WELCOME TO THE BLACK MENTAL HEALTH ALLIANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHERE THE RULES ARE SIMPLE, DRESS LIKE WE WANT YOU TO, OR WE WILL SEND YOUR BLACK ASS TO JAIL.
I remember an interesting event from many years ago when I worked at a facility for treating alcoholism and drug addiction in young adults. One of the counselors there made the utterance during a staff meeting that he intended to tell the clients on his caseload that he would not do individual sessions with them if they showed up with “bizarre” haircuts, nose rings or other manner of personal appearance that did not meet his approval.
He was fired a couple of days later on a technicality, to the applause of the rest of us. Good fucking riddance.
The last thing that these young people needed was a supposed mental health professional so shallow and so judgmental that they could not look past fashion and into their humanity. Doing so is a skill fundamental to forming an alliance with people who might just trust you enough to help them.
Thankfully, that kind of “professional” really is the exception. That does not guarantee competence, but it does serve to rule out some of the most destructive and misguided before they get a chance to abuse and cheat clients by imposing their personal fashion sensibilities and calling it therapy. How can you understand a human being if you cannot see past a tattoo at what resides under the skin?
Hint for the woefully stupid. You can’t treat alcoholism or drug addiction with a haircut. And yes, believe it or not you actually have to tell some people that more than once.
So, you can imagine my surprise, not to mention my disappointment, when I read that the Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts was targeting and threatening young Black men in the Boston area for wearing their pants too low – with three years in prison. The message is delivered, with real tough-guy bravado, by Uncle Tom in a blue uniform.
Oh yeah, that is just what the Black community needs, more young Black men doing time in prison on bullshit charges.
Fuck, who needs the Klan any more when you have Black mental health professionals (who are apparently about as mentally healthy as Byron De La Beckwith) turning hostile, virulent racism inward on their own community?
They are getting the added kick of infusing sexism into the mix. Can you imagine what the reaction of the Black community would be if young, inner city women were threatened with prison for their fashions?
Make no mistake about it, this is not about improving matters for the Black community. It is not about understanding the struggles of young Black men. It is not even about recognizing them as human beings. It is Big Brutha, kissing racist White asses and kicking the impoverished, struggling members of their own community while they are down. And doing so under the banner of mental health.
Gee, where else have I seen young men stigmatized and derogated while claiming to be about the provision of mental health services? Oh yeah, it is in the White community. But racist-feminist ideologues on this side of the racial divide can’t get away – at least yet – with overt threats of prison for how young men dress. That sort of bullying has to be reserved for those with the least resources to fight back.
It is actually hard to say how much of what is driving the Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts is racist self-hatred, how much is sexism, and how much is just the misguided stupidity of people that think you can solve complex social problems by telling people how to dress, but it is safe to say there is a (un)healthy dose of all three in this shameless stunt of racially targeted bullying.
Apparently the Black men involved with the Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts have pulled their pants up, alright. So high, in fact, they have squeezed their nuts out of existance.
I could go into more of analysis of this, but it is not worth the time it would take to fastidiously debunk this pile of res ipsa loquitur bullshit. I will just offer you the video and call it a day.
Well, there is one more thing: A message to the Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts. I am very sure the Aryan Brotherhood, who have likely persecuted fewer Black men than you, is cheering you on. I am sure that George Lincoln Rockwell is equally impressed, you well behaved gaggle of step-and-fetches.
But it does leave me with a question or two about you. Is this what you have to offer young Black men? Prison for low belt lines and exposed underwear? Is this what mental health is for the Black community; a push to send young Black men to a horrible place where they will be raped and beaten and learn how to become real criminals, ultimately returning to the Black community?
If this is the case, then young Black men, and the Black community are really, truly fucked.
