Complex Layers of Anti-Black Racism

March 18, 2022 — Jt Spratley
Black fist raised

I'm not a scholar with a years logged researching the complex layers of racism, or critical race theory (CRT). My passion is in helping others use tech to ease life. I didn't take college courses on African American history, African history, or even American history. I didn't see the point since curriculum's often grow outdated and other courses could help me immediately.

But I am at a point where I feel the need to discuss racism and ways to improve my community, the black / ADOS community, more. As complicated as it seems, there are ways to break it down into manageable building blocks.

There are companies helping to improve the black community. However, those efforts fail if we the people don't do our part as well. We must support such initiatives while holding ourselves (blacks) to a higher standard. One of my pet peeves is hearing a Christian say "if God wants it for me, I'll have it" or something along those lines. Another one, hearing people who nothing about politics or American government assuming that simply electing a new president will change the country overnight...for the better.

Again, I'm not a pro on this matter. You're reading a blog by a black, gay, Army Veteran. This wasn't peer-reviewed or made in collaboration with other black men. This isn't another code of conduct draft for blacks. The link above is in bold for a reason. This is my attempt at making sense of the major events that have a major effect on my life. This may be updated at random times. If so, I'm unsure how I'll track or notate them.

Alright. Into the deep end.

In the Beginning, Slavery

Every black history I remember from grade school started with slavery. To be precise, Africans were forced onto boats. Many jumped to their death en route. Many died from poor conditions. I don't remember learning about beautiful and well developed many African countries were. Even now, many Americans think that the continent of Africa is poor. I do remember seeing those commercials showing malnutritioned children with flies all over them. I'm too lazy to look up the company, its progress since the 90's, and what country that stuff was filmed in. My best guess would be Somalia, though I doubt it, simply because "Black Hawk Down" is the first movie I think of that centered around in the motherland.

Why would all this matter? Well, you learn a lot from your history. White kids learn history that traces and connects to European history. Black kids are basically taught "you came from African slaves and that is a black mark in American history." Okay. There is little discussion about African countries and their history. It also ignores the possibility that someone may have ancestors in Jamaica or the Caribbeans, but that's fine. Black is black, right?

Snarkiness aside, my point is that history has the ability to inspire someone to learn more about where they came from. And that can spark:

  • Creativity with elements of your ancestry (e.g. kalimbas)
  • Questioning things we're taught by our society and nearest cultures (more on that later)
  • The urge to connect more deeply with others of your kind

The last one is important because it attracts blacks to the foundation of a community: family. That means having a father and mother, husband and wife, in the home to raise the child to be the best of their abilities. That's not the norm these days with blacks. Why? There are a couple reasons.

Jim Crow, Black Codes, segregation, and gentrification (including slum clearance) are the most popular examples of legal racism. They all serve the same goal: restrict blacks' access to resources. Need more examples? Watch this video discussing 84 laws that fight black wealth by Dr. Boyce Watkins:

You might be thinking "but discrimination is illegal in the US," and you'd be somewhat right. There are laws that say you cannot discriminate against someone due to sex, gender, age, ethnicity, etc. However, you can't heal or kill racism with a policy. What you can do, however, is discourage overt racist activity. This encourages covert racism, which isn't any better. This can look a few different ways.

  1. Blacks are rejected for loans or jobs that they know they qualify for, only to be given general answers as to why. I once read a poll which concluded that hiring managers less likely to follow up on resumes with "black sounding" names. Don't forget, a quick internet search can confirm this in less than a minute.
  2. A high cost of living sucks more Blacks into poverty. You can always move, and I believe more should instead of staying loyal to a city or state just because you've lived there for however many years. But some don't want to leave family, friends, or a good office job.
  3. Many Blacks feel they need to become overqualified to be competitive with Whites in the job market. I've seen that in the cybersecurity industry. I've seen a few people stack up on CompTIA, Cisco, and other IT security certifications in the hope of more opportunities. Unfortunately, it remains true that networking trumps credentials. "It's not what you know, but who you know."
  4. Policies are created to prohibit things that apply specifically to black people. Dreadlocks, afros, white t-shirts, and durags are foremost in my mind. The justification is normally to maintain a company-wide "professional appearance." In reality, they're modern "Black codes."
  5. The legal system is tough on crimes that primarily affect black communities. Child support and "the War on Drugs," specifically weed, are easy examples. Even in the legal marijuana industry, its difficult to start businesses because licenses to sell weed are expensive and often disapproved for black entrepreneurs. Clever, right? Don't forget the psychological warfare of identifying weed with blacks and laziness until the government decided to tax it.

