(If you ask me, this is the best note I've ever written.)
So I said I was going to write a note about whether black people really want the equality we say we want. I understand that I may sound like...hmm...like Bill Cosby a little bit with this, and that's fine. No need to delay things any further. Let's get the question out there: why on Earth would I say that black people may not really want the equality that so many gave their lives - both literally and figuratively - for? Several reasons are listed below.
1. We'd have to get rid of the double standard regarding everyone's favorite six-letter racial epithet...and its five-letter slang equivalent (which will be denoted as [word] where necessary).
As far as that word goes, I know very few black people who get openly upset if it is used around them or even to/at them...if it's used by other black people (although other nonwhite people can get away with this too, depending on their relationship with the people they use the word around). White people, though: no no no. Harry Reid said "Negro", as we all know. Two things to point out here:
1) I think most black folk will agree that "negro" is at least more PC, if not a flat-out nicer term, than [word].
2) The comment was positive with regard to his subject, even though the term was used in a derogatory manner.
One other thing about Reid's comment is much more important than the first two points, but I'll save that until the end. For right now I'll go on to the next example: in what I admit is my favorite stand-up special of all time, DL Hughley picked a white man named Ken out of an audience and made him "an honorary [word]". I'll skip the sterotypical things that Ken had to do and focus mainly on one joke Hughley made: "you a [word] now...don't use that word just yet". Ha ha ha, we can use a word and you can't. For all the times we've ever talked about inequality, it's a bit disingenuous to laugh about one that works to our advantage - and I use that term rather loosely.
I've heard the arguments regarding whether to use it, both pro and con. I think both arguments have certain levels of validity. I'm not arguing whether the word should be used, though. I am saying that if one group gets to use it, every group should get to use it. That's what equality is.
2. We'd have to rid ourselves of the organizations and institutions that serve only black people - no, that isn't as bad as it sounds.
Before I start with this one, I'm not advocating for the elimination of any of these entities. I have been involved with a number of such groups throughout my life, and anyone who knows me knows that I love FAMU more than any non-organic entity I have ever known and a lot more than many organic entities I know. If we really want equality, though, we have to spread our racial pride across all avenues and not keep them contained within the Urban League or the NAACP or (insert your favorite HBCU here). If we continue to look at them as black institutions, then everyone else will as well. After all, we define what they are. If we define them as particular institutions designed to help particular people, then the activities and outputs of those institutions is limited to that extent. Stated another way, what we put into it is what we get out of it. If we put in the idea that they're only designed for us, that's what we're going to get out of it. S'what everyone else will get out of it too. If we really want equality, we're going to have to give these up for what we would consider to be the greater good. We have to bring something to the table the same way we would expect "them" to. We have to give of ourselves, and part of that is giving - not giving up, giving - our institutions. That means churches too. Actually, that will help me segue into the next matter.
3. We'd have to stop with the stereotypical thoughts and actions concerning other races.
Here I'm mainly speaking of social interaction...and I'm not going to even try to pretend that it only happens with black people or in social situations that mostly involve black people. To what shouldn't be anyone's great surprise, I am sufficiently reminded of my melanin-ious status when I am around people whose levels aren't as high. No, I don't mean just white people. No, I don't just mean in controlled environments. No, I'm not referring to any particular setting or situation. All that said, those situations are not the subject of this note.
I'm talking about the times (yes, business is about to be told) when we're at the club and someone says "ooh, look at that white girl". I'm talking about the times when we refer to the government's chief executive as "our" president. News flash: he's no more our president in the eyes of the Constitution than George W. Bush was. I'm talking about the times when we "Harry Reid" ourselves and use backhanded compliments when talking about people of other cultures. I'm talking about the times we refer to people by their races rather than their names. I'm talking about the times when we wonder why people from other cultures are going to (insert your favorite HBCU here) as if we think their enrollment is part of some covert plot to take over our beloved institutions. We get happy when there's a black president at a non-HBCU but mad when there's a white president at an HBCU. If we really want equality, we're going to have to give up stuff like that.
We're also going to have to give up those supposed "positive" stereotypes about us...you know, the athletic and "anatomical" ones. Something else we're going to have to give up, and I can hear the groans already.
4. We'd have to let go of affirmative action.
I'm not saying this is a correct or feasible step right now. I am saying that is a necessary condition of equality. Let's throw the fact that AA has benefited white women more than anyone to the side. AA doesn't help us in the long run, and here's why: you cannot legislate morality. I know the Civil Rights Movement was highlighted by such legislation as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. I also know that those laws only restored original rights that were taken away during the course of the nation's history. Neither "black" nor "white" is found anywhere in the Constitution. "Race" is only mentioned in the 15th Amendment, which of course was enacted long after the original document was ratified. The law gave us rights: other structures combined to make sure we hardly took advantage. Look around at society now: if anyone chooses to segregate based on not just race, but any demographic classification, they would do so at their own peril. There are bright and talented people of all races, nationalities, sexual orientations, or whatever else. Don't want to hire me? Fine. I'll just make your open-minded competitor better than you - if they're not already. If they are, I'll just widen the gap.
If you're only at a place to fill a quota, they're going to treat you like you're only there to fill a quota. I've been there (or at least felt like I was), and it's no fun. Lastly, human nature is to rail against authority. People are more apt to do things in a lasting manner if allowed to do it on their own.
