Black in America – Part B

Um, I am having SERIOUS problems with tonight’s episode on CNN. To me (tell me if I am reading too much into it), it’s basically saying that the only blacks who are successful and can make it in this world is to either live in a white neighborhood, be educated at majority schools or marry white. Is that just me? Did I read too much into the first 45 minutes?

Okay, so now, just as I was thinking, they portrayed that light is right and dark is not a walk in the park. We are our own worst enemy with that, but other ethnic groups view us just the same.

I remember the year after I got out of college, I worked at a car plant as an engineer. It was in a small town in the deep south. I had a woman ask me, hesitantly, was I mixed. I knew what she meant, but I thought that I’d play her. I asked her what did she mean by mixed. She asked were both of my parents black. I told her yes and why was she asking. She then says, “Well, your hair….it’s not like normal black people’s hair.” Enter cricket noise here. HUH? WHAT did she mean NORMAL black people’s hair. I then asked her what she meant by that. She said, “Well, you know….it’s not…..” I told her, “Go ahead, say it!”. She says, “Kinky or short”. I tersely told her that our hair goes from bone straight to coiled beyond combing and our complexion ranges from snow white to blue black. The next statement I said to her was, “If you ancestors weren’t creeping around slave quarters with mine, you wouldn’t be sitting here asking me questions like you just did. Don’t ever ask me anything like that again……normal black people’s hair. Girl, please!” Didn’t matter if I was or wasn’t mixed. If I have ONE black parent, society views me as BLACK. PERIOD……next…..

Now, this is something I’ve heard my ENTIRE LIFE (are you mixed, is your Dad white, do black people sunburn, being called an oreo, told I was acting white, etc.). Yeah, I’ve heard it all….from my own and from others.

I also had an employee at a previous job think that I was Mexican (notice I did not say hispanic or latino or etc.). Now, she doesn’t know that I know this, but with her blond hair and blue eyes, her lilly white, Boston-raised, shallow upbringing…..poor thing. I guess I can’t blame her for her ignorance. NOT! This was in 2006 and SCHOOL IS OUT, dang it. If you want to know what ethnicity I am, ASK! Don’t assume! But then, again, what does this have to do with the job at hand?! Yeah…..another post for another day.

I am tired of folks asking me “black” questions as if EVERY black person has the same experiences and can speak for every black person in the world.

Notice to non-black people: PLEASE, don’t believe everything you see on the news represents our life as blacks! They give you what you wanna see and hear. You don’t want to hear that we grew up in black public schools, went to black colleges and are SUCCESSFUL in our own rights. You don’t want to hear that some of us grew up with BOTH of our parents and, if we didn’t, we had father and mother figures around us to support us. You don’t want to hear that we are tall and can’t black a LICK of basketball, but grew up playing tennis and volleyball, instead. You’d rather hear that we are booty shaking and killing, having kids out of wedlock, doing and selling drugs, playing ball on the streets “because it’s our only way out”, etc. Don’t believe the hype, folks. The revolution will not be televised.

So, I am off to bed and off of my soapbox………for now. Best believe I’ll be back on it in the next 48 hours, God willing.