Last Stand / Call to Action Broadsides - Day 3

"The New KKK is Kids Killing Kids." I heard this quote as I drove in this morning. It was timely because we will write broadsides that are deeply steeped into our agendas. One of the most difficult questions for young African American males to respond to is, "What is the agenda?"

Agenda is defined as a list or program of things to be done or considered.

Without an agenda, we are at the mercy of swaying winds that may not blow in the right direction. Historically, Brother Authors used their pens intentionally to shape agendas. They used their pens to appeal to others. Today, you will make your appeals in your final writing piece of this week. Be thoughtful! Be serious! Be unapologetic! Be fearless! Become part of the swaying winds!

I wrote the following call to action broadside to remind us of the need to find the right words to sustain a young man's hope before it becomes a young man's hate.

Empty Slots

By

Alfred W. Tatum

Mailboxes ripped from their slots

A few kilometers from the liquor store

Confuses the retired police officer

Who raised his sons to be righteous?

But failed to talk to the young boy visiting his neighbor

He only told his son to watch out for boys like him

Trouble's weathervane

The boy looked at his dirty socks

And whispered to himself

Trouble you see

I guarantee its reality

Damn you old man and your son

I will be back at your doorstep

To claim what you own

Mailbox and all

Only if you knew what to say to the young boy with hope

Before I became a young man with self-hate

Writing as agenda-building, deals not only with the present, but is grounded in a vision for the future. Part of my agenda is identifying the the missing architects to join me in the jungle. I tried to capture this in the following piece:

Missing Architects

by

Dr. A.W. Tatum

June 30^th, 2011

9:25am

More than a million speeches and conference proceedings

focused on the intersection of my blackness and dangling manhood

They talk about me in hotel lobbies and national newspapers

I am thought about by think tanks

I am scorned in the comments section following a news article about me

I have even become profitable in the worst way

They are given vouchers and federal dollars to save me

From what, is not clear

Church leaders have profited

I have made a lot of careers at top universities by folks who “address” my need in print

without addressing me

They don’t even have my address or telephone number

No one has ever called my cell

There are too many architects at the drafting board

without a clue

without my blueprint

all leading to unintended consequences

yielding the same image

My blueprint may help to make sense of it all

One line, one scribble at a time


I am also calling on young African American males to build platforms of progress that stretch the boundaries of our existence and speak boldly (i.e., prudently and unapologetically) to protect the new platforms.

The Black Male Questioner
by
Alfred W. Tatum
June 28, 2012
9:47 am

The questions people ask me are imprisoned by smallness
that fail to capture the complexity
of son, brother, citizen, human
the questions are confined by a false imagination
influenced by a kindergarten coloring technique
that instructs one to stay within the lines
but my life and the lives of my brothers are not contoured that way
we stretch beyond the narrow boundaries
of our sex organs
of a crisis narrative
of pain
boundaries others are not able to capture with their questions
Thus, the need to build our own platforms without apology
and speak boldly.

This type of writing is guided by at minimum two questions:

1.     What do my people/children need to understand?

2.     What do I tell my people/children? 

 The spirit of these questions is grounded in the black prophetic tradition. 

Today, I am asking you to be prophetic. 

Post your last stand / call to action broadsides below. 

Remember, writing is an intellectual exercise that demands knowledge and care.