VOICES: WE NEED TO FIX THE ROOTS BY BRENT BUTLER (BIG B)

I am many things.  To my students at John Marshall High School, I am a role model.  To my baseball players, I am “Coach.”  To my lady, I’m the man of her dreams.  To the RVA Hip Hop Community, I am a dope artist.  To my mother, I’m her “Snookems.”  To my friends, I am a stand-up guy.  But to the world…this world we live in…I’m a BLACK MAN.

Before I dive into that last statement I want everyone to know that I am proud to be a Black man.  This world started with a Black man, and for many that concept is hard to grasp.  Resilience!  For so many years we’ve been oppressed with no other explanation other than the color of our skin.  My Grandfather once told me, “We aren’t oppressed because they think less of us, we’re oppressed because they think more of us. And that, my son, is fear.”  Words I will never forget.  So powerful!

I look at 2020 and think, we’ve wrapped all of the 1900s into 6 months.  From Pandemics to racial injustice, it’s all come full circle.  Change doesn’t come from making easy decisions.  I look at today’s times and realize a lot of difficult decisions are going to have to be made in order to see a better tomorrow.  I have friends and family who are in Law enforcement.  I also have friends who have been treated unjustly by the same system that is supposed to protect us.  At the end of the day, I can only uplift what’s right and educate what is wrong. 

We need to fix the roots. Every problem starts at the roots.  It’s like a plant – if the roots are bad and you just keep cutting off the parts that are growing funny the plant will never fully flourish. Same things with the issues going on in the world.  If we keep putting Band-Aids on situations that need to be fixed at the root, we will never get anywhere.

We need to fix the roots. Every problem starts at the roots. – Big B

I am a counselor to high school students, a baseball coach, a boyfriend, a hip-hop artist, a son, a friend….I am a Black Man.