This is between you and me Black sisters, so lean in. Stop coddling Black men. I know your motherly instincts and your womanly proclivities make you want to bring, confront and care. I know you want to support him, but trust me on this, it’s time for tough love.

Challenge the Black man’s manhood. Not in regard to yourself, as his woman or the woman in his life, respect that, but what I say is challenge him on what he is doing in the community or for his community? Put your hand on your collective hip, look the Black man in his eye and say “stand your ass up and fight, stop marching in circles and lead us somewhere!”

If you beautiful Black sisters would say, “I know my man is not going to let nobody hold him back, because if you are going to protect me, what I need with you?”

Do you know what would happen?

Have you ever been to the club and a sister screaming on her man like, “I know you ain’t going to let him talk to me like that!” No matter how big the man or the fight in him, if he is any kind of man, somebody is getting knocked out. That is what will happen, but in a meaningful, constructive sense. Force him to use the brain and body he has to get his people to a better standing. Whisper in his collective ear “win” and watch that Rocky music anthem light up in his eyes. But, if you keep mourning his death, justify his weakness and coddle his insecurities, then he will forever remain your baby… are we clear?

Boko Haram is using little black girls as human bombs. The press is calling them, “suicide bombers.” They are not doing this of their own will or their own accord or based on their beliefs. It is murder. If they resist, they are tortured and killed. The same little girls the First Lady marched and tweeted about are now being strapped to explosives and blown to bits. Where is the outrage about this? Where is our outrage about this? Do you have children? Could you imagine your ten year old daughter being strapped with dynamite and then her being nothing but a mist? If that doesn’t move you to tears or to anger or to action, then you are only human in appearance.

Black lives mattering is not limited to the United States. Globally, the treatment of Blacks is not on the up and up.

To the Black Muslim Brothers, I am calling all Black Muslim Brothers, Sunni, Shia, Nation of Islam, Moor or Five Percenters, your Nigerian daughters are being slaughtered in the name of Islam. When are we, as Muslims going to hold the International community accountable for their silence in the face of such horrors?

If Syrian is a tragedy and Palestine a tragedy, then Nigeria is the very face of evil. When are we going to stand up and call Boko Haram a coward, disgusting and a bitch for hiding behind children in the name of Islam?! When? Because if you don’t, if you remain silent, then you are a coward and disgusting also. Straight like that. Black lives matter? Really? Show me. Save those babies if you don’t there is nothing Black about you, but you are sick at heart!

Hailing from Newark, New Jersey, Kwame Teague is the award winning, critically acclaimed, and Essence #1 bestselling author of the street classic Dutch trilogy. His other novels include Above The Law, the Dynasty trilogy, ? (pronounced Que), The Adventures of Ghetto Sam and the Glory of My Demise and Thug Politics under the pseudonym Dutch. With a passion for writing, Kwame is hard at work on his next novel.