By Carlton Ishmael
The word ‘Brother’ seems to be used by various segments of the society for their own agenda and purposes.
From a definition point of view, it relates to biology when it relates to your birth origin being born from one or both parents. Then, you hear modern day terms like ‘A brother from another mother’ and you are treated like someone from that inner circle.
Then there is ‘brotherhood’ — having a common ideology that binds that unit together, such as Rastafari.
Then there is your ‘Black Brother’, your religious ‘brotherhood’, your neighbourly brotherhood you developed from going to school or playing in the yard together – ‘brothers in the hood’, so to speak, having one common lifestyle, all relating to some form of association, but with varying motives.
The words Brother and Sister are frequently used in political campaigns.
In the church, the same choice of references too, but the bottom line is as associated brethren, they do not all have equal concepts in relationships as to how they see or treat each other.
As to where brothers are commonly involved, they associate in some form or other — and all have some kind of common identity or behavioural patterns in what they relate to as you being their ‘brother’.
And also remember that there are plenty of bad brothers as well — and I mean really bad.
Let’s start from Bible times the story of Cain and Abel and how they turned on each other as brothers and hence the quotation ‘Cain killed Abel’.
In the ghetto, it’s always brothers killing another brother, or snitching, or bad talking the other brother who does not seem to fit or is easily manipulated in your opinion.
In brotherhood, there ought to be accepted love, comradery, checking on, or being there for your brother, but there is an underlying concept that comes alive in some circles, who think that particular brothers come like ‘a Bwa’ and should therefore always be used, or exploited and be a target for some sort of exploitation or scam, so he must be used by all means, any means possible, and if he seems non-cooperative, then he is usually referred to as a ‘Boola’ and get laughed-at by all who claim to be the true and real brothers.
As you approach such circles it is all about High Fives and Jamming of Fists, or bouncing off the chest symbols with your fist as the sign of brotherhood.
All that is done to invite you into that inner circle, so as to have you feeling less intimidated, and in that way an easily exploited subject.
Considering the facts, it is usually a brother supporting other brothers business, to ensure it remains relevant or succeed. But in most cases, the brother in need only seems to care about bluffing the other brother and will take all that they can take and give as little as they can.
No bonanza, no best practicing, no value for money, no bonus, even though you may have supported their businesses all-year-round.
Every day on the news is a brother killing another, stealing from a brother, ratting on a brother, also trying to get under the skirt of his brother’s girlfriend.
My point is, everybody calls you brother, but primarily for personal gains.
“My brother, give me a drink,” “Brother, give me five dollars”, “Brother, can I come and pick some fruits from your tree, in your yard?”
You also hear when you are the subject of gossip “Boy, you know is that brother who do this or that…” and you see the brotherly love is in most cases superficial.
Most brothers don’t like the other, some will do anything to bring down a brother, so why should I bother being your brother, if you only see your brother as a means of advancing yourself?
And the bottom line is that the same brother you criticized and bad talk with some choice brothers, you expect that same brother to keep you in business. The same thing applies to the people living in your neighbourhood, they greet you daily, smile for you daily, but will never do like my mother used to do to put all her mangoes to ripen in great quantities so she could get a chance to share them with her neighbourhood, when they are ripe.
There is just too much selfishness in brotherhood, too many sheep in wolf clothing, too many who do not know what true brotherhood means.
They keep division and malice alive, some neighbourhoods are toxic, some neighbours are not worth having and they are just bad for brotherhood.
So, please don’t call me your brother!
POST SCRIPT (PS): Just after ending this article a friend sent me a nice message saying the day was actually ‘Brothers Day’, but while the message was nice, it’s not about that versions of ‘brother’ I write about above, who really pisses me off!