If you're interested in more historical context, here's a YouTube video covering how the US government has supported slavery since the beginning.

If you prefer something shorter and concentrated within the past few decades, this will hit home just the same.

Wherever you go, you must learn the laws and policies that govern that land and facility. And pay special attention to anything related to discrimination or that just seems unnecessary. Read your city and state laws periodically, in case something changes. Read the HR discrimination policies for your occupation. And please, though its more related to data security, start reading the terms of service for software and services you use. In the words of the E-Ring TV show character, Samantha "Sunny" Lisbin:

"Ignorance is not an excuse."

For more on legal action, read the 1965 Moynihan report.

Deplatforming Black Lives Matter

"Deplatforming," or "no-platforming," is the act of removing a person or group from a platform - school, events, social media sites, forums, etc. It is basically an attempt to remove your ability to be heard, also known as "canceling." The most popular examples of this:

Insert "Black Lives Matter." I count three components of "Black Lives Matter." The first one is the Black Lives Matter organization which had different chapters that seemingly weren't on the same page about how to go about tipping the scales for better equality. I'm not opposed to the arguments I've read against that point of view as I do not have direct knowledge to its inner workings. Also, this is a long rant by a random black man, not a peer-reviewed journalist's report.

There was the BLM movement which took on a life of its own, somewhat tethered to the organization. It brought awareness to events and other initiatives related to:

  1. Police brutality
  2. Reparations
  3. How missing black people get minimal news coverage
  4. Racist laws and black people wrongfully imprisoned

Even better, it was a call-to-action (CTA) which motivated people to have more conversations about the matter and take action. WNBA superstar Maya Moore left the league in her prime to take advantage of the BLM momentum by working on freeing a wrongfully convicted black man and former classmate.

I think the most interesting component was the simple phrase, "black lives matter." It is a simple statement and complete sentence. It is pro-black but not anti-white. It means exactly what it says.

"We’re not saying Black lives matter more, we’re saying they matter too," - Melissa DePino, co-founder of From Privilege to Progress
"What's the fucking point of contention?" - Will Smith

But it made so many people uncomfortable that there are some popular rebuttals for whenever someone utters the slogan "black lives matter":

"Of course. All lives matter!" This surely comes from those who are one or more of the following:

  • Uncomfortable talking about racism against blacks and Africans (in the US and worldwide)
  • Unwilling to admit, or ignorant to the fact, that racism against blacks / African-American / African descendants in the USA is worse than any other type of discrimination
  • Careless to racism because it doesn't affect them (directly)
  • Comfortable with non-actionable calls-to-action like "be a better human" (no shade to Combat Flip Flops intended) and "be kind"
  • Legit racist against blacks

The last one is a great transition to the next rebuttal.

"Black lives don't matter to black people!" It is nice to know that there are still people in the United States of 'Murica that feel comfortable speaking for an entire group of people they think they understand because of proximity. The audacity. But seriously, there are two important issues with this:

  1. The generalization implies that all black people are hurting each other
  2. As I'll talk about in the next section, there is a lot affecting and encouraging black on black violence (internal and external to the black community)

"It's racist!" If you're wondering why this is a problem, just reread this section. Then, ask yourself:

  1. Why do I feel offended by the phrase "black lives matter?"
  2. Do I assume that any stereotypes, caricatures, and effigies apply to all or most black people?
  3. Why do I feel the need to reply at all when someone says that?

Think about your answers. Then, keep reading.

"What about [other minority group including gay and disabled people]?" Reread the "All Lives Matter" section. I'm not acknowledging the other "lives matter" spin-offs because...copycats.

These arguments are used even today to downplay the positive impact of the BLM movement and racism against blacks. These people who don't want their perceived "perfect life" bubble burst by ugly truths. Ugly truths require deep reflection, and many people avoid that like the plague.

