Well, Dave, I guess I’m about to frighten a few folks. I’m about to be one of the most frightening spectacles they’ll ever see. From here on out I’ll let my conscience do all the typing.
‘You know what the real problem is with you black people? You’re uneducated, jobless, lazy, thieving and morally bankrupt thugs. Just a bunch of weed smoking, welfare using, baby mama having gangstas with your pants hanging off your butt. Let’s be real, black people are always looking for a handout. Black people always have excuses as to why they can’t get ahead. They are the scum of our society. A country, hell maybe even a world without them, would serve us best.’
Are you done? Any more you’d like to share? Because we’ve heard it ALL before. Each and every possible stereotype of black people. This disgustingly, ignorantly broad generalization of an entire people has been projected through every form of media and communication for centuries. Do you want to know what’s more jarring than these stereotypes though? Being a black person who shatters them effortlessly, flawlessly, gracefully, and swagfully.
The byproduct of accomplishing such a feat is popularly regarded as Black Excellence, and it is a frightening combination. Black AND excellent? Wait, you mean to tell meyou have a bachelor’s and/or master’s degree (maybe even a Ph.D.), you work at nice companies with good pay and benefits, pay your own bills, don’t live in the “ghetto”, not in a gang, well groomed, dress presentably, have other streams of income, have an investment portfolio, speak proper English, your Mom isn’t on drugs, your Dad isn’t in jail, you don’t have illegitimate kids, you don’t rap, you’re not a basketball or football player, and you’ve traveled in and out the country?! Sh*t. What type of Black Panther, Wakanda born sorcery is this?
Jesse Williams said it best during his 2016 BET Humanitarian Award acceptance speech (which will forever live in infamy), “Just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.” Granted, he mesmerized us with such magical words, but just because we’re real doesn’t mean we exist, and Black Excellence does not exist in the face of Whyt Mediocrity.
Just analyze a simple fact of life that’s been passed down generation after generation: you have to work TWICE as hard to be HALF as good. Do we understand the gravity of this school of thought? How psychologically tiring and damaging this reality is? It means you have to work FOUR times as hard to be just AS good. This is life in contemporary America. But here’s the part that helps me sleep a little bit easier at night…I get it. I get exactly why it has to be this way.
Black Excellence is a threat to civil order, blind obedience and the system as we know it. Black Excellence cannot be weighed on even scales because it is the first domino of black dominion. See, Black Excellence is a window to the resiliency of our people. The creativity of our people. The beauty of our people. The uniqueness of our people. The magic of our people. They took a 400-year head start and now we actually have the audacity to try close in with Usain Bolt-like speed, gaining ground with such smooth and elegant strides as we carry an entire people on your back? It’s a frightening feeling to know that an honest black (wo)man is about to beat you in your race and at your own game.
And why shouldn’t it be? We were required to dispelyour stereotypes and work FOUR times as hard to be just AS good, yet we fulfilled your silly list of qualifications. What do you think goes through students’ heads when Black Excellence walks through the doors of that classroom for law school, med school, MBA program, Ph.D. program and engineering school (just to name a few)?
What do you think goes through co-workers’ minds those first few weeks on the new job? “How the hell did YOU get here? They were supposed to kill you off a long time ago. How did you survive?!” That fear and trepidation are what we call cognitive dissonance. That’s what happens when a Lion walks into a room full of gazelles. You know why I’m here (shout-out to Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch).
We can’t live in a country where Black Excellence trumps Whyt Mediocrity (pun intended). If we did, what ammo would America have against Us? You can no longer economically castrate us. You can no longer vilify us. You can no longer challenge our intellect. You can no longer impede generational wealth You can no longer emasculate us. You can no longer have a condescending effect on our psyche. You can no longer teach us to hate ourselves. You can no longer bastardize our art. You can no longer hide your lies or your weakness or your insecurities. You can no longer take the ambivalent approach to being US. You can no longer survive off of US.
I haven’t even added the fact that we age gracefully, our physical and sexual prowess far exceeds anyone else’s, have exceptionally dominant genes and possess intrinsic rhythm and soul. Black Excellence is modern, majestic and sophisticated. What I’m essentially getting at is if things were fair this would become the United States of Africa in a heartbeat (maybe two).
With all these in mind, why wouldn’t you be a migraine for black people? A migraine that not only comes at the worst times possible but also comes whenever it pleases: Weddings, birthdays, graduations, in theshower, on the toilet, cutting grass, power naps, yoga and even “Netflix and chill.” You name it and it’ll be waiting with an energy bar and a cell phone ready to Snapchat every moment of it.
Why wouldn’t you make us a 2nd class citizen, mistreated stepchild, and an ignored adopted kid…all in one? Give us liberties without freedom? Make us guilty until proven innocent? Why wouldn’t you steal and appropriate our greatest talents and ideas, but still tell us we have nothing to offer? Why wouldn’t you tell us we’re of no worth when everything around us has fibers of our very being? Why wouldn’t you have us prayerfully wishing to be accepted when in reality you know you never will?
Black in America is living in a house but never having a home. It’s being devalued and seen as worthless unless you’re dunking a basketball or suffering a concussion to score a touchdown. It’s the burden of representing an entire race and being held accountable for everyone’s actions even if you have no idea who they are. It’s slavery, the Tuskegee Experiment, COINTELPRO, segregation, Jim Crow, Black Wall Street, police brutality, redlining, the war on drugs, incarceration, deleted facts, manipulated history and the oddness of being told to ignore the seemingly obvious idea that all of this has a residual effect on the lives of Blacks in America NOW. It’s taking 100 steps forwards just to take 99 back. It’s being sold the idea of “progress.”
Black in America is survivor’s guilt.
Black in America is an abusive relationship, and sadly, I don’t see Us breaking up anytime soon.
But again…I get it. Deep down in the depths of your soul, you know that Black Excellence is the end of your reign, the exposure of your fragility, the darkness coming to light. Self-preservation is the first law of the land and it’s our natural born instinct as humans to preserve our bloodline and existence. Now, I’m not looking to exterminate anyone, not by any means, because I am a humanist through and through. But don’t think for one second I’m not aware that Black Excellence forces you to face the cold hard truth you’re not who you lie and pretend to be.
At the tender age of 16 I realized the “American Dream” never had the ascension of blacks to true positions of economical, social and political power in mind. It was never in the plan, literally. Well, Black Excellence is the American Nightmare, and one day it’ll be a nightmare no one can wake up from. Until then, stay “woke” my mediocre friends…
Abdris