AVIAN TROOPERS

Yesterday I was walking down the street and I saw two quails eating some bread crumbs someone had left for them. I didn’t want to frighten them so I took the long way around. But when I came parallel to their eating spot, one bird stopped eating and ran towards me like a true avian trooper while the other didn’t miss a crumb. I thought this brave guardian must be the male.

Then as usual I started relating this experience with other animal behavior on the planet. I saw that this behavior was not too different from the human animal and his ideas about protecting the female and by extension, the family. Of course I had to put this into the context of cultural behaviors. My epiphany brought me to my own past. I don’t remember any of the men, father, uncles, family friends, really working. They had menial jobs like driving taxis, janitorial work and numbers running, after all this was in the early 1950’s, but nothing considered, “professional.” Looking back, I wondered how their females felt. I got a glimpse of this watching my avian friends.

The basic function of the man in a patriarchal society is to protect those who depend on him for said protection. No Black man then or now is allowed to fully fulfill this basic function whether he is a “professional” or a businessman. Even the successful black businessman is not immune because he has some type of bank note from a white banker and must show some caution, although not as much as the working professional.

So where does that leave the black female who just wants to have her and her child eat while their back is being protected? I would say “loving,” but with one foot out the door.

There are so many forces that come into play when a black man wants to protect his partner. There is always the threat that the white establishment will tire of him and his income will become poverty level. There is the chance that he is under so much pressure to be a non-entity in the outside world, that he takes this frustration out on his family. Then there is the chance that he internalizes his lack to express his manhood, making the female either no longer tolerating his yielding disposition, thereby losing respect, however still needing to eat, or; she finds other avenues of escapism, but the end result is the familiar bonds dissolve.

“One wonders how long a man can maintain enthusiasm for thrift, diligence,
and hard work when the rewards so earned are denied and when the goods so
earned are stolen.”-Black Rage

How can the black female feel secure with the black man? I would say this is a near impossible situation for the long term under present conditions. Factor in that today’s relationships also cross “racial” and “gender” boundaries, that condition makes black male-female situations more acute. All this is then packaged into the idea of a “progressive” society further leaving the black female’s back exposed to many abstract dangers. Subsequently, when she does eat, she eats a ton because there’s no telling when the knife of white supremacy will be thrust into her because her natural mate is able to continuously watch her back safely. To this I say, too bad we aren't quails.