Just Brothers emerged from the conclusion that some of the very smartest, brightest, and most accomplished African-American men, really don’t ‘know’ each other. Not in ways that matter most. Not when it comes to building and developing deep, authentic, open and truly engaged relationships.
We see each other out at public and invitation-only events, and charity and community events — but we don’t ‘know’ each other.
We shake hands, and we talk about our careers and jobs, but we don’t ‘know’ each other.
We talk about opportunity, but seldom with each other – because we don’t ‘know’ to trust each other.
We wave across the room, and we send each other holiday cards, but we don’t ‘know’ each other.
We talk at each other, but rarely with each other — in a state of vulnerability — because we don’t really ‘know’ each other.
There’s no real relationship. And as a result of that, we not only keep each other at arm’s length, worse still we either don’t trust many, or we treat everything with a degree of distant formality. And the real loser here is not the guy across the room, whom we really don’t know. It’s ourselves. Because we have not only robbed ourselves of the true value of A real and trusted friend and friendship, we are keeping so much of ourselves, to ourselves. We end up trusting no one, and opening up to no one. This is just not healthy, nor can you build up either yourself or community this way.
Just Brothers was developed by me and a group of leaders from Atlanta, in an effort to end this breach of ‘the spirit.’ The 2014 season of Just Brothers exceeded all expectations, and we are honored to roll out a rich and substantive plan for 2015 to Members of Just Brothers.
Membership in Just Brothers is by invitation-only, and the Coordinating Committee for Just Brothers consist of entrepreneur Thomas Dortch, national small business advocate Cassius Butts, and public leaders the Honorable Ceasar Mitchell and John Eaves.