American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS)

Reparations is always an interesting topic. ADOS is the latest initiative I know of to lead the effort to right decades of financial inequality. Here's a quick primer.

Now, here are some common arguments I hear against reparations.

"You weren't a slave." True, but my ancestors were. And they were robbed of opportunities to build wealth simply because of their skin color. Did you or your relatives receive any inheritance of monetary value? I lot of blacks don't because of laws mentioned throughout this keyboard warrior rant. And no, self-centered whites, it isn't you that owe blacks this but the US government.

"But the government doesn't have the money for that!" They have the money to ship firearms overseas, leave fully operational forward operational bases (FOBs) in Afghanistan, and give Congress folks raises. They have money to give every honorably discharged military veteran free college for at least four years. Add the Yellow Ribbon program, Vocational Rehabilitation (VocRehab), and the Forever GI Bill and that time-frame can stretch by probably three more years. They had the money to send checks to everyone during the worst of COVID, some more than two. Whatever "40 acres and a mule" equates to today with inflation, please and thank you.

"Just work harder." This is a vague statement that likely leaves the same mouths that say "all lives matter." It is an attempt to downplay systemic racism and say "just worry about now." It is easy to say that when you don't need to play catch-up.

Black on Black Crime

What is the reason for Black on Black crime? Well, a big part of it is the long list of aforementioned laws that reduce opportunities to earn wealth for Blacks. That leads to survival mode: every man for himself. Insert drugs, however as they were (three letter agencies, international affairs, etc.), to black communities and you insert opportunities to make money. Hip-Hop catches mainstream attention and cats see an possibility to make money on their own. Put all that together in the same neighborhood, and you concentrate a bunch of people with a "live for today" mentality. Suddenly, a crime conviction doesn't like the worst probable outcome.

I'm talking about death.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I want to make it clear that there's a reason I took the defensive versus reflective route first. I've talked about issues within the black community a few times already.

ATTN: Blacks was all about ways we make life harder for ourselves when we should be working together to overcome negativity. It covers the “Crabs in a Bucket” mentality, self-respect, and effective communication from multiple angles. One thing I'm surprised I didn't mention was unplanned pregnancy and broken homes. More on that in the next section.

My Black Unity essay from college mentions a lot but mainly covers our perception of anti-black racial slurs.

Black Women Versus Black Men

This is where things get messy. I've heard many arguments about why black women generally don't respect black men.

The first one is that it goes back to slavery when black men were tortured more to make black women more vulnerable to rape breeding. I don't dismiss this claim. I do believe that trauma is psychologically passed on by parents and parenting. But there has been enough progress to overcome that, right? That requires proactive work to heal by parents. I know many black grandparents today who have done no such thing. And not enough of us truly acknowledge that blaming our parents is worthless once you're an adult, especially well in your thirties.

The second argument is that Black men ain't doing nothing. Or as often stated by toxic women, "niggas ain't shit!" If you retained anything from this blog up to this point, you should have a decent understanding as to why black men have a hard time holding families down. But a lot of black women dismiss this or simply don't care. Where as many black men have resorted to killing each other to make ends meet, black women women have chosen adapted an equally damaging method in survival mode: child support.

There are more layers to this.

Feminism

Black women getting onboard with feminism was the big bang that led made this possible. This video explains how a former Cosmopolitan magazine writer, a married women even when during the time-frame she wrote this stuff, marketed the feminist movement decades ago. The video is about her admitting that it was nonsense and she knew it when she was writing it. Yet, black women continue to push it as if them being superior to black men is the next logical step.

Want more proof that this has been going on for decades? Here's an interview from 1991 where Vibrations TV show host Raven Geary aggressively challenged Shahrazad Ali on her book - "The Blackman's Guide to Understanding Black Women." What was it about? Black women consistently treating black men as inferior, whether its an intimate relationship, single mother and son, or random stranger interactions. Mrs. Ali was crucified for this book and her message.

Child Support

Thirty years later, how black women treat black men has only gotten worse. Since welfare benefits were implemented in the 1970's, child support has risen to the point where single mothers can somewhat live of it, more so with multiple children. The old Claudine movie depicts how the system used to work and the "man in the house" rule. These days, it is used more to take money from black men than to assist the children in broken homes. How? This is where the problem of black men being loose with their seed comes in.

