a “message” about avoiding drugs and stripping in every venue? Just for the record the only hoe my six-year-old knows about is a garden implement. He thinks Roxanne shouldn’t turn on the red light to save electricity. Yes, I told him what cocaine is, but you can best believe I don’t listen to classic rock with him in the car anymore. I know I’m not the only sane black parent out there, so why in the hell is everything directed toward the few crazies that do expose their children to the sick mockery we’ve made of black culture?
Why does everything for black children have to contain a “message?” Why do we act as though black children come out of the womb without innocence and already deviant? Everybody isn’t raising their kids in a crackhouse, why do we act as though they are? I don’t want my child exposed to your freaking “message” I want him to go to the circus to see acrobats and aerialists and girls in sparkly costumes. What’s so effing hard about that? If you’re a circus be a fucking circus and leave the “messaging” to the parents.
