Black Excellence is not a choice.

I wonder at times how much of my personality was influenced by my environment. I sometimes find myself studying how children adopt accents and mannerisms and even ethos like hardwork from their parents. The other day I found myself watching a documentary on the life of Michael Jordan and was amazed by how much competition and the hunger to be the best was instilled in him by his father and mother growing up...(the kids were literally coming to blows over basketball games.) I relate this to the issue of Black Excellence, why, because the world has tried its best to subjugate and oppress us because of our melanin. We will never be treated equally or kindly by the present capitalistic system because we are too precious of a resource for us to truly know our worth. So we are constantly drowned by negative imagery, stereotypes and media references that presently perpetuate an image of the gun totting, cussing, drug dealer who has nothing going for them but the ability to rap about their immediate environment and activities leading to a fanbase of mostly children who are then encultured into gun totting and selling drugs (why else are we 10% of the population and yet make up 80% of those in jail, are we to believe that the black man is more inclined to criminal behavior, if this were the case, then why did Malcolm Little become Malcolm X in the prison system?). This is why black excellence is not a choice, if it was we would have more references of black people in real positions of power, we would not go into a predominantly black neighborhood and automatically know that it was underfunded and poverty stricken. We don't have many examples so we are forced to be them; EXCELLENCE FOR US IS A MUST.