We are not throw away people…
- Shark-fu.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being black. Nothing!
That sounds like something a four-year-old would say, something too simple and true to be worth saying, like “the sky is blue”. But in America in 2008 it is worth saying. Because too many people, both black and white, do not believe it, not deep down, not where it counts. Their heads might (sort of) believe it, but not their hearts.
This morning on the bus I was reading Obama’s “Dreams from My Father”. In 1985, when he was working at Altgeld Gardens, he met Mary. She was one of the few whites who lived in nearby West Pullman, a poor, black part of Chicago. She had two daughters:
And I knew that the father was absent, although Mary never mentioned him. Only in bits and pieces, over the course of many months, would I learn that she had grown up in a small Indiana town, part of a big, working-class Irish family. Somehow she had met a black man there; they had dated secretly, were married; her family refused to speak to her again, and the newlyweds moved to West Pullman, where they bought a small house. Then the man left, and Mary found herself beached in a world she knew little of, without anything but the house and the two manila-hued daughters, unable to return to the world she had known.
For some reason after I read that I started crying. On the bus! Like I am simple or something, like I have no idea how the world works. But I could not help myself. I had to write this just to calm myself down.
What upset me was not that the father left, not that Mary was cut off and stuck in a world she knew little of, but that the two little girls could never go back to Indiana, that their own flesh and blood would never accept them because of the colour of their skin.
God made black people to be every bit as good as white people. He did not make black people with some secret crack inside. They are not some kind of mistake he made on the way to making white people.
I am not saying black people are perfect, but they are every bit as human and loving – and hating – as whites. They were born with the very same brains and the very same hearts (yes, hearts too). And their lives are every bit as valuable – even if the president and the police and the news reporters do not see it.
It is a lie, one of the cruelest, sickest, most twisted lies I have ever heard, to say that black people are somehow not as good as white people. It is a sick lie white people came up with to cover their sick crimes.
See also:
- Race in America
- How white people think
- black-on-black racism
- Barack Obama
- Obama at Altgeld Gardens
- The Missing White Woman Syndrome
- Henry Louis Wallace
- Black women are beautiful – another one of my sky-is-blue posts
sometimes when i read your posts, i feel like you’ve been wandering around inside my head. i’m a college student and i just had to write a paper about a play I saw. it was an adaptation of the bluest eye, so everything you just said has been swirling around my head for the past few days. not that it isnt always there, but recently, its been fresh.
just thought you should know.
What I find so shocking is that many white people in this country still struggle to see us as people. I feel like many of them see us as a sub specis(sp) of human beings. This is why many of them will ask us the dumbest questions about being black and out physical characteristics. For example “Can black people tan” WTF .
http://detoxology.wordpress.com/
http://jovanmiles.net
I found your blog listed on the blogs above. If I find anymore I will post them.
Thank you for this post. I am often asked how I can still smile when the world is so unjust. The answer is simple I refuse to let someone else define me. Race and hatred in America will never be solved. It is unfortunate that so many individuals cling to their hatred as a life line and that they are buoyed by the belief that NO one else is as good as they. America is a country like Senator Obama constantly states: “is the only place where my story could be possible”. Yet still America is a place fraught with sometimes secret and other moments (i.e. Katrina) not so secret hatred and fear. Life must go on. As hurtful as moments described in your post are, it is not what is done to you but what you do in response that really counts and will defines you.
Thank you, Abagond.
Stephanie B.
It is so funny that I read this post today because an incident that happened today had me thinking. I had a funny thought that white people should take a mandatory class in high school or college to learn about black people. I am not just talking about black history but they need to learn how to deal with black people today(2008). How do we get them to see us as human and equal and stop looking at us through the eyes of stereotypes. It makes me cringe that in this day and age I still hear white people make stupid assumptions,generalizations, and comments about black people out of pure ignorance.
A website that gets to some of your comments is “Black People Love Us”. Check it out if you have not seen it already. It is meant as satire:
http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/
Thank you all for your beautiful comments. It helps me to know I am not going nuts.
Miss Licorish: “The Bluest Eye” is one of those books I keep meaning to read. Your comment got me to start reading it! Thanks!
Baltimore Beauty: Thanks for the links. If you run across any more, please tell me. Thanks.
I don’t want to be compared to “whites” as if they are the standard of what a human should be. To say that “blacks” are just as good as “whites” is using them as the norm or the standard. “Whites” are sinners just like every other group of people. I am created by the One Who made the world. Compare me with Him.
Read more of my blog and I think you will see that I do not hold up white people as a model. But I see what you mean. I probably need to word it a bit differently.