There are women out here trying to get pregnant to get a monthly check, weaponizing the child support system - or Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) for whoever calls them that - to sit home and do nothing. You've likely heard stories about it happening to celebrities here and there. In the military we called them "dependapotomus," because a lot of them are fat, or "dependas." They're a dangerous type of gold digger. They want to bring life into this world simply to maintain or upgrade a financial lifestyle. More on parenting shortly.

In The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, Khalil Gibran Muhammad talks about how whites once referred to Blacks as a "child race," a group of people best suited for providing entertainment.

And many aren't shy about hunting for the easy seed.

Fellas, we gotta choose our targets more wisely and tighten up our shot group. Be more careful about who guts you try to run up in and wear a condom properly (that you bought and know is not expired). Then, you dispose of it properly in a way that your baby batter cannot be retrieved. You don't want a messy lawsuit like Drake had for trying to prevent a one night stand from pulling spunk out of a trashed condom. Can't make this stuff up.

I could easily make jokes about why you should consider banging transgendered women, but that leads to a major, unfunny, discussion about black effeminization efforts. Oh yeah, we'll touch on that later.

Back on topic, yes, I'm aware of the fact that many men impregnate a woman and attempt to flee responsibility. I'm not apologizing for that. There was a movie making fun of that. But that's not all men. That's not all Black men. And I will say that females are arguably encouraged by the government to get pregnant and carry the baby to full term.

It takes two to concede a baby. I'm not going into rape.

Only a mother can decide to abort a child. I'm not going into abortion laws or beliefs for or against it.

When a woman makes the decision to put her baby's father, and I'm talking about the man that wants to be there for his child, on child support, she's putting herself above the child's needs. The mother can do whatever she pleases with that money. And the less time the father spends with the child, the more money he pays monthly for child support. That's a legal, monetary incentive for a mother to create a broken home and family. Well maybe the man should just earn more money, you might suggest. Well, the mother can at anytime request that monthly payments be increased when that happens.

Let's dive into the problem of broken homes.

Raising Black Boys

"I don't need a man!"
"Men ain't shit!"
"I just want the money!"

These quotes are horrifying coming out of a single mother's mouth. A woman may not need a man. But a child needs a father's presence, not just his money. If the man ain't shit, and you let him between your legs, what does that say about you, ma'am? Also, how much of that child support goes directly to the child instead of your luxury purchases, stay-at-home mother? The women that these statements apply to will fight you to keep from hearing it. These are the type to only want to hear about men being crap. Kendra G., a black woman, once called it out.

Read the next paragraph carefully.

There are black females out here who have not healed from the fact that their fathers were absent from their lives. Or they've refused to confront the situation, and their parents, to investigate the reason why. Now mothers, they blame their father (or father figure) and project that anger onto their black sons. How can you raise a black boy alone, unchallenged by anyone and financially encouraged by the government, to be good man if you don't respect men in the first place? The evidence shows that you can't. Instead, the unopposed mother raises the son to be an obedient underling, not to be the best version of himself, but a trained servant that endures the bitter mother's disrespect as shame and sorrow.

The black boy is taught to be ashamed of how wrongly his mom claims she was treated. He obeys her commands, even when he knows it will only benefit her while holding him back, with a strong sense of sorrow. "Big mama" runs her family through what the late Kevin Samuels called "SIGN language."

Shame through a well-crafted story where she's the victim that overcame the oppressor.

Insults, whenever the black boy challenges her, that he is "just like the rest of them."

Guilt trips to get her way wrapped in claims that she only wants what is best for him.

Need to be right and inability to admit when she is wrong.

The alternative is that the young male overcomes the emotional manipulation at the risk or being neglected as punishment for not buying in.

What about black girls, though? What do scorned, man-hating "momsies" teach their daughters? To hate men, of course! Misery loves company. The young daughter doesn't know any better if there is no man in the house. If she has a brother suffering from their mother's hatred, she might learn to disrespect him just as her mother. If the brother does become his own man, a good man, he'll be considered the exception just like many others who are ignored when screaming that black males ain't whatever. It is at that point that the cycle of toxic, anti-male, feminist mindset is indoctrinated in the next generation.

