Dedicated to the Black Experience
Listen in to another session of our Fall 2011 podcast season! Join KC and the family as they discuss the labels “African-American” and “Black” and which term best suits our community. Podcast guests include John Wood, Mr. CEO, Je Lewis, Dino Black, and Darius Gray.
As always, we’ve given you more than just 15 minutes. Enjoy!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I believe that the sun shines brightly on the African American future, just as I ultimately believe that this country’s best days are still ahead of it. I believe in the cliche that the future is what you make it. I believe in the power of belief itself, and that faith in a righteous cause is in time rewarded. Those black American’s who will accept it have before them a righteous cause in which to believe. It is the cause of black nationalism but it is also the cause of black patriotism. It is the reclamation of black culture from the hands of degenerate cultural influences and amoral corporate interests. It is the understanding that, whether we originally chose it or not we have 400 hundred years of blood and sweat invested in this country and are only now coming to understand that we have both the right and the ability to lead it. Barack Obama, whether he remains in office but another one and a half years or another five and a half years, will not be president forever. Let his ascendency not be the end of The Ascendancy of Black America. Let it be but another great step forward on the way to the promised land that King saw long before.
The dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. is the vision that has propelled black America to this fateful moment in time, just as it has guided America towards the fuller realization of the spirit of freedom and equality contained in her founding documents. King’s dream that one day “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” calls us to remember that even as black Americans our ultimate allegiance in this world is to the human race as a whole, recognizing that in God we are one human family. This was the vision of Dr. King and this is the conclusion drawn by our founding ideals as illuminated in the simple words that “all men are created equal.” The election of President Obama was indeed striking proof of the power of these ideals as they have matured and developed throughout our collective American experience, culminating in in the compelling story of a single man who found himself poised to scale the heights of history in an election which justified the faith that her citizens and the world have placed in America as the single greatest beacon of freedom and opportunity on earth. It was therefore easy to think, for a brief moment, that we had come to the promised land that King prophesied from his mountain top. But we have a long way to go before we come to that place. For King did not pursue a primarily political agenda; though he fought segregation, though he tried to see to it that all Americans, black and white, could have jobs if they were willing to work, and though he strove to turn America away from rash wars waged over seas, he had a higher cause than politics for which he struggled. Neither was his aim primarily social, for although he persevered in the effort to bridge the gaps between whites and blacks and more broadly all people everywhere, he had a higher calling than even this. Martin Luther King, Jr. waged a spiritual battle, against sin itself if you will. He wanted to remind people that there is only one truth, one power and one moral absolute at the end of the day and that is that of love. He wished to return love to the center of America’s consciousness, and to rally the righteous behind it’s banner. But as he said:
“In speaking of love at this point, we are not referring to some sentimental emotion. It would be nonsense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. “Love” in this connection means understanding good will…we speak of a love which is expressed in the Greek word agape. Agape means nothing sentimental or basically affectionate; it means understanding, redeeming good will for all men, an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. It is the love of God working in the lives of men. When we love on the agape level we love men not because we like them, not because their attitudes and ways appeal to us, but because God loves them. Here we rise to the position of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed he does.”
Earlier in this series I briefly mentioned my white Grandfather, saying that he felt my father had committed a disgrace by marrying my mother. But I should clarify, it was not that he himself felt disgraced but rather that he felt, even in the mid-eighties, that the world would see it that way and that my father had committed a grave error by doing what he did. Nevertheless, and though my grandparents may have felt once upon a time that the reality of segregation was something that had to be accepted, I do know that that my Grandfather told my father once once with respect to black people that “they’re smarter than we are. They have to be to survive.” But though the cleverness of black people may derive in large measure from the direness of our historical circumstance, the wisdom of black people has been the hard understanding that in spite of all our wounds, and though they have been received at the hands of a people different from us, there is nevertheless reason to love our oppressors just as there is reason for us, in spite of our long tragedies, to love ourselves.
