Let's Stop Playing: Part One
By: Richard Rowe
 Famed comedian, Chris Tucker of the movies "Friday" and "Rush Hour" 1 and 2, is known for giving the impression that he is really serious about serious "stuff," but right at the moment that it is time to put up and shut up, he will jokingly intimate that he was just playing. Time and time again, Brother Tucker will seduce his adversaries with mannerisms, behaviors and actions that would suggest he is prepared and committed to do what ever is necessary to replace comedic and frivolous foreplay with serious, strategic and solemn action.
Yes, I know that Chris is a comedian and should not be expected to do the unexpected (i.e., be serious), but I often contemplate the possibility that just maybe the law of averages will work in my favor and, just this once, Chris will fool everyone and rise to the occasion with the resolve to "take care of business", and "kick butt." Anyway, enough of my wishful thinking. Brother Tucker is a comedian who is paid a lot of money to "act a fool" and he is the modern day court jester -par excellence. So, for Chris, "I was just playing" is just another level of triviality and self-abasement that commands a hefty price tag.
I believe we are suffering from Chris Tucker's "I was just playing" syndrome. Yes, we talk a serious game, and sometimes behave and act like we are serious, but the truth of the manner is that no one takes us seriously; and why should they? Most of our discussions, regardless of the topics are trivialized because we have not been able to determine what we want as a people beyond the superficial, and we are lacking the economic, political and intellectual infrastructure to command respect from our adversaries.
We are currently a rudderless people preoccupied with consumerism and materialism, and our actions suggest that fundamental life-saving values (love and respect) have been eviscerated and replaced by a Darwinistic and profiteering ethos unseen or felt by many in our community. We do not initiate serious discussions about our very survival because we fear losing our "things" despite the fact that we are losing our children and many of our sacred institutions. No one listens to a people who cannot differentiate wants from needs, or who returns 96% of their wealth to an external economy. And, no one can take a people seriously who continue to externalize both the problems and solutions.
By our very actions and inactions we have given our adversaries the impression that we are just playing at being serious. We are history's amnesiacs fitted with memories of others. Our minds can be trained for individual career success, but our group morale, the very soul of us has been devastated by the assumptions that what has not been told to us about ourselves does not exist to be told.
We are disconnected from our past and each other and everybody in the world capitalizes on our ignorance. We don't "proact," but rather react to everything. And, unlike Chris Tucker the comedian, we are not even being compensated for our frolicking performance. But, like Brother Tucker, we make for very good entertainment, reruns, sequels, and, of course, a good laugh every now and then. Black people, we have enough comedians - so let's stop playing.
To be taken seriously, a people must engage in serious study and systematic work. Part II of this article will offer a few examples of serious actions/behaviors that must be adopted by African Americans if we are desirous of respect and high-level family and community functioning.
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