How do we resolve this community dumpster fire? Stop overlooking good black men.

Good Black Men

Good men teach boys how to:

  • Handle emotions
  • Be a good man
  • Respect yourself as a man
  • Embrace masculine energy and alpha/sigma male concepts

More specifically, black men teach black boys how to navigate the world as a black man:

  • Realizing racism against blacks isn't the same as racism against other minority groups in the USA
  • Understanding sexism against men (misandry) versus sexism against women (misogyny)
  • Challenge stereotypes against black men related to communication, lifestyle, and hypersexuality
  • Balance everything I've said in this blog about women with the fact that they're not the enemy, but another pawn used against black men and the black community as a whole

Read that last bullet point again before you continue.

Dr. Tommy J. Curry explaining anti-Black misandry as a White supremacist tool to conquer Blacks and the importance of Black Male Studies:

Kevin Samuels on how Black men can become part of the solution:

All of this the black teen needs to learn sooner than later. Otherwise, prison or death eagerly awaits him. Why the pessimist perspective? Because it is easy to find examples of black men who have given in to the negative stereotypes:

  • Loitering in the streets
  • Neglecting his child (on his own accord)
  • Quick to fight or shoot someone over nonsense
  • Unemployed (and not actively working toward getting a job or starting a business)

Black men who have done the work to overcome the odds - teachers, black business owners, military veterans, etc. - are the best motivate and guide those who've given up to put in the work to become better.

Mainstream media, or MSM, works hard to keep images fresh in people's mind. Countless movies, TV shows, and carefully truncated news footage reinforce these negatives images across the world, oftentimes also identifying crime with products mainly used by blacks. Remember what said about company policies banning durags and white t-shirts?

This is worsened by black women who ignore the presence of black men making a good living, and doing great things for their community, to minimize opportunities to show that not all black men are the same. Such men are simply excluded as "different" or "not like the others." After all, white supremacists and black men-haters depend on that MSM propaganda to justify the mindset that there are no good black men.

That mindset makes it that much more difficult for those men to help black girls learn to be more feminine women, instead of trying to be the men. Yep, I'm going there soon.

Obviously, with all these issues in the black community, single mothers are not getting it done. We are not getting it done. This was highlighted in a an 1986 documentary on broken black families - "The Vanishing Black Family."

It is my belief and experience that a single parent cannot raise a child well on their own. It requires a community. That includes the neighborhood, school classmates, and friends. The environment picks up where the parent stops. And these days, a lot of parents are stopping too short while expecting school teachers to do their job for them, teaching only what they want the child to learn. Teachers don't get the pay and respect they deserve even without adding that to the plate.

If you're upset about everything you've been reading, ask yourself if you're guilty of any of it.

A quick break from what may seem like endless bashing of the black woman... to talk about myself.

The US Army taught me a lot about leadership, effective communication, and what it means to be a man.

The drill sergeants...

The AIT cadre staff...

The non-commissioned officers (NCOs) that took me under their wing...

Even my peers who were oftentimes more experienced in life...

They all taught me more about the world and myself through international travel and situations that forced me to grow as a man and leader. They taught me how to appreciate life during a tour of Afghanistan. The US military gave me opportunities to prove to myself that I am awesome. Then the Post 9/11 GI Bill funded my college education. That is just a quick summary about why I'm proud of my military service.

With all that said, I'm at a point where I think any woman that considers me a potential mate should listen to my brutally honest single - "Dance with My Heart" - before saying anything. Yes, that shameless plug.

Manosphere Highlights Daily might say some of this better.

Gay Versus Black

The LGBTQIA+, or simply "gay," community, has received a lot of attention and inclusion in the US throughout the last decade. Many gay musicians get a big push these days. Ads, movies, and sitcoms are including openly gay couples and addressing homophobia and transphobia. California almost passed a law against misgendering and "deadnaming" (referring to someone by their birth name rather than their chosen name, particularly embarrassing for trans people). Companies acknowledge that gayness exists with Gay Pride ads. Some of them actually have required anti-discrimination training and enforce it. Even the Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers has badges to help gay veterans recognize doctors and nurses that have taken steps to better understand the rainbow flag lifestyle. Also, some VA medical centers are gradually adopting the TelePRIDE Program which teaches military vets about resources within and connected to the VA system.