Abagond:
Thank you for this. You may or may not know how many black people really struggle with this. I see so much black on black hatred (did you hear about how they are treating Usher’s wife?). This reminds me of the ingrained belief that black people are somehow less. On another page you wrote…less intelligent, less hard working, less honorable, etc. I am struggling with this. After a while someone tells you something for so long, you believe it and then you become it, whether you “mean” to or not. Thank you for saying this. It also makes me cry. Thank you!!
Wow, I am glad I wrote it, then. Of my hundreds of posts this is one of the ones I like best.
Aba:
Even before this and based on other posts you have done, I felt but this just confirmed for me, you truly posses magnanimity of heart.
Your words are too kind, but thanks.
i feel like blacks should be proud of what they got.a lot of white people waste money on features that blacks naturally have.i feel like a lot of blacks want white features (i use that term in a stereotypical sense because for real for real whites have no features that are exclusive to them but blacks and asians do) and a lot of whites want black features.if your black be proud you got juicy lips,you know how many white folks waste money on botox to get what you got naturally.be proud that you got a natural tan.1st cause you on average age better and 2nd hella whites waste money on tanning salons.
“It is a sick lie white people came up with to cover their sick crimes.”
I really don’t think that’s fair.
You can’t say that this is just a sick white lie.
Its sin my friend. Every race has been fighting against every other race for generations. And if your the same race you fight over tribal issues, or religion or foot ball teams. OR its man vs. women…and if your both women – then its short vs. tall.
As one race – the human race – we seem bent on finding things that drive us apart – not bring us together. Bent upon our own destruction.
Its sin. Evil in the world thats stench stains every culture and every corner of the world.
I have to say except the last paragraph, I agree with you whole heartedly. reading it brought tears to my eyes. The stupidy of that family to make their daughter and grand daughters outcasts.
And – regarding your last paragraph – I do understand how a person who has delt with racisim would react in the extremem the opposite way. Its the rape victem that flinches when any man touches her – even if they are their to help.
Black or white, athlete or intellect, tall and thin, thick and curvy, we all should rejoice in how god made us. God does not make mistakes.
Black people are not a mistake that God cast off. The world was ment to be populated with variaty and color..There isnt just one type of flower, or tree, or apple. Why would there be one type of person.
LL and Davida:
The idea that whites are better than blacks is a lie and a sick one. Which part of that do you not agree with?
Further, it has been used to keep blacks in chains and hang them from trees. Are those not sick crimes?
It may not be pretty, but I do not see how it is an unfair or extreme thing to say or why anyone would disagree with it.
oh no – i agree that is a sick lie. And the crimes are sick as well.
I am just saying its a symptom of a bigger sickness. Its not just a white sick lie…its a sikness that permeates the human race. Blonde Haired, blued eyed folks in germany said they were better than other white folks and killed and masacured them.
Suni and Shiate tribal Muslims believed one is better than the other and butcher each other.
Native American Tribes believe they were each superior to the other and made slaves and raped and masacured each other.
Croations and Serbians are butchering each other today.
The impulse to define ourselves and segregate ourselves from one another is almost genetic it seems…and the desire to put ourselves above each other is also ingrained. its not just a cultural lie…its a sickness, an evil, a sin nature, that all of man possess. Its why, despite all of our advances, it still exsists. It can not be taught out of us…we get rid of one form and another form will rear its head.
Say it Loud… “Im Black and Im Proud!!!!!”
People know most about the people they are around and grow up with. If they lack an intimate understanding of people who come from different backgrounds, that is to be expected. They should not be condemned for not understanding people of different cultures as well as they understand their own. I now next to nothing about shintoism or the Greek Orthodox Church. I have never lived as a neighbor to Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis or Croatians, Ukrainians, Hispanics, only to name a few. I will say, I have preferred by far ALL of the black neighbors I have had to the Appalachian Scots-Irish family from West Virginia who live across the street from me. But because we share education values and other things, I am closest to my immediate neighbors from Pennsylvania. So what?
So I won’t condemn you for your ignorance about people who are generally caucasian, who in the USA are derived from many different cultures, with a wide variety of outlooks.
Personally, when I encounter people who are different from me, my first reaction is curiosity and caution. I always judge people as individuals, because it is their character that matters: intelligence(s), integrity, honesty, thriftiness, prudence, hard-working, punctuality, a sense of duty, a sense of proportion, some humility. What is their value system? How do they behave?