Now then is the time for us to call upon the instruments of our love, our spirit, our wisdom and our righteousness, to move the world forward. Love has overcome the divide between white and black, so too can understanding defeat the chasm between liberalism and conservatism that was truly the promise of the Obama candidacy. (Martin Luther King, Jr. loved George Wallace and Bull Connor, never disparaging them personally, so do you think we might somehow be righteous enough to do the same for Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin?) Love gave us music and literature and poetry to inspire Americans and people around he world for generations, so too can it inspire artistry and intellect in our own time to beat back the relentless waves of materialism, sexual gratuitousness, cynicism and moral relativism running rampant in our culture and our American society at large. Websites like Black Is are a part of the movement to reclaim our black nobility, our intellectual honesty, and to assert ourselves at the helm of American society. Every poem and every song that a child writes in the name of love and the honor of black women is a step in this direction, a declaration against the false Rap, Hip-Hop and BET culture that says we are better than what you are telling us we are. (Shout out to my girls Watoto from the Nile for really keeping it real. Google it if you don’t know.) Let us understand then that we do not need BET or big record labels to be the arbiters of our cultural expression. You can start a blog, a YouTube channel, a website and communicate a higher level of cultural consciousness to our people in whatever way you are gifted to do so. You can speak out in your church about our moral complacency and urge the people of your community to recognize that they do not have to accept Roc-A-Fella and Bad Boy records as the standard of black art and culture, not even in this time. If you have children, play for them your old Sam Cooke albums, your Motown records. Add some Miles Davis and some Duke Ellington if you have it, and you can always find some Ella Fitzgerald and some Billie Holiday if you look. And by all means, let them hear some Tupac too: let them hear “Mama’s Just a Little Girl,” “Changes,” I Ain’t Mad at You,” and and the many thoughtful and provocative RAP songs that have been and still are being made in some circles. Progress is about winning the future, not living in the past. But we cannot win the future without knowing our past. Soon black people who know their history and who understand their true importance and necessity in America will join hands and stand firm to change the cultural equation, in and beyond black America. We can only live with our ethnic hypocrisy for so long. Every time we look in the mirror, we see a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, who should be a priest of grace and righteousness, but the face we paint before the world is something less. But we are, we are meant to be, a holy tribe with a commission to do right. The opportunity to do so is coming and has come. Black America will take a stand before it has gone.
What is the power of the African-American? What makes us special, unique, or able to contribute anything of great value in the context of America? Is it our artists, our singers, dancers, our authors, our poets and painters that grant our people an invaluable square on the quilt of this country? Is it our athletes who have broken down walls of separation in every major sport by not only their talent but their tenacity, their toughness of character? Or is it the legacy of black intellectuals and civil rights leaders, of preachers and professors who have been bold enough to stand and to decry the evils of our persecution in the face of the mighty and the wrong? It is indeed Maya Angelou and Sam Cooke. It is Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson. It is W.E.B. DuBois and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is all of these of course. Yet our power comes from more than any of these. The seat of our power lies seeded in a place deep within our moral memory and lights our path forward as we try to determine how it is that we as a people will win the future.
Black Americans are a proud people. And sure, we have accomplished much that gives us cause to be proud. And I know that pride may seem to be a virtue, but the truth is many people are proud. The Bible urges us, in the words of Zephaniah, “Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.” (Zephaniah 2:3). Believer or non-believer, what the Bible here seeks to tell us is what we African-Americans should from our own experience already know: that it is not pride that is the face of righteousness but humility, and that in those inevitable days which history in its cycles always brings about wherein the deeds of men are placed squarely before the judgment seat of their own consciences, our best defense from the judgment of mankind and our very our own souls is simple innocence. In our own time, we can be innocent again.
Now as I say “we can be innocent again,” I speak as to be heard. But I know that man is never innocent. We must know even as we consider the tragedy of our tribal history that we came here as the children of evil men. We made war on our brothers like evil men, as did the Native Americans even after the nations of Europe established themselves on their shores. We fell into slavery at the hands of evil men. We were sold into slavery by the hands of evil men, into to the hands of men whose wickedness was driven not only by vendetta-less greed, but a dark and subconscious fear of everything they did not understand. And as we know, fear bubbles over into hatred and covers the land when the spirit of scorn marries profitability. Still it remains true that our mothers and fathers reaped much evil in the grounds of Africa before her soils gave them up. Just as the fathers of God’s tribe sold their youngest brother into slavery, so our brothers in Africa once sold us as Joseph into Egypt. Yet like Joseph we through our misery have gained an understanding of the price of freedom that informs us both as to how it is obtained in a hostile land, as well as how it is cultivated with people vastly different from ourselves. The answer is that we like Joseph must love our enemies as Joseph loved the king of Egypt, transcending their spiteful fear. We must love one another, coming together in what is most excellent about us, our culture and our values. Only then can we rise up and speak to America in one mighty voice in declaration of what is wrong and what is right.