Obviously, these are great. They present opportunities to right many wrongs like:

  • Rise of gay and trans hate crimes and riots as overt racism toward Blacks become less popular
  • Stereotypes that gay people (particularly gay black men) are loud and obnoxious, are always looking to convert/turn out straight people, and have HIV/AIDS (and that its super contagious, something that was addressed in a "Girlfriends" TV show)
  • Gay youth suffering from cyber-bullying

So what's my problem with gays inclusion efforts? Remember when I made that gay joke about banging a trans chick so that you 100% know you won't wake up to an "I'm pregnant" text message one morning? If so, did you imagine her as being white or brown colored? While I might be wrong in guessing you thought of a brown-skin feminine figure, I'm comfortable saying that it is easier to find melanated gay representations than white.

Black males (including trans women and drag queens) seemingly get more respect for being feminine. In reality, they're just viewed as non-threatening because of their lack of masculinity. This is where the black male feminization agenda comes in. No, it's not a conspiracy. As explained above, black women are encouraged to displace black men in the home and society. Many young males are taught to be more lady-like to accommodate that. Add to that child molestation (accounting for unreported instances), and the possibility of homosexuality being a mental illness. The result: the effects of childhood and sexual trauma being branded as "pride" versus an indicator for needing therapy.

If you want to get really spicy, think about why many black trans women cross over to sex work because of discrimination against trans people in many workplaces, sometimes under the excuse of "unprofessional appearance."

Now, remember what I said about hard black people in general having to become "overqualified" in lieu of a solid social network to get a fair chance.

Prostitution (escorting) becomes another method to funnel black males into prison cells.

Here are some culturally relevant examples of famous gay black male public figures.

Musician Lil Nas X, drag performer RuPaul, and actress Laverne Cox get a lot of hype when they do something. Hell, Marvel's Eternals' Phastos character got a big buzz before that movie came out. Maybe this is subjectively based on my hypersensitivity to the matter. Maybe I'm dismissing how talented those people truly are. But I wonder how much push they'd have if they were white. Lil Nas X had to collab with Billy Ray Cyrus for "Old Town Road" to be "accepted" as a country track. In September 2021, RuPaul became the most Emmy-awarded Black artist. I only know of Laverne Cox because she was brought up during some conversations with trans actors and that video where she interviewed Will Smith.

Movies and TV shows are increasingly showing gay relationships as the norm. Some are based around homosexuality. I didn't expect to see Cardcaptor Sakura on this list. I remember that show. Anyway, there are always a few in the spotlight and on Netflix or cable at any given time. Always something pushing homosexuality as normal and educating our society on how to handle related situations like coming out and gender transition.

Where are the new films and sitcoms centered around blacks, racism against blacks, and blacks overcoming stereotypes in a non-cheesy way? What shows are teaching valuable life lessons about being black like Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, A Different World, and many more did during my childhood? What show goes in-depth on the culture of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)? What about black owned business owners?

Remember when Erykah Badu, Nas, Rakim, Common, and other conscious musicians had radio play? When's the last time you stumbled across something about building the black community on the radio or a Spotify playlist? I had to go out of my way to find many of my favorite conscious songs. A few examples: "I Used to Love H.E.R." and "Casualties of War."

I can't say much about what types of books or individual actors get pushed without research (that I'm not going to do). I have two major examples. Dr. Claud Anderson's PowerNomics series on rebuilding the black community gets no attention outside of word of mouth within the black community, excluding two interviews on The Breakfast Club Power (105.1 FM). Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage," a book about young females becoming trans boys, got a lot of attention when it was released in 2020. I didn't read it, but I did watch a breakdown series on the book from a cognitive psychologist. She didn't have much positive to say about the book.

So, what is my potential solution to follow up that written fart of thoughts? If you want your black children to learn from black characters and stories driven by black culture, the best answer right now is to subscribe to kweliTV, dubbed "the Black Netflix." Want better music? Share conscious music playlists with others and support local musicians. It doesn't hurt to retweet or "like" a social media post once in a while. And read PowerNomics.

