He didn’t win me over with his rant on men and rape.
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Chivalry isn’t dead; he’s just sitting in a dimly lit corner singing softy to himself waiting for the populous to stop drooling over routine and regular and recognize real romance so that his true light can shine, one that will blind the eyes to mediocrity and cause sight to see only special.
Those are the words I would’ve said if I was Mr. Robert R. Jennings, President of Lincoln University, and was speaking to a room full a mostly young black woman and wanted to school them about real men, real love and real relationships. I would’ve raised their expectations for what’s available on planet Earth if you just search beyond the physical surface.
But, because I’m not Mr. Jennings – who just received a vote of no confidence from his faculty staff – those young woman didn’t get to hear my prolific words, instead they heard that every man will treat you like you’re the best thing since slice bread, while slicing you’re bread and someone else’s bread, too. And that if you let them, men will use you up and then “when it’s time to make the final decision, go down the hall and marry the girl with the long dress on… that’s the one were going to take home to mama.”
For the three minutes that Mr. Jennings in seen in the YouTube video lecturing the audience as if they’re his daughters, his message was concise: men treat women with respect depending on how the women carries herself and how she allows the man to treat her.
“That’s the way it works,” he said, noting that’s “its something about the way you carry yourself and respect yourself that demands and commands respect from us.”
Mr. Jennings then proceeded to describe how all “brothers” act.
“We’ll give you our rap; it’ll be the best thing you ever heard. And come the next day, we’ll act like we don’t know you.”
Mr. Jennings then did that weird preacher thing where you ask the audience if you’re right about the topic you’re speaking, knowing no one is going to actual disagree with you – and no one did.
What gives Mr. Jennings the right to speak for (black) men? Is it is lifelong work with men around the world? Or maybe it’s his long-standing relationship with the Boy’s Choir of South Africa. No, it’s actually something on a much smaller scale: three cases of salty females who got some good d*ck, got hooked, got played and then screamed rape.
Look, I get the premise of what Mr. Jennings was trying to get across: women treat themselves the way they want to be treated – and that rule should be the same for all sexes.
But what I don’t agree with and what offends me is painting all “brothers” with a broad stroke in the mind of young, impressionable females. The truth is, not every man will treat a female based on how she treats herself. Some “brothers” will treat her better than she treats herself because they see something in her that she can’t. Some “brothers” won’t use her up and go marry the girl with the long dress on, they’ll actually build her up and then send her shopping for a wedding dress.
Some “brothers” won’t d*ck and dive, they’ll actually lay and stay and then grow and sow into both lives.
My point is, Mr. Jennings doesn’t speak for all men. In my opinion, he’s only the voice of the routine and regular.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™