Today our country is paralyzed in the twin grips of a broken political system and a broadly degenerating culture. In the first instance, the people who dominate our media and our government are so invested in exploiting their own differences, whether for money or political gamesmanship, that they bring all progress this nation could make on the problems that it faces to a screeching halt. On the other, we find that the dysfunction in our politics is mirrored by the vast fragmentation of the American people themselves. In a nation where a vast and ever heterogeneous people section themselves off according to subcultures, to ever narrowing musical and cinematic tastes, to ever more particular forms of news media, and to ever drifting standards of moral conduct, the less we are able to come together as a people in times of crisis. This problem exists for black America as much as it does for the rest of the nation. But in our case we are better positioned to overcome these symptoms of disintegration.
First however we must recognize the peculiar nature of the cancers that lie within the black American community. Yes, we understand the daunting challenges represented in our high unemployment, our high imprisonment rate, our rate of births 
outside of wedlock. But these problems themselves could be more effectively challenged if black America herself came together on what values she stands for. We embrace a hip-hop culture, a reality t.v. culture and a culture of materialism that prevents us from uniting as a cohesive moral force in this country. It is not that I have any problem with Hip-Hop or reality t.v. in and of themselves. There are always some things that are good to be found, (if Hip Hop were more about real love and substance in the Common and Talib Kweli variety and less about gratuitousness, and if there were actual values to be discerned in shows like “Flavor of Love” or “Basketball Wives,” I would be all for them). But the fact is that there is little nourishing substance in the art of the black community today, a community which has long reaped from the most fertile soil of this country’s great artists. Our music, our shows and our films may still make money. But little enough do they edify the soul. We need to think about the implications of that fact.
Now you might think that I am wrong, or least simplistic in placing so much significance on the impact of certain types of figures in our culture. Pardon me if I sound a little like Bill Cosby, for I do largely sympathize with the no none-sense style criticism’s he himself fielded so much criticism for voicing against our contemporary black culture. But the only partially justified indignities of Professor Michael Eric Dyson and others on behalf of our contemporary black culture aside, the source of Mr. Cosby’s righteous, albeit sometimes condescending, anger and disappointment is that he well remembers a time in this country’s history when even though the chips were stacked against us we could largely unite around the positivity of our art and our culture. (That now somewhat iconic episode of Aaron McGruder’s controversial cartoon The Boondocks wherein he brings Martin Luther King Jr. out of a forty year coma to see what has become of black America, pointedly if stingingly throws in our faces the extent to which we have sunk into a cultural perversion that serves us neither politically or socially.)
There are people in our communities of course who do not want to hear such talk. Some people like Professor Dyson are quick to point out, and rightly so, that there is a myriad of structural obstacles that still vie against black America’s equal acquisition of the American dream. Even still, can those who might call themselves advocates of our cultural status quo suggest with a straight face that our culture sustains us now in the face of adversity as it did for our enslaved ancestors? Does it nurture us in the way that the stirring, primal and majestic melodies of our “negro spirituals” provided hope and solace for those enduring the the cruel malice of the slave master’s whip? Does our culture today provide for the moral center of gravity upon which a Dr. King as well as a Malcolm X could stand; two men who both rejected materialism, who were both intolerant towards profane speech, who upheld a standard of black manhood which itself could only abide within it a high standard of reverence for black womanhood? Is their legacy reflected in the music of Lil’ Wayne and of Jay Z, for the most part? Are the values we teach in our churches reflected in the values imparted by the lyrical sentiments of Rick Ross or Rihanna? Do we uphold the standard of respect and admiration we should have for our women in these songs and videos of these artists, particularly when Black Entertainment Television is willing to show us these images over and over again but does not cover the deaths of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King at the time that they happen? I speak here of the vast trends of our culture. Surely I could think of a couple positive songs that Snoop Dogg has written, but I can’t think of a single song Marvin Gaye ever sang that was demeaning to women or disrespectful to anyone. The image we construct of ourselves in our culture, that we accept of ourselves, is wholly unbefitting a great people. But it’s so easy to accept it. That is why those among us who are willing to must band together on a higher plane of cultural observance. One which upholds the higher trends of our history and which cares not to appease the rest.
