How a person feels is important when we consider their words and actions, but how the person feels does not mean that what they say or do translates to the advancement of the agenda(s) they support. Let me put it bare¯when the day is done the question is: have I forwarded the cause of the downtrodden, or have I unwittingly, stupidly, helped an enemy of mankind?

I’m on the subject because my daughter was giving the arm’s length to her 10-year-old daughter because she, my daughter, was watching Black Panther with her 4-year-old young son, and she didn’t want her daughter near because her daughter likes to talk during movies. My daughter said that she and her son didn’t want any interruptions while they were trying to figure out the plot.

I haven’t seen Black Panther, even though there were/are all these rave reviews about the positive image it gives for black and brown people. I’m not in a hurry. It could be that I’d give the thumbs up to Black Panther, but I’ll take my time to get there.

The racist elements in the white race are consumed with dominating the planet, continuing their domination, and their play is not always overt. It is my opinion that their hand is behind hip hop, a music form with great beat and energy, and a lot of lyrics that Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Hon. Elijah Muhammad would condemn.

Ha, regular readers of my column know that I have a beef with Tyler Perry too. I haven’t seen all of this man’s work, but in every one that I have seen he is rolling over for women. I don’t go for men who roll over for women. They are either taking the sneaky route to get some physical love, or to be liked.

I’ve been called many shocking things, including racist. This piece has to do with race, so I’ll just say that 500 years isn’t lost on me, and the schemes of modern racists aren’t lost on me either. This is no surface game.

Young Castro’s post

I haven’t heard anyone say a kind word about what Mr. Jumoke Castro posted on Facebook in response to what Pastor Louis Wade rightly pointed out about the behavior of certain sons of Cabinet ministers. Across the nation the Castro words were condemned. The young man’s words were shocking, and rightly he was rebuked, but I wouldn’t close the book there without going deeper. I’m looking at it from the point that the young man is not alone in his thinking.

Really, are there more young men in our nation who would want to make a post like that when they are angered? Are all the young women in our nation as hurt by those words as are the older voices who spoke out? I have my suspicions.

When I was a youth, a Dr. Joyce Brothers reportedly said that a human being is what they eat. We know of two kinds of food — food that is meant for the stomach and food that is meant for thought.

Let us face the world here. Music educates, and the music forms that resonate with many Black youth in this country are cop-hating/misogynistic hip hop, which is dominated by American Blacks, and dirty reggae that is dominated by some Jamaican songsters. Let me explain that hip hop and reggae have an incredible beat, and a lot of the songs have beautiful lyrics, but there are too many artists using these music forms who, to get theirs, are feeding Black youth poisonous words.

The people at the top of the music industry say these artists are just relating what is real, but that is a simple message to feed the gullible. Everything a person says and does has meaning, and for some it’s all predatory, getting theirs.

It is important for us to discuss the things that are behind what our artists produce, and why we accept wrong stuff when it is obvious that it is serving for the destruction of our kind. Unfortunately it is a discussion that many people don’t want us to have.

Audrey didn’t hold back

Have you ever caught yourself holding your breath, I mean, not holding it deliberately, I mean a moment when you just get carried, caught up by what is going on around you at the particular time? That’s how it was with me while reading Audrey Matura’s piece, “Breaking the Silence,” an article she wrote that was published in the December 20 edition of the Amandala. I might not agree with all her observations on the personalities, but her passion over the substance of what is going on in our world overwhelmed me.

I don’t know anything about Senator Godwin Hulse, the private person: all I know of him is what I see in the public person, his ideas about our economy and how we should handle government business.

The first thing I usually do is what I’ve always done since my mother pulled me aside from a fracas when I was around 11 years old and said: “You are always right. The next time you have a problem with anyone, put on the other shoe” —yes, try to put on the other shoe.

When Godwin spoke on camera, he should have been conscious that he had on multiple hats: father of the young man, grandfather, could have been, might still be father-in-law, senator, Cabinet minister, husband, father/uncle of girls. Ah, but when Godwin spoke on camera, he insisted on being one thing only — father of the boy. When he spoke in the Senate, however, he spoke with all the hats he wears.

One thing I have learned about this world is that we aren’t certain who we are until we face a situation. You can be harsh and say the person who took a loaf of bread to feed their hungry children is a teef, but you can’t say of yourself that you wouldn’t be a teef too if you were destitute and had hungry children at home.

That situation that Godwin faced is a very difficult one. Minister Farrakhan said the lady said she beat her child so that he didn’t make mistakes when he grew up. If Godwin’s son did what the mother of his child said he did, then give Vaughn Gill a point when he said that that young man desperately needs counseling.

Belize doesn’t have a homogenous culture, far from. The young man reportedly said the mother of his child slapped him. Where I come from, the only response for a man who gets hit by a woman is in the Bible: give her the other cheek. Godwin’s response on camera suggested that in his world¯if she slap you, yoh slap ahn back.

Those who say the parent is to be blamed for the child should realize that that is a story of degrees. Parents who have a number of children will tell you how different their children are/can be. And then there is the culture of the nation. There is an environment at home, but there are also environments of learning and play that are away from home. All these help to mold the unique substance of a person’s character.

The state must have compassion, fairness; it must do the right thing. My personal view is that Godwin did not think enough about the state when he spoke on camera, and that he humbled himself as best he could when he spoke in the Senate.

I do not consider our state to have a clean hand on this matter. Our state absolutely must encourage more discussion on a serious issue like gender violence. There are people who are against lashing, a multi-faceted tool, and then they come with the big stick in a case like the one we are discussing here. We need to talk more.