The phrase “just another ignorant black male” was stated to me the other day when a friend was sharing her very unfortunate encounter from earlier that day. As she continued through her story this phrase stuck with me. I asked why she used that particular set of words and she said because he was an ignorant man. This got me thinking.
Why couldn’t he then just be another ignorant man or just another ignorant person? Since when did ignorance equate to color? Does your level of intelligence decrease the darker your skin gets? Ignorance is a people problem not a color problem. The color of your skin doesn’t prove your intelligence any more than it defines your favorite food. There is no correlation between the two.
Throughout all walks of life, religious backgrounds, ethnicities and gender ignorance is present. Ignorance is the act of being uneducated not the act of being black. But the question still remains when did ignorance equate to color? So how do we go about changing this ignorant stigma placed on the heads of our young black men? I encourage “us” as a people to start to educate and inform our youth and each other. Allow the change to start from within.