I am called to remember W.E.B. Du Bois’s belief that Afro-America could only uplift itself if “the advance guard of the race,” pursued a cultural awakening within the black community. (W.E.B. Du Bois labeled those blacks who would take up this charge, perhaps a bit snobbishly, as the “talented tenth,”) It was this conviction on the part of W.E.B. Du Bois and other prominent black artists and intellectuals including the NAACP, which prompted the direct engineering of the Harlem Renaissance, which really did elevate both black and white America’s view of the negro people. So did black operatic performance, black drama, poetry, literature and Jazz find their first major platform from which to leap into the imagination of the country at large. From this conscientious attempt to change the nation through high art did we get Langston Hughes, Bill Robinson and even Duke Ellington and these artists and many others of the time largely paved the way for every great black actor, singer and author who would come after. Art was the vehicle by which black America reached out across racial lines because in art and literature we were able to speak a language of the heart that was defiant of our differences. What language do we speak now with our artistry of materialism, sexual gratuity, disrespect and violence? Even if we do bring people together with these, what do we bring people together for?
Dr. King described the movement he led as a spiritual movement, one in which agape love and goodwill for mankind was recognized as the central element of their striving. In this is the ultimate show of humility. In this is the long-suffering self-sacrifice that I know some determined African-Americans will embody as they set the moral compass for this country in the 21rst century. Yet we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves to enduring the bitterness of those black people, those white people, and all those cynical voices so automatically arrayed against those who would labor to lift our consciousness to a higher state of mind. In this we make the path straight for the ultimate liberation of black America, which is the ultimate liberation of America herself. Those who carry this burden are the sons and daughters of slave heroes and martyrs. We are the Day Breakers, in the words of Renaissance poet Arna Bontemps. Non-violent resisters of a decadent social order. But even so:
“We are not come to wage a strife,
With swords upon this hill,
It is not wise to waste the life
Against a stubborn will.
Yet would we die as some have done.
Beating a way for the rising sun…”
How far we’ve come from the days of our bondage. How far we’ve come from the days of our most brutal persecution. We were uprooted from our homeland only to watch our families torn asunder, beneath the lash of petty southern tyrants and more broadly speaking an economic system and a system of government which, however conflictingly, allowed for the institutionalized dehumanization of an entire race of people by which it’s preferred subjects were enriched and empowered. How far we’ve come from those days, and the days of Jim Crow and the century of only slightly less insidious persecution that followed. How far we’ve come. Yet it is worth asking where we have come to, and even more so, where we are going.
In the Old Testament the Lord through Moses, in revealing the ten commandments to the Israelites, commanded them to remember the blessing of their liberation, saying: “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm…” (Deuteronomy 15:15). For black Christians, we have an advantage (one for which we should really be thankful) in understanding and relating to the liberation of God’s people in the Bible because for us the memory of slavery in our blood and in our culture is sharper and more immediate than it can be for our European brothers and sisters. The humility that the Bible stresses that God’s spiritual children must have can only come through the purifying agony of degradation and pain. (What was Christ trying to show in his death on the cross?) All people suffer of course, but ours in America has been a culture of suffering and in as much as we have suffered patiently we have seen miracles, for God has delivered us by a mighty hand and that more than once. Whether you believe in God or not however, you must surely see how vast seas were parted in both the material and political circumstances leading up to the ending of slavery, and then the ending of segregation. Moreover, and more importantly, great waters were parted in the consciences of our oppressors as well as those many whites Americans who were just indifferent to our struggle in both the 1860’s and the 1960’s. Through all these times our people as a whole did not have power in this society. (In the four hundred and fifty plus years since the slave trade began to when we achieved real equality under the law with the Civil Rights Act we went from none to not much.) Because of this, our power in these times of powerlessness could only come from man’s true source of power and that lies in humility, righteousness, and the simple indomitable resolve that comes from knowing one’s cause is just.
