I want to reiterate in this threat that "whiteness" is a mental construct that people can choose to either identify with or reject. You can also use it to your benefit, gain the power it offers, and then use that power for the benefit and advancement of all.
At this time, white supremacy is the dominant force. But I feel this is already starting to change. My generation is starting to see a change. I was talking to my best friend this morning who is in Florida for his daughter's graduation. He told me that a white woman was genuinely nice to him. For him to tell me that... you have to understand... it's noteworthy.
His father didn't simply move to Ohio. He escaped. And no, I don't mean he escaped "the law". He escaped white supremacy because this was during a time when black people couldn't use the same bathroom. But by mistake... he really had to pee... he ended up where he "didn't belong". White man came in, found him, decided... he wasn't going to simply leave it alone.
You see... there is always THAT option. Those who claim they're not racist often don't make the conscious decisions that non-racists would make. He could have peed with a stall between them (as is proper bathroom ettiquite). He could have been an instrument of change. He could have simply ignored the rules. But he didn't. So they ended up fighting and my best friend's father wasn't a weak man. He wasn't anyone's "boy". He didn't have to prove it but he didn't have to back down and cower away either. But he had to move because they were looking to lynch him.
To this day there are many places where one cannot find a black person. To find a black person there is to fear for that person. And in those places you need to know, if you're black, that you are BLACK and not simply human. Why? Because it's dangerous to be naive and to be ignorant of the fact that you are black in the minds of those who live there. If you forget you're black you may lose your life. Until that threat has passed, I'm not going to have my children thinking their color doesn't matter. We can kumbayah after.
There is a war. We casually do not speak of this war but in truth it started as soon as black slaves were free men. White supremacy isn't stupid. It immediately saw black people as an economic threat because that is the threat of cheap labor. Look at China. White supremacy understood, even if we did not because we weren't educated in economics or finance, that if we had worked together? Practiced GROUP ECONOMICS together? Listened to Malcolm X on the subject (because he was right) together? we had the potential of creating monopolies in certain industries. But white supremacy countered that by establishing unions. And if you look at every industry with a large black presence you're going to find white owners at the top and "agents" who are "helping us" but not really helping us.
|
|
