On withdrawing from toxic masculinity.
Unfortunately I have had to withdraw my participation from some WhatsApp groups that had become increasingly toxic.
I no longer think that some friendships, from whenever they started, align to what I believe in now, in 2020. I am 41 years old, you see, and over the past year I have had to take a lot introspection of what life is, and what it means.
In an era of Gender Based Violence, of violent crime, and as it is now, of a global pandemic that really tried to kill some of us, if not all of us. I have had to take stock.
From a personal perspective I tried to atone to what I have done in the past, which may have been unjust to womenfolk. And I am trying to right some of the wrongs that I am able to, while I am still alive. Because, being a bystander makes you an accomplice, when you stand aside and say or do nothing bro.
And also, I will no longer participate in the denigration of other black people, male or female, regardless of their tribe or origin, and I will raise my voice when I see the taunting and the disrespect. We are all disenfranchised.
I dont think we build each other from the tribalism, racism, nationalism or surnamism that we may spout. I make no opinion of feminism, thats a fight that needs to be given its own rightful space. Patriarchy is archaic. We are all people, male or female, and yes, we are Africans, even Europeans, if you go down the path of evolutionary history.
Another thing, I can’t have porn popping up uninvited into my personal space. I am not 26 years old anymore, and in 9 years time we will be 50 and we wont have built each other up to get to a higher plateau. I will not be a dirty old man.
And I have a daughter.
So while some things were fun in our younger days, they can no longer be. And if you err and you make a mistake, you must own up and seek repentance. And you correct yourself. Yeah?
So be free to judge and correct me when I detour.
I am in the process of doing all that. Atonement and correction. And I may become in conflict with those values if I see something that is counter and contrary to that belief. And so the toxic masculinity that I have seen, increasingly and loudly in the past, does not feature into that future.
And I will fight against it, with resolve.
I am not throwing stones, just casting aspersions fam.
