According to Webster’s dictionary a few of the definitions of Black are (1) often capitalized: of or relating to any of various population groups having dark pigmentation of the skin (2): of or relating to the African-American people or their culture (3): typical or representative of the most readily perceived characteristics of black culture. The second and third definitions are the ones I want to address today. A couple of months ago former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Jalen Rose, in his documentary " The Fab Five" , talked about black Duke players being Uncle Toms etc. The program supposedly did not recruit inner city players like Rose. He was speaking from the perspective of a 17 year old kid. He has since reiterated, that he does not feel that way now.He respects the Duke players and organization as a whole. There was a big brouhaha, even a rebuttal in the NY times from Grant Hill, the most disrespected of the Duke Players.
Fast forward two weeks ago, boxer Blowhard, oops I mean Bernard Hopkins, a Philadelphia native and Eagles fan, promoting his title fight with Jean Pascal, slammed former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb . Hopkins described McNabb as not black enough. “Forget this,” Hopkins said, pointing to his skin. “He’s got a suntan. That’s all.” He also made a slavery analogy in discussing McNabb’s relationship with the Eagles. “Why do you think McNabb felt he was betrayed? Because McNabb is the guy in the house, while everybody else is on the field. He’s the one who got the extra coat. The extra servings. ‘You’re our boy,’ ” Hopkins said. “He thought he was one of them.” I wasn't even going to talk about this issue at all, since there is no consensus "black experience". Jalen's teenage perspective is understandable, Hopkins middle aged one is not. When I was a teenager, I felt the same way that Jalen felt. There were people I knew, that had two parents at home, lived in a nice house, did well in school and spoke proper English. In my adolescent mind, they were not black enough or were sell outs. Of course as you get older, mature and learn about life, you know that these are just falsehoods. Bernard knows better, his rant was more about his personal dislike for Donovan, than any perceived blackness issue, he just made it racial.
We have people in our communities, even family members, who feel the same way Bernard "supposedly" does. They feel if you have lived a middle class or privileged upbringing, that makes you less black than those that had too struggle. My question is why? Why do we always have to have a designation on what blackness is or what it's supposed to be? What is a sell out? Am I a sell out because I don't want my kids to live in the hood, or because when I am having a business meeting I don't speak Ebonics? What the hell is Ebonics anyway? Trying to legitimize slang as a real language, for people who are too lazy to learn proper English, is like starting a professional basketball league for white guys, where dunking is outlawed. Sorry to get off subject, that's another blog for another day. The point I am trying to make is there is no one black experience. We are the only people who do this. We have to put everyone in a box; if you don't fit in the box then you are a sellout ,Uncle Tom or disgrace to the race. Every Asian man is not a math genius nor does every Asian woman "wanna love me long time". Every white woman doesn't have a flat ass, nor does every white man walk like he has a stick up his. Those ethnicity's never have this type of discussion .Well the white power contingent does, but you get the point. Nothing is black and white when talking about cultural characteristics ,sometimes Black is just Black.
3 comments:
I always lived in nice neighborhoods and as an adolescent I was chided for speaking proper english and making the honor roll. I didn't feel like I was trying to be better than my peers, but I studied and I wanted to show my instructors that I mastered the material I was taught. People would say, why you trying to act white? Act white? Wanting to be smart and regarded as such equates to wanting to be white?
Sadly, when I became an mc, people gravitated to me more because it seems that once I downplayed my intellect, people felt more comfortable. I had and still have the ability to interract in many citcles. That's not selling out, but it's an attribute we all should have. Don't hate....participate.
Black folks all ways feel a.need to publicly air their dirty laundry and for the life of me I don't know why. Trust, everybody else does this too......just not in a public forum.
my girl Dee, you are absolutely correct, but I don't think any other race or nationality gets more scrutinized for this than us. We bring it on ourselves
I remember us growing up with that same mentality Dennis. I also remember that when we spoken broken English around our elders, we were corrected quickly. They knew we were too smart to act dumb at a time we didn't know, or totally ignored our potential for the sake of acceptance and popularity.
It puzzles me when some of us reach a point of success; we tend to let it broaden our ignorance by holding on to personal grudges of the past. We should be bridling our gains and inspiring others through the positive changes we've made to ourselves, instead of adding bricks to the obstacles of ignorance we want to tear down.
It seems that some crabs who make it out of the barrel, want to keep others in... And figuratively speaking, Bernard Hopkins is just another crab...
Post a Comment