Can we talk about something for a minute? Seriously, I need
to get this off my chest.
Black people are forever saying that racism is an American
institution. “It’s as American as apple pie and ‘red, white, & blue’ and
all that”…sure it is. No argument there. However, we have our own problem that is equally
damaging.
It’s the problem of black condescension.
If you mixed the ‘crab in a barrel’ mentality with the power
of popular opinion, you’d have this idea of black condescension.
“How does the crab thing fit”…glad you asked. We tend to
place those whose opinions, ideas, and actions fall outside of popular opinion
– or stereotype – below us in the barrel. We make them outcasts and say they’re
not “black enough” and so on. It’s just awful that we (and yes, I mean we: I’m guilty
of this too) place this unnecessary burden on ourselves and each other.
Alright, enough of that. Let’s get to some examples. Note:
most, if not all, of these will denote the same line of division between black
people.
College: funny thing about this one is that it actually goes
both ways. People who went to HBCUs often challenge the blackness of those who
went to PWIs, and people who went to PWIs often challenge the class (and
sometimes intelligence) of those who went to HBCUs. Going to a PWI doesn’t make
you bougie and going to an HBCU doesn’t make you ghetto.
Music: Some people listen to Lupe. Some people listen to
Gucci. Usually, people in the former group are horribly condescending toward
people in the latter group. They’ll swear their way is the right way and that the
ills of the black community would be cured if rappers like Gucci and Chief Keef
fell off the face of the earth. You know who else thinks their way is the right
way, all others be cursed? Exactly.
Tyler Perry: TP divides black people as much as any one
person I can think of. He obviously doesn’t have this intent, but we all know
that his work has been a lightning rod in the black community for years. The
man makes film and theater designed to entertain and uplift but people hate him
for it. People who talk about his craftsmanship are fine. People who say he
perpetuates stereotypes and attack him as a person: have the empty stadium.
Please.
Geography: yeah, this one here…northerners love to say that
southerners are country, backwards, unintelligent, and so on. I’m going to
fight the urge to say some things I could say (going negative would undermine
the entire post) and point out that things are pretty nice down here. Our state
leaders are jacked up politically, but we have things that cancel them out.
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For people who were mad at previous exclusionary tactics
throughout history, we’ve done a lot to copy them. If we don’t find a way to
stop that, there’s a good chance that we will stop our collective progress.
"The easiest way to get one man to hate another is to tell him he is better than the other man." - I forget the source.
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