This is our history as African-Americans. It is one that is moving and proud, inspiring to us and people of all colors in this country and around the globe. But a triumphal past does necessarily lead to a glorious future and this brings me to the point of these four articles of which this is the first. We, as African-Americans have reached a critical point in our history, one which demands that a collective decision be made in the hearts and minds of our people. In the age of Colin Powell, Kobe Bryant, Oprah Winfrey and, most tellingly, Barack Obama, we can no longer think that we, for all the myriad and considerable disadvantages we still labor under, have no power in this society. We are African-Americans, yes, but we the children of slaves are Americans every bit as much as the children of slave owners. As such we have as great a stake in the success of this nation as the white majority that has had the lion share of the governing power for all of its history. We have as much a claim on America as any of the descendants of Quakers and Pilgrims who once in a spirit of great faith and courage set out for the promise of a new world which fate would destine us to share. What we must understand, then, is that we also have an equal obligation as they to lead it. Marcus Garvey once said, “Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm.” That is precisely where we are today…
It’s been a couple of weeks since California’s State Assembly passed a bill that would require “schools to teach at all grade levels the historical contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people” in the public school system. Democratic State Senator Mark Leno who introduced the bill claims that, “It’s no different than instructing students about the historical role of an African-American man by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., fighting for civil rights and being assassinated for his efforts than teaching students about a gay American man by the name of Harvey Milk fighting for every man’s civil rights and being assassinated for his efforts.” Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill that would revise laws that prohibit discrimination in education, stating, “History should be honest”.
Now, I can’t disagree with either the senator or the govenor – the contributions of all Americans should be included in American history. But if we are talking about being honest, can we get the REAL history of the descendants of African slaves? Sure there is a section of middle school history that focuses on the Transatlantic slave trade; and of course no history curriculum is complete without the stories of Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King. But what about the lives of African people before being enslaved? What languages did they speak and what religions did they practice? What was their economy like? How were they targeted for slavery and who was involved in the negotiating the sale of humans?
Additionally, how did American Creole culture come about? What were quadroon balls and the placage system and what effect did they have on the southern population of free blacks? I wonder why nobody ever discusses that.
Furthermore, what about the other black nations that heavily populate the U.S.? How did they get here? I’d love to hear about the excursions of Ethiopians, Dominicans, Belizeans and other groups of color that reside in the U.S. in large numbers. 
I would also add the history of brown people in this country requires some editing as well. I distinctly remember being asked by one of my middle school students, “Where were the beige people during this time?” I chuckled at beige, but I got her point. Nowhere in California’s public school history books will you find the Lemon Grove Incident, or much informaion on discrimination against Hispanic Americans.
The history of people of color in this country has always been fed to us in fractured pieces, with us having to seek out the information on our own, have it passed down from our parents, or have some “scholar” on a university campus feed it to us. At what point will American history truly be honest to all its citizens and give us our place in the books?
I won’t hold my breath.
This past weekend Arclight Theatres showcased the long awaited documentary, “Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest” to a throng of hip hop fans, myself included. Most of us sat in silence, mouths open as we soaked in the 95-minute film that gave the background of and made an attempt to explain the division amongst the legendary hip hop group. We also got a bang for our buck when it was announced that ATCQ member, Phife Dawg and the film’s director, Michael Rapaport were there for a Q&A afterwards.
For a true Tribe fan the documentary does not disappoint. Learning how the group formed, chose their name, why Jarobi is the ghost member, the inspiration behind some of their greatest hits, and who the key players were in their success was more than any hip hop head could ask for. Further, we heard all of it from the members themselves and the nation of musicians that surrounded them during their hey day. We also got a perspective of why the group dissolved in the first place, and the amount of bitterness that exists between members of the group who have known each other their entire lives, pointedly Q-Tip the Abstract and Phife Dawg.
However, my ears perked up during the Q&A with Phife and Rapaport when one audience member went on a 4-minute diatribe about a recent article in the LA Weekly. I couldn’t make out his argument exactly thanks to all the audience boos and jeers, but it was clear Mr. Rapaport had no desire to touch on the topic then and there. He told us all, “Read LA Weekly. It’s in there.”
