“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Steve Jobs

What do Tyrese Gibson, Gilbert Arenas, and Kyrie Irving all have in common?  They are all rich and famous black men that have taken to task in the court of public opinion for merely having an opinion. Well, that’s a little intellectually disingenuous. More to the point, and the true cause of the animus being thrown is not just the fact that they had opinion, but the fact they chose to exercise their right to express it publicly. Further to the point, they had and expressed negative opinions about black women.

Now the part about black women is important. I think it is a widely accepted fact that as men in general, but black men specifically, in our society are expected to suffer, and to do so in silence. The only viable opinions that we are allowed to have and dare make public are ones that uplift, support, or otherwise are to the effect that black women are beautiful, great, or some derivative of a similar sentiment.

With this established, I got to thinking why is this case? Why is it such a point of contention for black men to have and voice their opinions? Why is there such a vested interest in suppressing the black male opinion and who benefits most when black men are rendered silent?

The obvious answer to that question is black women.  For the better part of 30 years or so, black women have been able to dominate the conversation as it pertains to Black America. They’ve done an excellent job of elevating themselves at our expense. What are the prevailing thoughts and overwhelming stereotypes about black men, despite a cornucopia of evidence to the contrary? We’re all thugs, on the down low, in jail, not on college campuses, deadbeat dads, womanizers, and domestic abusers. Who has been the biggest driving force in pushing these stereotypes? The answer without question is black women. In the legal system, guilt is established by connecting motive with opportunity.  Given that they clearly have the motive, to elevate themselves while lowering us, and the opportunity via their various gynocentric media outlets such as but not limited to Madame Noire, Clutch, Ebony, Essence, The Grio, OWN etc, I’d say they’re guilty as charged.

However, upon further inspection, like a transformer there’s more than meets the eye.  Black men’s opinions matter because by and large they affect public opinion. Black men have a spending power of 500 billion dollars by most recent estimates. That equates to a lot of money, and we all know that money is power. As such, there’s a vested interest in controlling black men’s opinions. Not only do we have a lot of buying power, but we have a lot of cultural influence as well. Black men are trendsetters and a large segment of American culture is driven by black men’s opinions. For example, the cosmetic surgery industry has seen a boon as women, black and white, have gotten record numbers of ass injections looking to achieve a shape that’s desirable to black men. The alcohol, jewelry, restaurant, nightclub and other industries have all reported a precipitous drop off in their sale because men in general, with a large portion of which being black, aren’t availing themselves of their services for dating purposes.  A considerable amount of time, energy and effort is spent to suppress us from expressing opinions that run counter to the establishment because doing so would upset the status quo and those that benefit from it. In other words, the powers that be need to keep us thinking the way that we do, so that they can control our 500 billion dollar buying power. As long as we are kept ignorant to our true worth, we can be controlled and manipulated.

Brothers, remember we have power. The fact that our voices are always trying to be silenced is proof positive of that fact. If we didn’t matter, why go to such great lengths to stop our voices from being heard? Why give MGTOW and black male Youtubers so much grief? The answer is simple. Your opinions, and by extension, your money matters.  We have more power than we realize and we need to use it.