S5E18 Go to school! #EducationIsPower #LevelUp #NoMoreExcuses

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (0s): Good morning. Ooh, let's see. It's kind of like a overcast, rainy day, but you know, I just wanna welcome you if you're a first time, you know, video watcher to the Black Opinionated Woman, also known as a bow. I can't even talk today, channel. And I, I was just gonna just chit chat for a second, you know, because I, I had a little bit of time, but I'm gonna come off camera for a little bit because one, yeah, I don't need to know everything about where I am.

Let's see. Okay, and I'll come back on in a little bit. All right, so look, I, I know I don't come on as often because either one, I'm too tired. Two, I'm busy, or three, I don't really have anything to say, but I have something to say today. It's not well formed. This is just off the cuff. So, you know, I was on a TikTok, TikTok, I can't talk today, I was on a TikTok and there's apparently this, I don't know how this conversation got started, but there's this whole conversation centered around why black men are not going to college to school.

And okay, I must admit, I don't watch many of these videos all the way through. I might give it five to 10 seconds because oftentimes there's a lot of excuses. And then there's a lot of accountability too. And I'm gonna give you my thoughts on this. You didn't ask one, but I'm providing them anyway. That's why they're called both thoughts, right? These are the Black, Opinionated Woman thoughts. Lemme just say this, I understand there was a period of time when we had to deal with like the crack cocaine epidemic.

I do understand when, you know, former President Clinton, you know, was really pushing for harsher sentences, you know, and he put a whole lot of men in jail, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I understand that. I understand there are systemic things in place, but let me just say this, and this is just gonna make people mad. Black girls and black boys grew up in these same homes, same conditions.

And what I am finding is that we continuously want to coddle our men. These are boys that really haven't even grown into manhood, right? Like they're physically there, but they're not men. And they want people to feel sorry for them all the time, because, so this is the thing. You can recognize that there were some circumstances that have been put in the path, but there's nothing stopping people today from getting educated.

You can go online and go at your own pace, even if it's one class a year. There's, I mean, because see, people do what they want to do. Now, I'm gonna say this again. My mother always told me that people will do what they want to do. So where I'm going with this is, it is hard for me to listen to such conversations because I feel like even when presented with opportunity, we're not taking it. And like what I always tell my kids, like, look, you can achieve many things and you may have roadblocks in front of you, and you may have to work twice as hard just to get half as much, but it doesn't mean you can't get it right.

And sometimes you're gonna face adversity, and it's not gonna be fair. It's not gonna be just, and you're gonna have to get past this mentality that like, well, it's not fair that they don't have to do x. I'm like, you're absolutely right. But these are the cards that have been dealt to you. So you either choose to overcome or to sub come to whatever the scenario is, right? And so when I listen to these men get out here on these platforms, it is just so embarrassing because I'm like, why is it that they're the only ones in the free world that can't get stuff done?

But, and then, and then it's like they compare themselves to black women all the time. And I'm like, it's just so weird. It's like, why are you in competition with the women in your community? We want you to be better. We want you to be better. We want you to be better. We want you to have that internal confidence and self-esteem instead of seeking proximity to something else, instead of looking for someone to pick you up, right?

Like, this is the hand that you're dealt with. You're going to have to start learning how to pick yourself up. And it's not that we can't support, but it's hard to support somebody who's not trying, right? Like I tell my my kids all the time, like, people help people who are trying to help themselves, right? When you're trying, people wanna like help you along long. Like if you're not trying to do better in school and people don't go outta their way to help you either. But if you're studying and you're struggling, then people will try to help you get that knowledge.

So I guess what I'm saying is like, it is hard for me to sit there and see a group of men continuously trying to fall back onto being coddled, because at the end of the day, the opportunities are there. And they may, I feel like men look like me, may have to take extra steps. They may face some adversity, but it doesn't mean they can't achieve. And yes, it's probably gonna be unfair. It's not gonna be just on how they arrive, but there is a pathway.

And then when you arrive, each one teach one, right? You make it better for the person behind you. But instead, our community doesn't like to do that when we arrive. We try to be the only one, because it took like, like I see this a lot. Like when, when you arrive someplace, then it's kind of like, well, I worked so hard to get here. You need to figure it out for yourself. They wanna be the only one. They wanna be tokenized and idolized. So anyway, when I'm listening to these, men are like, oh, they took us out phone. And I'm like, shut up. What does that have to do with today?

What does that have to do with yourself today? Why? Look, you can find money to, to purchase these Xboxes instead of purchasing your first class. You can find time to master these games, but you can't find time to crack open a book. I'm not buying it. And so when we say that we know that there were things that have taken place in the community, yes, but like, what does that to do with today, right?

Like, what to do with you achieving today? There's always an excuse. And then what happens is when we call it out, it makes it seem like, oh, you just, you're just one of those other people. I'm like, that's, that's not true. I'm like, at what point do we stop making excuses, right? Because like, we know what the situation is. So let, when do we want more for ourselves? We voluntarily go out and make bad music. We voluntarily invest our time in mastering, I don't know, NBA 2K or Madden or whatever, whatever game.