5. We'd have to stop complaining about every piece of BS that goes on in the world.
This is the Al Sharpton section. It's also where I finish that thought about Harry Reid from earlier. First, Al - who, of course, has never found a bad day he couldn't get a bullhorn and shout and complain about. Al gets up on the wrong side of the bed, it's the white man's fault for not putting his bed against the wall and allowing him only one choice as far as exiting the bed. Or it's the white man's fault for building the wall and only giving him one choice. "We went through the hoses, burned churches, dogs, and everything else so I can choose which side of the bed I want to leave the bed from". Of course I'm going to continue this point with Al by bringing up a sports-related story...and y'all know where I'm going. He went after Don Imus like Imus was the one holding us back and keeping us down. "But Benny, attitudes like the one Imus displayed have been keeping us down"...stop. Just stop. Just. Stop. Talking. Anyone who saw the entire thing - not just three words - should be able to figure out that Imus was making a joke. I laughed when I heard the whole segment. Say what you want, but that segment was funny. The conversation was no different than anything you'd have heard at a barbershop, and I imagine there were quite a few barbershops in which the same comments were made. Sharpton's railing against Imus was more "for Al Sharpton" than it ever was "against Don Imus". Going to pick on Al one more time before moving on. Trent Lott...said the whole piece about Strom Thurmond. Al calls for him to resign. Shortsighted fool. I think I've talked about this before, but once again...he - and others like him, as Lil Wayne would say - had Lott by the short hairs (as Jim Ross would say) and let him off the hook. You keep Lott there and have him dance. The GOP was waiting for Al and all to come in so they could slip Lott into the background and look good doing it. That's exactly what happened. If you're going to complain, complain correctly. Sheesh.
It's not all about Al, though. Alonzo Mourning's claim that the NBA lockout was racist is a good one, and recent history is littered with quite a few other cases. Finishing up the Reid thing, though: four little words precisely and explicitly capture my main area of disgust with the whole thing.
He told the truth.
And everybody knows this...if Barack Obama went up there and made those speeches sounding like Donterrio Maserati Williams from the corner of 25th and MLK he'd have gotten the same two votes Al Sharpton did in 2000 and the inauguration would have looked like a NOW convention instead of the world's largest NAACP meeting (yes, I said it that way for a reason). "Yo dawg, I wanna be president 'cause I'ma get all y'all some rep'rashens and whatnot"...he'd have been kicked out of the race with the boots that have those proverbial bootstraps that Republicans swear to pick themselves up by at about the 1:45 mark of every one of their speeches (because, you know, their speeches are so standard - but that's another matter for another day). Shoot, if I wrote like that y'all wouldn't be reading this. "But Reid shouldn't have said it"...so if James Clyburn said it then it'd have been alright? The [heck] kind of hypocritical BS is that? Truth is truth. It is pure, it is absolute. No matter the source, no matter the circumstance, truth should rise above any condition that surrounds it.
6. We'd have to stop blaming white people for everything.
Now, there were a lot of things that have happened throughout history at the hand of people that were melanin-deficient. Two things: 1) the mass majority of those people have left this Earth, and 2) the ones that are still here don't want to hear it anymore. Tony Brown often says "I don't know what white people owe us, but I do know they're not going to pay us". Whether I think they should hear it (or pay us) doesn't matter: fact is many of them are tired of being blamed for everything, and that's human nature. If any of us gets blamed for everything that happens - and any man who's ever been in a relationship should know full well what I'm talking about - for a month we'd be ready to be out. We've blamed our melanin-deficient brethren for everything when we've had the wherewithal to solve many of our own problems. We can't solve them all, but we've been really good at casting the first stone without being equallly good at being without sin. It's not the white teacher's fault that I failed a test. It's not the white cop's fault that I got a ticket. It's not the white legislator's fault that I have to serve 85% of my sentence for that felony I caught. Believe it or not, we control a lot of our own fates and with that control comes a level of responsibility that we all too often fail to live up to. When we look across the horizon, our view shouldn't be the same as those of our parents and grandparents because it isn't. It was as socially unacceptable to not be racist then as it is now. Y'all saw Rosewood (if you haven't, you should have...and I suggest you see it). Y'all saw how Mr. Wright caught it from the rest of the town. It's not their fault. They're not their parents or grandparents anymore than we are ours (although it wouldn't hurt us to be, but that's another matter). Even though I wrote a paper and presented at a conference saying otherwise, they had as much to do with the election of "our" president as we did. They're as cool as we are, hardly because of their 2008 presidential votes (although I find the idea that younger white voters cast their ballots for Obama to "get back at older generations" to be quite amusing). They're not part of the problem: they're part of the solution...same as us.
7. We'd have to work for it as much as - if not more than - anyone else.
That includes people of other races, and that includes the government. Forty acres and a mule are not going to make us equal. Neither is some cash payment that too many of us would spend on drugs and guns and Timbs and rims and whatever else. Neither is the election of a man who...y'all know where I'm going with that one. We have to push harder for equality than anyone else, we should: even though equality benefits us all, the most direct effect is that which relates to black people.
We also have to work past those of us - and "those of everyone else" - to make this a reality. We all know it's not going to be easy. Hasn't been yet. Question is, is it worth it? Is it worth giving up the N-word hypocrisy? Is it worth changing the visions of "our" institutions to those that serve all instead of some? Is it worth giving up the practice of following compliments toward people of other cultures with the back-handed "for a (insert culture) (insert gender)"? Is it worth giving up the stereotypes about ourselves: things like "once you go black..."? Is it worth giving up points on college applications, quota requirements, and the like? Is it worth giving up the ability to complain and cry wolf every other week? Is it worth giving up the built-in excuses against white people? You know...the test being culturally biased, the "man" trying to keep me down, all that stuff. Is it worth giving up the hypocritical advantages that we currently employ? Last but not least, is it worth working for?
I.
Don't.
Know.
Do you?
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