(ThyBlackMan.com) American racism is brutal but subtle, demanding that those of African ancestry conform to Eurocentric tenets of society for acceptance. One of the criteria for conformity is an unprecedented disdain for one’s African heritage and natural features. Women are expected to process their hair to reflect the European standard of beauty. Men must perfect the King’s English while wearing the latest European fashions. African Americans who have managed to receive collegiate indoctrination and gainful employment are severed souls torn between two worlds of the oppressed and the oppressor.
Those with the economic means flee neighborhoods with a high population of people who look like them, prideful in their illusion of financial progression. The salary that separates them from their peers also separates them from themselves. The suburbs where they reside are not as friendly as the suburbs on television. White Americans are not too fond of their dark-skinned neighbors residing in their neighborhoods and interacting with their children. America has mastered the art of segregation, no longer needing ‘COLORED’ signs or threats from members of the Ku Klux Klan. Segregation in America is accomplished through economics.
Certification of college indoctrination is needed for the average person to receive a ‘livable wage.’ However, the price of a collegiate education is not attainable to most Americans, especially African Americans. Those who do receive it graduate with a debt rivaling a mortgage payment. Neighborhoods that are ‘WHITE ONLY’ have high rents and high mortgages. One may argue that, “I live in an affluent area, and have ‘NIGGAS’ for neighbors.” Please remember during slavery there were African American slave masters and also wealthy African American entrepreneurs whose wealth trumped the supposed inadequacies of their race. This is another tactic of America, categorizing the exception as the standard.
Lebron James, Denzel Washington, and Barack Obama are used as examples for the progression of African Americans in America. Exceptions. What about the 46 million other African Americans, the majority of whom receive an insufficient education, live in sub-human conditions without gainful employment, and are bombarded by media that constantly tells them they are inadequate with a history of subservience, paganism, and backwardness.
These mental games, coupled with disenfranchisement and subtle, brutal racism, have been devastating to African Americans, resulting in a crippling inferiority complex that affects multiple generations. Too many African Americans have a negative view of themselves, a void of confidence that has been disastrous to numerous generations of African Americans. The system of racism creates a psychology of inferiority in which brutal oppression is no longer needed for the matriculation of detrimental actions.
“I CANT’ DEAL WITH NIGGAS”
You have heard or may be guilty of saying it yourself. I know during my time of mental enslavement I made that comment of disgust towards my brother and sister. Why do we say such a thing? I have never heard a Japanese person say, “I do not deal with Japanese people.” I have never heard an Italian person say, “I do not deal with Italians.” So why do we as Africans Americans say such things? Self-hate.
We have been groomed to identify anything equated with our race as disgusting, lacking quality, backwards, or wrong. This is the main reason people avoid supporting African American businesses. People endure numerous mistreatments from white-owned establishments, but once there is any discrepancy with an African-American-owned establishment we criticize and no longer support their business. We have assisted in our current position in America by demonstrating the self-hate we have of ourselves against each other. The crime and violence plaguing inner cities is caused by socioeconomic conditions, but self-hate plays a vital role in the destruction.
Is there really any hope for the collective progress of African Americans in America? Is it realistic to profess that one day we will be able to overcome the brutality of systematic racism that leaves us uneducated, unemployed, unhealthy, and un-loving of ourselves and our peers? Only time will tell…..
Staff Writer; Linton Hinds Jr.
