Man, it's hectic these days... Right now there is hella debate over what makes a person Black or not. And I know that everytime you post anything on this subject people get upset because there are always people who are not particularly hood that have been called "not black" and it causes all types of personal pain. HOW-EVER... for a person like me who watches way too much cable news, where we see the new crop of Black republicans trying to claim the black experience I think there needs to be lines drawn.
Most important being, YOUR SKIN COLOR DOES NOT MAKE YOU BLACK... I know, people will want to bitch and things like that but tough... the biggest issue we have as a people right now is trying to respect the experiences of those who do not respect our experiences. The fact is this, I am sure that somewhere in the olden days you could have found some house nigga that would have told you his wasn't against slavery, does that mean that we can't say that the black position is anti slavery because a few misguided fools disagreed? I say no. It's just this, as a sociologist I believe that there is a Black experience in America, this is not to discount anyone elses experience but there is a mainstream and for the sake of science there must always be a paradigm that is considered the norm. However what I am mostly talking about is beyond the people who are attacked by ignorant people as not being "black enough" because they do not conform to stereotype. My issue is the Black people who attempt to speak for black people without the interest of Black people in mind.
This is different from Dubois and Washington, where while I agreed with Dubois I believed that Washington meant well but was misguided. I will even go as far to say that I have not made up my mind on Condi Rice, my issue is more with the nameless pundits who carry party lines where the programs are clearly anti-Black, and try to reframe them as something different. It's the difference between Colin Powell believing in basic republican ideas and standing up to the racism at the 2000 convention and Armstong Williams and Larry Elder carrying the water of racists by blaming all the racial problems on Black Americans...
It reminds me of my time in College when we had colored people who swore they were Black and tried to express a black perspective when it helped them for affirmative action or scholarships but their idea of diversity was not that they had White friends, but that they did not have Black friends... To make matters worse they would attempt to justify this behavior of self hate by calling it a legitimate part of the Black experience because they were Black. As my Prof Vic Walker said, "That is Bull shit; The problem with y'all generation is that y'all are scared to kick niggas out the race... if they are helping then fuck 'em" Yeah he was a bit blunt but I feel that. More and more as I am forced to be polite to people who spew self hatred as a way to deflect dealing with certain issues. If you truly believe that democrats are not the way to help black people, I can feel that, if you truly believe in small government, I can feel that, if you believe that there is no race problem in America except for the ones we create for ourselves, I can't fuck with you, plain and simple... I understand that the deifnitions of Blackness need to be expanded past 50 cent and neo soul, I just don't find it in my interest to expand Blackness to include those who hate Black people, closeminded or not, we all need our lines.
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