So I did. It turns out there was a reason only Phife Dawg was in attendance to the documentary that night, and for the most part has been the only member of the group in constant support of it. According to the story, a producer on the film accidentally sent an email with Q-Tip copied on it expressing a desire to keep the entire group out of receiving production credits for the film. Rapaport himself admits that the group is not legally entitled to any producer credits, though he has verbally agreed to give them a percentage. Additionally, the slant of the film, and decisions made about the music selection for the film were not agreed upon by the group. As such, Q-Tip, Jarobi, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have not been in full support of the documentary’s release, speaking out about it on MTV (see clips below). However, they support fans seeing the documentary because of the music history lesson it presents.
The Arclight was packed on Friday night for its first showing and with a crowd lined up outside for the next showing. Between its limited screenings and DVD sales, the documentary stands to make a killing and I wonder how much of its proceeds the group will actually see. Nonetheless, this is a MUST-SEE for all real music heads. Rapaport’s redemption here is that he put together a quality documentary on hip-hop and encapsulated a bit of Black music history in a way Black folks can be proud of. Ironic that he’s the one to do it – but what else is new?
Get More: MTV Shows
Get More: MTV Shows
Get More: MTV Shows
Get More: MTV Shows
Get More: MTV Shows
Get More: MTV Shows
Get More: MTV Shows
So it seems as though the newest world-wide trend is ‘planking’ and you see everyone laying across something to take and post a pic. This has become the new funny. But is it funny or offensive?
WHAT IS PLANKING TODAY: If you are not aware of exactly what planking is, in today’s world, planking is laying stiff and straight across whatever (tables, counter tops, basketball rims, microwaves, etc). Celebs and everyday people are taking pictures in the most odd places, planking! Some celeb plankers are, Chris Brown, D Howard, Justin Combs, Flavor Flav, and many many more.
ORIGIN: This all derives from back when slaves were transported to the United States on big slave ships back in the day. Slaves were force to lay face down with their arms by their side and their wrist chained to their waist. Some were even stacked on top of each other with no room to move. Keep in mind there were not any restrooms and they were exposed to bodily fluids, etc. Not many of the slaves survived, many died from dehydration and disease.
We as Black people are known for taking something bad and making it seem cool for a period of time but should a line be drawn somewhere? At what point is calling one another nigga, wearing chains, embarrassed about dark skin or coarse hair, and fight because of colors or sides is TOO MUCH self hate??? I take my stand at ‘planking’! There is nothing cool or funny about it. Had you known or been related to any of those slaves, you would not be planking.
Why is it that black people can always find away to disrespect their history??? Do Jews find away to bring light to the holocaust? What about Mexicans….they too were slaves. Do you see them making fun of it?
Lets bring this to more modern times for people who can careless about history dated after so many years. How about we start acting like planes and we run into buildings and call it 9/11??? Not funny??? Lets go to Oklahoma City and set off M80′s in the hospital and call it “Oklahoma City Bombing”??? No LOL??? How about we go to Denver and make paper guns and take pics shooting at students and teachers and call it “Columbine”. Some things really should not be joked about. And some times (BLACK PEOPLE) you should be more cautious of what you do…watch how offended you get when you see ‘Dog the Bounty hunter’ looks when he PLANKS! SMH in embarrassment.
Seriously, if you are my Facebook friend or I follow you on twitter and you plank, I am deleting you! Hope you all take the same stance.
This article is solely based on the views and opinions of The Hub Radio.
*Listen in to a round table discussion as KC and the family discuss what the Black community would/should/could do if ever given reparations. Podcast guests include Chris Lehman, DJ A-ski, Toria Williams, Mike Eagle, Malcolm Darrell, Tash Moseley, Brother T, Jamila Farwell, and Darius Gray.
*Parental Discretion is advised with this podcast.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Why is it that we have to discriminate within our own race? It’s not worth it, and frankly it’s getting old. So you’re red, you’re yellow, you’re dark, you’re brown, you’re light, you’re middle class, upper class, low income, the ‘hood, fatherless, motherless, many siblings, or an only child. You’re still BLACK regardless! We are still a minority. Is it even possible to end these divisions based on social status, environment, or skin color? Why are we discriminating against ourselves when we’ve got plenty of people to do it to us, for us.