I do not apologize for having my own value system, nor will I say I am not disappointed when other folks show themselves to be sad examples of the human race. There are hierarchies of values, people do differ in what they deem important. Color of skin is a biological adaptation to environmental conditions. I give it no more importance than that. Given about 10,000 years in the arctic, and all the black folk might end up pale as the Swedes.
When my brain in a perfectly normal way reacts to circumstances it has repeatedly encountered and has received imprints from (myself, female, alone on a dark street, a person following me; a person deliberately holding me up as they cross the road, with a challenging stance; someone or group breaking in line; rudeness; foul language; really bad driving; aggression with sound systems in their cars (a problem with ALL kinds of people, you will agree); poor dress habits and hygiene; an attempt to use guilt to manipulate me), I let the 90 seconds of reaction flow through me and then I return to my place of compassion and try for understanding. Doesn’t mean I won’t come away reinforced with a bad opinion, doesn’t mean I will automatically apply that opinion to the next stranger.
No, I am not “white” any more than “black” people are “African-American.” Africa is a continent. People who were sold into slavery by black people from other tribes are from TRIBES and family groups, not from nations. They may reside within national boundaries now, but those states have been formed subsequent to the abolition of slavery in Western European countries. American people of color are usually miscegenated, too, and so could just as easily see themselves as deriving from various American Indian tribes, the Irish, the French, etc. Sadly, many “Africans” still buy and sell their fellows even today.
I know your readers, being highly informed as they are, are aware of these facts, and are righteously outraged that their brothers and sisters back home continue with this inhumane practice. I am sure they are doing all they can through their churches to stop the African Slave Trade today.
Finally, I am glad that I hear black Americans admit they bully people they think are “white” and automatically deserving of rude behavior, and that they use “white guilt” to manipulate people they have sadly automatically decided are their enemies. Perhaps THEY are CREATING enemies where there were none before or perhaps these sorry individuals are responsible for what they receive from “white people” by creating or perpetuating prejudices.
Finally, I find that culture matters, family matters and in the end, individual character matters. I don’t like everybody, and I don’t have to and I don’t have to feel bad about that. And neither do you. That is freedom. To be LEFT ALONE. But your rights END where my nose begins, as they say. Your “rights” end where my property, my family, the things I love begin. And a “right” is not some entitlement. It stems from nature, not from the nation-state, Jeremy Bentham notwithstanding.
Corricopat:
I do not know what to say to you. You need to open your eyes. Everything you just said was extremely self-serving. I am ignorant, yes, but nowhere near as ignorant as you want to believe.
There is plenty I do not know about white people. And, yes, some of my statements are a bit too absolute. But there is one extremely important difference between you and me when it comes to the truth about white people: your mind is bought, mine is not.
RE: “What upset me was not that the father left, not that Mary was cut off and stuck in a world she knew little of, but that the two little girls could never go back to Indiana, that their own flesh and blood would never accept them because of the colour of their skin.”
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The CAUSE of the problem is that *the father left* the family. This is accepted by you as less of a problem, when it is the REAL problem in this situation. That child will be exposed to hate, and love, for the rest of her life. But, she may never have her father in her life again. He is needed in the child’s upbringing just as much as the child’s mother is needed for a well-rounded and balanced childhood.
This is too common and too accepted by society.
Fathers, men of all groups, should be held fully responsible for bringing a child into the world.
Of course what the father did was way worse. I even listed it first among the things that I would expect to upset me. But for whatever reason it did not. Maybe because it has become too common like you said.
@ Heather
I remember when I was younger, before I understood more of how the world worked, I used to always ask why blacks were always compared to whites as opposed to say -Asians or Hispanics.
You bring up a terrific point that needs to be stressed more often.
The problem is (well, one of the many problems) the fact white is considered to be “default” human. Even without open racial hate and problems like the one described in this post, seeing one group as “default human” is wrong.
Thirty years ago, “default human” was white male. I don’t know if situation is any different today (is it, perhaps, white female?) but in any case it’s wrong.
Thank you so much for this post. I’m a young woman who has dark skin, and in middle school kids used to make fun of me all the time. Names like “blackie” and other offensive terms were always thrown at me. It got to the point to where I really hated myself. But growing older and seeing the world for what it really is. I love me and every last drop of melanin in my skin. You’re right there is absolutely nothing wrong with being black. I love being black. You’re blog has been eye opening. I live reading what you write. Also, until recently I used to feel very hateful towards white people. After talking with my grandmother I let it go. Especially since she reminded me that at the end of the day white people are going to have to stand before God just like everybody else and they will be held accountable for their actions.
All our minds are bought, Abagond. It’s just that some of us know who made the purchase.