5.05.2011

STAGE 6 - On Behalf of "The Blacks", Fuck Ya'll


So, Obama bagged Bin Laden. That's a victory any way you slice it and fuck hippies, I don't mourn evil. But you know what, this post ain't about that. No, this post is about anger, why I'm still angry, and why my tolerance for ignorance went from 1% to 0%. Why conspiracy theorists, revolutionaries, or whatever imaginary problems bored people with privilege do in this country pay attention to don't mean shit. Fall the fuck back, I'm talking about a real problem: This racism toward black people is officially out-of-hand.

Last week, the President released his long-form birth certificate amidst straight up racism, and I hit my rage point. Insulted. Disrespected. Embarrassed. Disgusted. And if that wasn't enough to infuriate me, I was more upset at the sheer volume of people who couldn't figure out why I felt that way. People who were just skipping through the daisies like shit ain't happen, wondering why I was mad about seeing a President that looks like me being held up like a slave because Republicans can't handle him being there.

That day just reaffirmed how easy so many people have it in this country. How they don't have to think about how the perception of being less-than-human by everyone overt or covert can ruin their day, every day. How they can say shit like we're "post-racial" and actually believe it. How they don't have to worry about their merits being challenged because of their ethnicity. How they can focus on trivial shit and focus on it well. How they don't know that I wish wondering how good a movie was could be the least of my problems.

More importantly, everyone's lack of reflection on President Obama doing what he did reaffirmed just how many people don't care about black people. It ain't just George Bush. I can't count how many situations in my lifetime where despite my stand-up qualities as a person, I've been examined, judged, and written-off by not just white people but almost every non-black group there is. Look no further than a comments section on the Internet if you don't believe that's going on. (And if you don't, then there's no hope for you. Die slow.)

Black people aren't perfect, but for terrible reasons our imperfections are nonsensically exaggerated compared to those of other people - and it's not fair. It's not fair, that we bring SO much to the world (that people steal) and went through so much just to get there, and everyone knows the story but we'll never get any respect. Despite the fact that we are targeted daily with real consequences (see: exclusion, denial, jail, murder, etc.), we're still fighting this same damn fight on our own, and it stretches all the way to the office of the President of the United States.

A President, that's an intellectual such as myself. A President who's done nothing wrong, like myself. A President, who believes in the good people are capable of, like myself. And he's still treated the way he is with no one sticking up for him, which doesn't bode well for the many, many, stand-up black people like me who want to be someone. Yeah, that's what asking for a birth certificate from a black President does, and yeah I said black President. He's half-white, but guess what, he's got enough black in him to open him up for disrespect.

And that's what this is: Disrespect. Not just any old disrespect toward black people, no: This is publicized disrespect. Between pretty much everyone in the GOP, FOX News, Pat Buchanan, Trump, and other racist-ass "contributors" to political discourse in the USA, the media loves giving them attention when it's time to shit on black people. You are not doing us any favors by supplying these blowhards a forum to spout their prejudice, especially when you KNOW they dislike and disrespect our President because he's got African blood in him.

This is the kind of "black people are inferior despite the fact they've done nothing wrong" disrespect that optimistic, hopeful little black boys and girls across America that Wednesday had to be sat down and explained to. That even littler kids who've seen nothing but Barack Obama as President have to endure with a curious skepticism that only a kid with nothing more than a toy and a TV could have. And no one cares about them just as much as they don't care about how the President is being discriminated against.

That's what angers me the most. I'm under no delusion that no matter how far I make it in life, everyone is going to hate me. I can take that. What I can't take, is that there's another generation coming in behind me that's going to be seen as the enemy long before they've had a chance to be a part of the world. Racism is here to stay, but when you can't keep it away from the kids, who have their whole lives ahead of them to make their places, then you've made an enemy out of me. That's when I'm zero tolerance for foolishness.

I'm not what-abouting any other group of people in this. Honestly, if you're not black and you don't know that society cares a LOT more about you than they do me at this age, there's no hope for you. The time for marginalization has ended. Racism will not be tolerated. Prejudice toward my people for what we look like will be met with a much stronger, angrier pushback. If I have a kid one day, I want them to know that when they inevitably learn about our history, they can be damn proud of the fact that another generation didn't lie down for this bullshit.

I don't care how long people have known me, or long visitors have been reading - do not, under any circumstances let the diverse makeup of my friends or romantic interests fool you: I don't forget who I am, and I don't forget my duty to the people who come after me to be better. Dog-whistle racism is out the window - it's live right now, and if you thought I was black before, forget that at your own peril. This ain't a game. Say some ignorant shit in front of me if you want to - you will get bodied. Leave jokes on the stage.

When you can have the best job in the United States of America, the land of "freedom" and "opportunity" and still be viewed through lenses as nothing more than a lucky degenerate unworthy of not only reaching for but grabbing the brass ring, then things have got to change more than ever.

Usually I'm prepared for everything, but I wasn't prepared for just how ugly this racism was going to get. As a young black male with nothing but upside, I gotta roll up the sleeves and show that Barack Obama isn't an anomaly. It's time to go H.A.M. on this 'cism.

So on behalf of "the blacks": Fuck ya'll.

If you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem.





P.S. Give us all our shit back, too.