(ThyBlackMan.com) How we treat each other is based on how we see each other. How we allow other races or ethnic groups to treat us is also based on how we see each other. But on an even more important note, our expectations of everyone else are based on how we see ourselves. If we say black lives matter but we show they don’t because we appear ambivalent, we show something different and actions speak louder than words. If we say black lives matter but fill our brains with weed, our hearts with coldness towards each other and our communities with black on black crime, we show the world that black lives do not really matter to us. If we avoid working together, refuse to build each other up and walk in denial instead of real solutions, we paint a picture that black lives do not really matter. If our young girls keep having children out of wedlock like rabbits, our young men fill up the prisons and abortion after abortion is a way of abdicating responsibility, we show the world that black lives mean nothing.
What if we are not black?
Rest assured I know my genealogy, my history and my heritage – and I am not ashamed of it. But my color is brown and yours is likely the same. I am aware the term “black” was used all over the world and before the slave trade in this country. But that has no bearing on why white racists applied the term to African American people. Our people simply adopted the terms, definitions and behaviors placed upon us by those who thought they were superior to us. Slavery was all over the world before the slave trade in this country too. But such slavery was based on subversion of conquered peoples and based on economic class – not based on the color “black” and a lie.
The African American community is not “black”.
Our shoes are black. Our car tires are black. But the color of our skin is brown, as matter of fact. When you were taught your colors, you were taught the color in the crayon box that most resembles your skin was brown – not black. But the slave trade reset and redefined us by a color we are not – and the expectation of acting as we had been redefined came right along with the color. Simply look at the first denotative definitions in the dictionary and you will find the truth. Sadly, our people have been so brainwashed that they have forgotten their color. Combine the color of dismal mischief with a lack of historical knowledge, a lack of identity, bombardment of negative black images in movies, TV and media, a lack of self respect and a lack of insight for the future and what do you have? You have the behavior that shows black lives do not matter. This is what the police, white supremacists, racists, conservatives and society is seeing. But instead of addressing the problem, most of our people deny it and blame everyone else.
LOOK AT THE DEFINITIONS OF “BLACK”:
The African American community is the only race or ethnic group on the planet that allows most or all of the following:
(a) ourselves to be defined by color,
(b) our people to be defined by what we are not,
(c) another group to define us,
(d) our people to fight to stay in dark denial by fighting to keep the lie in place
and
(e) behavior that matches the dictionary definition of “black”. Yes our people, as a whole, are fitting right into the mold provided by the dictionary: dismal, devoid of color, sad, gloomy, calamitous, grim, distorted, condemnation, thoroughly sinister, mourning, the end, evil, violence, force, mischief, the opposite of white. Thus they behave one way and we are expected to behave just as the color of black denotes. So apparently the phrase “acting black” has some validity. Now look up the definition of “white” and you will see a plan of shaping perceptions continue to unfold. Free from spot or blemish? Free from moral impurity? Not intended to cause harm? Are they kidding?
NOW LOOK AT THE DEFINITIONS OF “WHITE”:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white
Yes there are other definitions of “black” and “negroid”, but the meanings the slave masters, racists and white supremacists have equated with us are clear. And what do we do? We help them by defending our right to be called what they have labeled us. Then the expectation of “black” behavior comes right along with the worse definitions. And when we exhibit these behaviors, we show black lives do not matter. But what about African American lives? Did you know studies show that other ethnic groups perceive African Americans differently than they perceive “black people”? This has been proven sociologically and the different perception sets forth a different expectation.
I cannot change the facts, even if you don’t like them. I cannot change the research data, even if you do not agree with it. I cannot change brown to black, even if I wanted to. But I can call your attention to the truth, the lies, the reason they called us something we are not and the consequences of believing it. The Asian man does not allow himself to be called yellow man. The Hispanic man does not say “what’s up brown man”? The Indian man does not have red history month. The Haitian who is our color calls himself a Haitian, not black. The African identifies with his tribe and geographic location. And our people need to wake up. We will never have a true identity if we allow other groups to give us one, an inaccurate identity full of negative denotations.
Dispute the definitions, if you like, Dispute the research, if you want. Even dispute the colors in the crayon box, if you dare. But whatever you do, discuss this article with others and wake up! The mirror does not lie.
Staff Writer; Marque-Anthony
Are you a Democrat? Republican? I write on behalf of the Black Community. Feel free to contact me at; Marque@ThyBlackMan.com.