But we don't put time into figuring out how did they make this game? How did they come up with these graphics? Like, what was the story like? Like understanding how to tell stories. Because these, these games, a lot of these games are stories, right? So storytellers may or may not have been good in English, I don't know. But we don't write enough books. We don't read enough books. We don't study enough. Let me see if I can come back on camera. Hi there.

So I just get to the point where I'm like, I don't wanna hear it. And let me tell you something, if the men are doing better than us, probo, we want that. I, I know I do. I'm like, you get it? So then I don't have to go get it. There's a reason why men are typically deemed to be more aggressive. Women become aggressive when forced to be, but they don't.

If, if they don't have to be, then they won't, they won't be aggressive. It's really that simple. I know. It's, for me, trust the more aggressive you wanna be and the more you want to achieve, the less I have to worry it. I mean, that's just, that's just where I'm at with it, okay? The more you do what you're supposed to do, the more I don't have to, anyway, so these people were out there on the internet, on social media going on and on, and I just kind of feel like at what point do we say, or we do, we have some sort of grassroots movement for the men to become educated.

We already know so many of them are like so buck broken And they don't even like themselves. So they're trying to seek proximity elsewhere. They're looking for validation elsewhere, right? I can't help with that. All I can say is go do better. If you're concerned about women and they're wanting you for money, and you think that this is making you less competitive, then go make more money. If you're concerned about your physique or something, do something about it. Get healthier.

You know, put in the work. If you're concerned about, you know, meeting somebody, and I know I talked about this in another video about men who are way too obsessed with women and OnlyFans or something like that. But if you wanna meet a wholesome woman and, and, and, and extend your legacy, well then be intentional about the kind of women that you're approaching. I remember I was talking with an old tennis buddy of mine, and I was telling him how like my husband's pride and joy, besides me, of course, is our children.

Our children are a source of pride and joy. And he, you know, like I look at some of these guys And they pride and joys in their car. And his, my, my husband's pride, joy is in making sure our kids are good and that they have opportunities and that he coaches them and all these things, right? He, he puts a lot of time and energy into coaching other kids. Sometimes he's the counselor, sometimes he's, do you understand the ct, all that stuff.

And where I'm going with it is his pride and joy is not in, like, my husband does not know how to play a single game other than the fake little weird, it's not even Tetris. So I don't know what, I forgot what his word. Word screen. No, it's not word. What is it? I, I have it on my phone. I don't even play the game. But he does this one little game on his phone. That's all he is got. I am like, you have the mind of Sally. He is like, leave me alone. I'm doing me right? So I just, I'm just at the point where I'm like, I don't want to hear it.

It is, I, I just don't wanna hear it from people. Like, oh, well, black men we're taken outta the home, but what's stopping you today? I've been telling my kids, and I tell all the people who tell us to go get these, these trades, this is what, this is my, my answer. I don't think there's anything wrong with the trade, but I always say they're like, oh, people making trades because they can start their own business. I'm like, the average person who's trained in the trade does not start their own business, so stop it. That's number one. Number two, I look at what the wealthy people are doing.

They're not sending their kids to trade schools. They're sending their kids to college. I told my son last night, I'm like, let me tell you something. They can always take away your job. They can't take away your education. They can't take away the knowledge. And I'm like, you can actually get a trade. Now. Look, I might be going through a bad area for a second. It might start pixelating. They'll get mad at me. It'll clear up, you know, shortly. But don't, don't get mad at me. But I told my son, I said, look, there, there you can, you can get a trade if you want to.

I don't care. I still think you need to get an education. Education. It goes so far, because a lot of these trades, oftentimes they get replaced by, you know, robotics or machine learning that can do certain jobs. You wanna know how to train the machines that's doing it or operate like you wanna be able to do that. You want, like people, we actually need more English majors now because we gotta train all these language models for all the new chat GPTs and stuff coming out.

There's so much going on in technology. We need to be the ones training the things do that, right? We need to know how to create those things. We need to be educated. Remember before, in other conversations I've had, I said, you wanna understand systems, you have economic systems, social systems, medical systems, computer systems, right? And it's all related environmental systems. I tell people, you wanna go to college and just be aware of the other opportunities that other so-called systems that are out there.

That's what you want. You don't want to be the person who has not exposed themself. You don't wanna be the person who has not traveled around the world if given the opportunity. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Okay? Those are my thoughts. I I, I, I don't wanna sound, I harsh, but that's not even the word I want to use. I don't want people to think that.

I'm not recognizing that there were some things that have happened in our past, right? But I'm like, at what point do we move forward? We have to move forward. All right. So look, I think I'm gonna leave it at that. I don't wanna belabor the, the conversation too long, but I think you guys to go ahead and subscribe to my channel. How about that? Subscribe to my channel because I'm amazing in every way, and I practically do it wrong. It's like literally overcast, like, oh my gosh.

And this is a late morning for me. It's right now it's like 7 26 and it looks like duh, duh outside, you know? But anyway, that's about it. And let me tell you, this moisture out here is not good for the hair. Now, luckily, I have a pretty good blowout here, but in the summer, this won't last. I'll probably be braided or be walking around in my natural. So, but, all right, that's all I've got. Have a good one.

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