Church-Think vs University-Think [Bring Back the Lions II]

When I was in my first year at college, living in Liggett dorm [Washington University], our dorm advisor took us Black men and women aside one night for a chat. We were few back then, maybe 7 or 8, and while this Black male dorm advisor pretended to give us advice, I think he was actually wrestling in the middle of things himself. His subject was dating and marriage, and he suggested that we would have to be open to dating outside our "race" as we got further in our educations. If that campus was any indication he was correct. But St. Louis had a large Black population: couldn't we date or marry among them? His argument, further, was that what we'd encounter was something that wouldn't jive with the mindsets being shaped as undergraduates and graduate students: that, professionally we would be set apart and intellectually would have different set of tools with which to view the world than a partner who'd only gone as far as high school. Fast forward 20 years, and I think more and more about that fireside chat. My mind has grown more curious, more disciplined, more thirsty for what goes on in the world and how it operates. I have posed questions about a range of topics. What I have experienced - in a generality - is that there is truth to a Black resistance to exploring ideas, asking questions, interrogating "facts" versus an openness among Whites to all that. This is the trend, not an absolute. But it is strictly Black gay men who ban me from online discussion groups, Black gay men who will not date me for my politics. I have not met a white gay man to date who has reacted that strongly. White men, tending to have had educations beyond high school, may not agree with me but they respect the idea of Interrogation. It is not seen as disrespectful. It is not dangerous. Black men, tethered to a Church whose ideas are somewhat medieval, a hierarchy, keep their head down and the loudmouth in the group is a threat to survival. I would be the loudmouth. Unlike Bill Cosby, I do see the socio-economic basis for this - half of Black students dropping out of high school in LA; those who do graduate, many cannot read, etc., etc. Stupidity has been imposed on us somewhat. But this is not enough: something must spark the poor to awaken, to see that education is a duty to oneself. It is also a duty to the Democracy, and this is what uttermost is in peril. The Democracy. Regardless who I come to date, we cannot have a democracy with part of the population unable and unwilling to weigh Issues. Question motives. Interrogate the status quo. Strive for Competence.