Multiply the many delicious things denied to you by the very nature of one’s Blackness, and it becomes impossible to not understand why Black men have a desire for materialism.

Because the first luxury these Black men, lost in their desires and burdened by their wants, ever buy is a pair of sneakers: Air Jordan’s specifically — and that’s my problem with the culture.

And everything this has come to entail after the Columbus education system experienced several “hiccups” in 2009 which included the failure of a school levy meant to revitalize the funds for student extracurriculars and transportation; a levy that would see the termination of everything from athletics to afterschool tutoring to clubs and school buses and transportation.

When the Concord 11s dropped in 2011, the news reported lines wrapping around several city blocks for the men’s release.

One life boiled down to a few hundreds of dollars…

At the time, my mom and my friend’s mother blamed Black folk in general — some genetic defect within melanin that contributed to panic and hysterical aggression.