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The Journey
Young, Gifted, & Black
I have been in the business of writing, curating, and producing dope and culturally-responsive content for diverse audiences since I was in the 12th grade when I founded Sankofa in the fall of 2004. Sankofa was a Black Studies Social Group that - to the untrained white gaze of my high school peers - was nothing more than a dance and step team. In reality, we were spending hours after school learning the teachings of Marcus Garvey,W.E.B. DuBois, and Dr. John Henrik Clarke; I didn’t know it then, but I was building Black scholars as a 17-year-old teenager unlocking a thirst for knowledge that would lead me to gain a deeper understanding of who I was.
I earned my degree in psychology from Florida A&M: one of only two universities in the nation with a psychology program that focuses on the Black experience. I had the privilege of learning under The Father of Black Psychology, Dr. Kobi Kambon, and was fortunate enough to learn at the feet of Dr. Yvonne Belle and Elizabeth Dawson. I have been blessed with the opportunity to learn from Dr. David Jackson, the nation’s leading voice on Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Machine. I earned my masters of applied social science (MASS) in History where I studied under Dr. Titus Brown, a foremost authority on Black education in the south post Reconstruction. I wrote extensively on the social-cultural contributions of Aretha Franklin and soul music from 1968-1972. FAMU carefully scolded, molded, crafted , and ENGULFED me in Blackness. Now, I was ready to put the knowledge to work. READ MORE
Marcus E. B. DuKing X
The moniker “MEBDKX” was born by combining the names of some of my favorite teachers and activists: Marcus Garvey: W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. I started using the name “Marcus E.B. DuKing X MEBDKX) on Twitter in 2009 as a way for me to express my opinions on race, culture , and education. I did not realize it at the time, but the teachings and philosophies of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Malcolm X had been a major part of my personal life and thus had a huge impact on my perspective, how I saw the world, and post importantly, how I saw Black people. I began to write regularly around this time. I originally began writing under the pen name Marcus E.B. DuKing X and on August 17, 2014 (Marcus Garvey’s birthday) and officially launched the MEBDKX blog. READ MORE
Falling Black In Love
About a month after launching the MEBDKX blog, I hit the ground running with Falling Black in Love, my very first business and community development agency. Within the first six months of incorporating, I launched a national community service project in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. Eight weeks later, I hosted the inaugural Falling Black in Love conference in Tallahassee, Florida. The five-day event included a healthy hair expo and natural hair forum for men, Blowing Off S.T.E.A.M: a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics the arts fair that featured live music, poetry, and experiments enactments. The week ended with a panel discussion on colorism and womanhood featuring Destiny’s Child member Michelle Williams. Later that same year, I launched Falling Black in Love Magazine, a digital resource guide for Black millennials that featured articles on Black history, business ownership, marketing, and social entrepreneurship. The digital download had a total social media reach of over 700,000 people. I ended the year with The Juke Fest, a weekend of festivities in line with FAMU Homecoming Weekend that included a party, a poetry session, and free wine-tasting from Florida A&M’s very own winery. The event was a tremendous success; we profited over $3,000 and served over 600 patrons. READ MORE
Young, Shiftless, & Black
The stress of late nights, early mornings, terrible eating, grief, grad school, perpetual poverty, and the common getting grown blues finally caught up to me in the spring of 2015 when I had a full blown mental meltdown. I dropped out of my graduate program with just 2 semesters left and moved back in with my parents. The misfortunes refused to let up as my grandmother passed a few days before Mother’s Day. A month later, my cousin was shot in the back in her home as her son watched in horror. A few days later, my uncle passed unexpectedly - likely some in the family believe - from losing his mother (my grandmother). While packing for his funeral, I got the news that my cousin had succumbed to her injuries. I buried my grandmother, uncle, and cousin between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day of 2015. In the middle of all of these unexpected losses, I had applied for dozens of jobs at this point and only managed to secure one interview for a part-time position. The onset of grief and relentless sadness rendered me virtually incapacitated the next few weeks. With no job, no money, no car (I blew the transmission on the way back from my grandmother’s funeral), depression set in very quickly and, to add insult to injury, Falling Black in Love had been nationally trademarked by someone else.
Bad & Black & Black & Bad
I allowed myself to go to a very dark place for months. Getting out of bed became a task. Then one day, something changed. I don’t know what it was exactly but I just began to think differently about myself and my capabilities and I began to write again. First, it was just a stream of consciousness thing as I wrote whatever came to mind. That soon turned into essays. From essays, I started to get into political commentary and informed opinion pieces. I started dabbling in creative fiction again. I started working out again, regulating my diet, and slowly began to come out of that depressive funk. By September of that year, I was celebrating my 29th birthday and back to my former self and moving to Chicago a month later. Just when things started to come together for me, life took an unexpected turn in December of that year when I found myself homeless in the middle of winter in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago. READ MORE
The Birth of Baba
In July of that year, I had a decent paying job, my own apartment, a little traveling money, and even managed to save. Still, I was demotivated. Working at the homeless shelter had given me the opportunity to pull myself out of homelessness. I put in my 30 day-notice without having secured my next job. I did not know what I would be doing or how I would make it, but I knew that I would be okay. Less than a month later, I was interviewed and hired as a 4th grade math and science teacher at Betty Shabazz International Charter School in Englewood, Chicago. It was at BSIC where I earned the title “Baba,” a West-African term meaning “Father,” and loosely translating to “Born on a Thursday.” Working in an African-centered school really allowed me to find my voice - and my calling - as a teacher. Halfway through the year, I was transferred to teach middle school history and there, I found my true comfort zone as a teacher:Engaging Black children on topics of Black thought while encouraging the highest order of thinking - it was a dream come true for me.
Is My Teaching In Vain?
"In the American workforce, at some point, you find yourself running up against the Good Ole Boys - it is a faction made up exclusively of white males, usually mediocre, who hold all power and authority among themselves. These men run the company, set the culture, and govern from a place of selfishness; their wants, needs, and desires outweigh all others. The Good Ole Boys look after each other and protect one another. They will lie for each other if it means protecting the power source that their gender and race affords them. The Good Ole Boys protect their own first. They are hostile to outsiders and rarely promote outside of their ranks. Did I mention these men tend to be very, very regular? While most American labor sectors have their very own version of The Good Ole Boys, the structure and function of education creates room for white women to create their exclusive and very own club; they are as power abusive and as racist as their male counterparts. The world must deal with The Good Ole Boys. As a Black man in education, I must grapple with The Good Ole Girls.