By Nadra Enzi:

Author Ralph Ellison once wrote a racial revelation called, ” Invisible Man. ” As one of millions who’ve lived that title I can say being one is an ungodly waste of talent. Our invisibility is a function of choice, in this instance the choices of other people and their low opinions. This imposed invisibility is also very selective.

In my late teens and 20s I was highly visible upon occasion to police officers claiming they sought suspects matching my description, though Savannah never has had a surplus of African-American wrongdoers with glasses and books in hand. Job hunting and/or soliciting clients finds applications, resumes and/or interviews again falling under this cultural cloaking device. Managing invisibility is the great security challenge of Black male life: illegally raging against the proverbial machine carries criminal sanctions that make bad situations even worse.

Good economic times found us mostly ignored or under compensated nationwide. Today’s Repression has pushed us off the radar screen despite the presence of President Obama. Selective vocational visibility drives some Black men into crime and addiction. Correcting this is at least as important as pushing stimulus packages whose largess doesn’t reach the inner city.

There is a shocking number of Black men locked out of the economy as if we didn’t exist. Some of these invisible men choose two highly destructive responses: becoming thugs or addicts whose whose ritual violations and self-medication create a revolving door of arrest and deepening problems. Employed men who pierced the visibility veil often tip-toe inside work places fearing becoming once more unseen. One public safety initiative worth consideration is wedding increasing our employment and contract stats with creative anti-discrimination efforts. Anyone who screams ” Quota system! ” should be honest enough to admit that deleting anti-Black male bias means ending America’s oldest quota system. One Black man got hired by the American people last year but that didn’t include the rest of us!

Invisibility and public safety go hand in hand. Generations of second class treatment spawns its share of first class mistakes among the targeted. Excluding Black men from the work force demands reform because misguided attempts to thug or drug our way forward creates far more problems than they solve on both sides of the color line. Everyone is responsible for his actions but overlooking employment exclusion overlooks a major motivator in inner city crime.

The days of non-violent protest and stoic self-reliance will probably end with my generation. Younger attitudes are more hostile and less diplomatic toward discrimination. Crime fighting in this instance becomes a color blind crusade against hard wired anti-social behavior in each group: Whites who won’t hire Black men need as much rehabilitation as Black men who lash out in response. Dismantling each anti-social culture gives America a chance to finally end the perils of Black male invisibility.

NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT. BLACK promotes crime prevention and self-development. He’s also a self-described “ATM”: Anti-terrorist Muslim. nadracaptblack@ymail.com and (912) 272-2898