In the video below a Christian podcast talks with a Black transwoman about Black transwomen versus Black men. I discussed this in a post about fixing the trans dating scene.

Whites and Racism

If you're white and you've attentively read everything down to this section, bravo to you. You obviously have to keep in mind that this is the perspective of one black man, but good on you for making an effort to better understand another perspective to "white privilege." I wrote this section to explain three things to the Caucasian nation.

One.

Everything I've said up to this point is the reason I dislike the new term "person of color" (PoC). Blacks' struggle is significantly unique from immigrants from any country. Arabs, Asians, Mexicans, etc. all have strong, healthy strip-malls and housing communities in various US cities. And our government green-lit them with no obstacle, to my knowledge. Black communities got highways built through them, liquor stores, and unmaintained housing.

"PoC" seems to be another way to say "non-white," but that further supports the KKK mentality of "if it ain't white, it ain't right." And that's not right. I'm as American as Bobby, Becky, and whatever other names are usually only chosen by white parents. I liken it to calling someone "a birthing person" instead of "female" in an attempt to push the "trans women are women" message too far and breach on females' rights. I think that statement identifies me as a "trans-exclusionary radical feminist" (TERF), but I won't go any deeper into the sex versus gender thing this time. I think I made my point.

Two.

Dear white people, stop looking for excuses to say you're as oppressed as black people. It is super cringe.

Being gay doesn't make you oppressed anywhere near the same as someone already dealing with the load of aforementioned obstacles.

The glass ceiling against women has been shown multiple times to be skewed because it doesn't account for the fact that most women opt for positions of lesser pay. I categorize them as the more "emotionally fulfilling" positions - nurse, social worker, teacher.

Going on a tear about how bad your parents were in response to someone discussing challenges within black culture, especially when you have both parents or other relatives, just sounds like "just work harder" - insensitive and ignorant.

Veterans' challenges with Veterans Affairs and negative stereotypes - particularly about PTSD - are an entirely different discussion.

You still white. When crap hits the fan, you'll be accepted as any other white person while your black gay bestie gets left out in the cold. A glance at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents' Memoriam page suggests that most trans hate crimes are against non-white trans / non-binary victims.

To clarify, I'm not saying you don't have problems because you can't tell when you're ashy. I'm saying that playing the comparison game of "who is most oppressed" looks like downplaying everything I've said here, especially when you're not asked in the first place.

Finally, the biggest action item of the three.

Stop trying to mitigate damage done by your white supremacist friends and co-workers. Call them out on it and hold them accountable. You know who they are. If you allow them to continue, you're enabling them. Therefore, you're part of the problem. There is no gray area there.

You may not fully understand a lot of what I've discussed here because it is a lot. Here's a good question:

Would you want to be treated the way a black citizen is treated in the US society?

Hope for Blacks

With all this doomsday talk, I try to remain hopeful of better days for black culture and its representation worldwide. That was the motivation behind me writing this huge opinion piece. I hope that more people consume content similar to what I've shared above and become motivated to take an active part in improving our American society.

The consistent hatred towards manosphere content and pro-black work - preaching togetherness and higher standards - all indicate a need for more discussions about these topics. That was more than evident after Kevin Samuels' passing. Since when do we rejoice someone's death, especially when they were successfully helping men and women reflect deeply to become greater versions of themselves?

The evil is always louder and more active than the good. The only way to combat the propaganda pulling black men and women behind the power curve, to strengthen social exclusion, is to take initiative.

We, blacks, can overcome media generalizations (intentional and subliminal) in mainstream music, film, and advertising. Proof: a German documentary on America's Black Upper Class.

You don't need to seek being rich to be motivated by this video. There are also some dope cameos from Black-owned businesses. Shout out to Champ Boxers for their appearance in the video. And I have to shout out African-inspired apparel shop D’IYANU. What do you know about the brands you support?

We can get better laws and reparations.

But we must become better as individuals and a community, all without sabotaging ourselves mentally with a victim mindset.

It is hard, but I'm trying to do my part.

This blog may be modified periodically without notice. I may try some type of version control such as the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

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Tags: black-community, lgbt, music, equality

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