This stems from recent sports events, and documentaries that have made headline news. Most recently, professional boxer Bernard Hopkins made negative racial comments towards professional football player and star quarterback, Donovan McNabb. If you haven’t heard, Bernard Hopkins criticized Dovovan McNabb for “not being black enough”. Hopkins compared McNabb to a house slave and compared himself and others to field slaves. He goes on to say that McNabb was “the one who got the extra coat, the extra servings”. “You’re our boy”, Hopkins reminds McNabb, saying “He thought he was one of them (a white person). His final shot at McNabb? Claiming McNabb just has a suntan and isn’t really black.
Why Hopkins would compare himself to a field slave and McNabb to a house slave is just plain out-
of-bounds. This is why many people from other races say that blacks always play the race card and bring up racism. Of course Hopkins comments are ignorant and just plain stupid, but this isn’t something that myself or other blacks in America haven’t heard before.
I recall being in college and in the military hearing whispers from other black males, saying I was not acting the way a black guy from LA or “the hood” should act. Even in high school, I would get rejected by many of the girls who thought I was funny, but not ‘gangsta’ enough. I would always get put in the friend zone by a lot of the black women. It seemed like the more trouble a boy got into, the more they were loved by the ladies.
But getting back to Mr. Hopkins, you sir should have more common sense then that, take personal accountability, and know that there are millions of young ears who hear these words, and at the same time look up to sports figures such as yourself. One sports writer, Bomani Jones, may have said it best about the boxer: “I don’t know Bernard Hopkins, but I do know that he gets hit in the face for a living.” Known for his very laid back demeanor, when asked for a comment about Hopkins, McNabb replied “SERENITY NOW!”
Jalen Rose called Grant Hill an uncle Tom because Hill attended Duke University and he grew up with an excellent home life. Hill’s father played in the NFL and his mother was also educated and worked while Hill’s father played in the NFL. While Jalen Rose grew up poor and while his father played in the NBA, he never did anything for Rose’s family.
Even people were critical of Barack Obama when he was running for president in 2008. There were many people saying that he was mixed and he wasn’t black enough and wasn’t really black because he had a great education.
Muhammead Ali even called Joe Frazier an uncle tom in the 1970s because he didn’t struggle like Ali did.
The problem with Hopkins, Rose and Ali is that they feel like blacks have to grow up poor in a struggle only to rise up out of it. In this generation, they are a ton of blacks that grow up in middle-class or even rich lifestyles and there is nothing wrong with that.
I could rip Bernard Hopkins for saying these comments, but many people on television have already
done that. I believe we have a bigger problem on our hands: the constant criticism of black people who were raised differently from ourselves. Instead of learning about others we make assumptions, confirm them for ourselves, and then wag a disapproving finger at the “other”.
It starts within. You have to know who you are, and where you come from, historically. Respect it, so that you can grow and welcome all blacks and appreciate our differences, because it’s what make us, US!
Antonia Pantoja (1922-2002), visionary Puerto Rican educator, activist, and early proponent of bilingual education, inspired multiple generations of young people and fought for many of the rights that people take for granted today. Unbowed by obstacles she encountered as a black, Puerto Rican woman, she founded ASPIRA in 1961, (Spanish for “to aspire”), a non-profit organization that promoted a positive self-image, commitment to community, and education as a value as part of the ASPIRA Process to Puerto Rican and other Latino youth in New York City. ASPIRA now has offices in six states, Puerto Rico and has its headquarters, the ASPIRA Association, in Washington, D.C.. It has provided approximately 50,000 Latino students with career and college counseling, financial aid and other assistance, and is today one of the largest nonprofit agencies in the Latino community. In 1963 Dr. Pantoja directed a project of the Puerto Rican Forum that resulted in the establishment of the Puerto Rican Community Development Project (PRCDP), to empower Puerto Rican youth, and created other enduring leadership and advocacy organizations in New York and California, across the United States, and in Puerto Rico. Recognized for her achievements in 1996, Dr. Pantoja was awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor bestowed upon civilians in the US.