Tyrese has shared his thoughts on the values he believes are currently missing or diminishing in the larger Black community.
On Thursday (February 1), the first day of Black History Month, the actor and singer shared a clip from 2019 of a California man named Alfredo Valencia getting emotional upon learning that his children bought him a new truck for his birthday.
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“Sometimes I wish I was born Latino,” the 45-year-old captioned the post. “I mean the Latin community is grounded in family, loyal, entrepreneurs, businessman, and women literally represent the dream, the grind the hustle doing whatever it takes to stick together against all odds.
“If us [as] black culture was more grounded in these integral magical nuances of us we would be dominant….”
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The Fast & Furious star then proceeded to praise the Jewish community for “sticking together” (a sentiment that the ADL lists as a “traditional anti-Jewish trope”). He also complemented Muslims in the Middle East for valuing fathers and positioning men as “the head of the household,” contrasting it with what he considers a decline in his own community.
He continued: “I have no idea how we lost our way.. We can’t get anything done and accomplished, as a fragmented culture…. insecure, threatened by each other … Competitive towards our own race, killing ourselves every single day frivolously the majority of us is black men and the millions are locked up in prison.
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“Of course we ARE we are beyond powerful, influential and successful, but imagine if we all linked up like other communities have linked? Poured and built up on each other Instead of moving like fragmented and dysfunctional…. We have what it TAKES to take over the WORLD!!! We are nothing trying to do it ALONE!! Please chime in…. Would love to know your thoughts on this….”
The comments section of the Instagram post is flooded was criticism, with many calling out the California native for hypocrisy and a one-dimensional characterization of Black culture.
“How about Black adult men start mentoring young Black men properly? Don’t you think that is a good place to start?” one person wrote, while another added: “Aye my boy, not all black families are messed up! Some of us come from homes that had both parents and parents that showed us what we were supposed to do in life.”
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One social media user even got personal and replied: “Dude, didn’t you create TWO broken homes, talking about you wish you were Latino because they value family. Do YOU value family?”
This refers to the TGT star’s split from ex-wife Samantha Lee, who he claims only married him for his money, as well as his 2009 divorce from first wife Norma Gibson. Tyrese has one daughter with each woman.
During a Joe Budden Podcast appearance last year, Tyrese elaborated on his dramatic split with Lee and the ensuing court orders that he insists are unreasonable — one of which includes him being ordered to pay $20,000 a month in child support for their five-year-old daughter.
“We never spent $20,000 on my daughter when we were together, and I had the money,” he said. “Like, who spends that kind of money on a kid? [My daughter] was one when [Samantha] took my baby from me.
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“We never spent $20,000 a month on our child and the credit card was wide open, so what the fuck do you suddenly need that kind of money for?”
In a lengthy caption attached to a social media repost of the video, he went into detail about how he’s made several attempts at pushing back against the legal proceedings that he is convinced have been biased against him thus far.
