Blackness is not an outcome that can be measured.
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I know what it’s like to be thought of as not quite black, to have individuals question your blackness simply because you don’t talk black enough or fit the mold of what a stereotypical black person is supposed to be.
My blackness is questioned often, but what is blackness?
Blackness is culture, many kinds, ranging from the uber conservative to the un-apologetically ratchet. Blackness is experiences, some which are absolutely unique to those who are black.
Blackness is pride, and blackness is, at times, suffering. Blackness isn’t simplistic or monolithic, and blackness is not an outcome that can be measured. Blackness, by all accounts, is incomparable and shape-shifting, perpetually fluid in nature.
Because of the complexity of blackness and its multiplicity of identities, it’s absurd to question one’s blackness simply because they don’t either fit a stereotype or are not popular among those who are also black.
The aforementioned assertion is why Mr. Rupert Murdoch, Executive Chairman of News Corporation, is absurd for stating that Mr. Ben Carson would be a real black president who could address the racial divide, despite Mr. Carson previously stating he thinks there’s too much focus on race in America.
Mr. Murdoch, before issuing an apology, defended his statement by pointing to an article which questioned whether Mr. Obama had done enough to move the black community up the social and economic ladder.
In politics especially, one’s blackness – instead of their capacity, reasoning and leverage – is questioned if their work performance didn’t result in increased opportunities for black constituents, as if it were a prerequisite for being a black politico.
Here in Philadelphia, Mr. Michael A. Nutter, the city’s third black mayor, has been described to me by frustrated black constituents as “the white man’s puppet,” “a white man in black face” or a “black man doing the white man bidding,” all stated in response to his perceived indifference to the plight of black Philadelphians, particularly those who are poor.
Hearing and seeing blackness questioned isn’t new for me, yet Mr. Murdoch’s play into it was sobering because his statement implied that it’s a black person who should dismantle white supremacy and improve race relations and not the dominant culture who instituted racism.
Equally jarring, though, was Mr. Murdoch’s confidence in Mr. Carson, a guy who said as a kid he ran away from the police, but now as an adult he would run towards a gunman.
Mr. Carson, a brilliant neurosurgeon, with flurries of absurd comments – like the one which said Muslims can’t be president of the U.S. because their values are against the constitution – is becoming a sideshow that mirrors that of Mr. Donald Trump, another republican presidential candidate who appears to get his rocks off by uttering stupidity.
Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Carson are accomplished individuals with a resume worth its weight in gold, yet neither seems qualified to tackle race in America, and neither have to the right to question blackness or attempt to create a singular definition for what black is.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
Tom. Leaped with a glad cry is more like it. Thing is, “black” is used to cover the African American experience including slavery and Jim Crow and poverty (for some) and all the rest of it. It’s not used to refer to a skin color. From time to time there are confusions. One sports announcer, scratching around for a term for a Negro guy from Africa, blundered into calling him “African American”. Other times, white people from Africa don’t get referred to as African American. And Negroes newly arrived from Africa have a difficult relationship with African American because, among… Read more »
IS that what Ben said? You have been drawn into the liberal media’s spin on things.