What in the h–l do Black Men WANT?

To be clear: I am not saying I speak for all Black Men: I am speaking on some insights I have gained from talking to brothers, observing them online and off and watching how they are portrayed.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to answer this question.

What we want is simple. It is exactly the same thing YOU want: To be viewed and treated fully and totally as a human being.

As all human beings we as a collective are capable of a full breadth of emotions and actions and states of being.

We can be totally hostile, bitter, vindictive, destructive and remorseless
We can ALSO be fully loving, funny, compassionate, protective, supportive and providing

We can be, no we ARE as good as ANY man.

But we are tired, we are frustrated and hopeless because despite everything we are DAILY talked about and perceived as more of what we can be totally and not what we are fully. In the world today, it seems the monsters amongst us are portrayed to represent all us all.

Why do we feel this?

We feel hopeless because no matter what level we achieve educationally or financially, we are still singled out as dangerous, threatening and inferior.
It sometimes seems that the least of others are considered superior to the best of us.
We feel tired because we have to always modify our behavior so that other people get to feel safe. Having to hold ourselves back from who we are is painful and a burden no man should have to bear. It is exhausting to always have to prove we are not monsters.
We feel frustrated because in THIS struggle, it doesn’t seem like we have ANY allies we can trust completely.

What do we want?

To not have to continually prove we are not what we are shown to be on television or the movies.
To not have to prove to our women that we can be trusted
To not have to read and hear on full blast DAILY that we are dogs and liars
To not have to life our lives and modify ourselves so that others can feel safe and comfortable.
To have images we can show our sons where men that look like THEM put the glass slipper on the princess or the crown on the Queen
To get the look that we would all die to get when we see our Queen!
To be a shoulder to cry on AND to have one WE can cry on
To be talked to and not AT or ABOUT
To be the one our women and children come running to when they are scared or hungry or hurt.
We would like or someone to ask “Where are all the Black Men?” and when the answer is known, care enough to join a plan to do something about it. This has been studied enough!