Will the circle be broken?
While on my sabbatical from writing on this site, I had some opportunity to read other blogs out there (something I rarely get a chance to do during the week). While it was great to see the further expansion of Blacks in the blogosphere, to me it seemed as though the core of most postings I read dealt with some of the same issues we have been talking about for years. Here is a general list of core topics that I am talking about:
- Racism and all of its variations
- Politicians/movie stars that have “sold out” or are too uppity.
- The endless tagging of Blacks who live in the suburbs as those who have”left” less fortunate Blacks behind in the inner-cities.
- Folks (mostly women) who hate on Black men that date lighter shaded black women while ignoring Black women who prefer lighter shaded Black men with green eyes (AS IF ANY OF THIS REALLY MATTERS).
- The continual accusations that suggest that Black folks who in any way are critical of their own race are being “too hard” or “beating up” on the Black race.
- The usage of the N-word.
- The endless competition over who can best articulate “the Black struggle” by using language that looses most readers.
- Angry Black women who slam Black men for dating outside of their race while complaining that there is not enough “eligible” black men to marry.
- “White cop shoots black kid” stories.
- Kwanzaa vs. Christmas
- ANYTHING about Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton
- Endless ranting over Black “leaders”
- The constant redefinition of what is a “Black conservative” while most Black liberals prefer to be called “moderates”, “progressives” or any other label that they believe separates them from the rest.
- The endless debates over statistics that compare Blacks to Whites.
- Fiery rage over dumb comments from folks that are insignificant to Black progress.
Again, for those who tend to read too fast I said these are some of the core issues that tend to hover over much of the debate and discussion that takes place in the Black blogosphere. I am in no way suggesting that this is representative of all Black folks (for those who would typically jump to those conclusions).
Back in the early 90’s when I moved from a mainframe environment to a UNIX-based system, I was introduced to a little known technology called the Internet. Back in those days the web was still in its infancy stage, but newsgroups had quickly established itself as the first online discussion venue for the growing Internet crowd. The one forum that I was particularly fond of was soc.culture.african-american (or SCAA). While I rarely contributed to any of the discussions in that group, I read it daily. For me, hearing Black folks from around the country sound off on issues from OUR perspective was just awesome. Many of the discussions were very lively and always kept me coming back to read more. Over time I lost touch with newsgroups in general as I moved on with life. Fast forward to the creation of the blogosphere and I am finding that many Black-oriented blogs still hover around some of the same topics that were beaten to death 12-15 years ago in the newsgroup (and chain e-mail) world. In many ways, it feels like I am watching perpetual reruns of School Daze just with different cast members.
The Black blogosphere is filled with very successful and talented Black folks who, despite the rhetoric have managed to navigate through challenges of all types to reach some level of success. Yet when you look at the many of the core discussions that take place in our virtual world, much of it does not reflect the NEW issues many of us are currently facing. For example, the biggest “injustice” that I have faced in 2006 had nothing to do with racism, but taxes. No I am not in any tax trouble as I pay them like most honest Americans. As my wife and I are slowly moving up the economic scale, so is our tax rate. There is nothing more frustrating than to pick up the paper and read that the state is dumping THOUSANDS of my tax dollars into a school system that consistently scores close to last place nationally. Let me give you a 20 second condensed version of my family’s bio:
A little over 3 years ago, my wife and I hit rock bottom financially and had no choice but to go on welfare for a season. During that time we were cleaning office buildings at night to make ends meet. In fact, much of this website was written while I was working as a night security guard. We’ve been through disconnections, very bad credit, calls from collectors, payday loans to pay for payday loans, inability to pay for car repairs, etc. Today, we wear those memories as a badge of honor as we have met much success from very hard and smart work in relatively short amount a time.
Keeping the above paragraph in mind, tell me how our hard-earned money is making a difference when a significant portion of it goes to programs that aid illegals or school systems that have been failing for years due to a proven lack of fiscal responsibility. Do I tow the line and just settle with saying that the government needs to do more, or do I stop to realize that “the government” actually means “my money“?
Racism is no longer a problem for me and my family. I am finding that there are more pressing issues for me to worry or talk about than a couple of handpicked incidents of racism out of millions of examples where Black folks like me have tasted the true American dream. For some of us, we graduated on the top of our class, others of us were able to buy a house without the race-based roadblocks. Some of us have even raised kids who are doing well in school and have stayed out of trouble. If a Black woman wants to wear a platinum weave, then that is her business. The same goes for the brothas that like certain types of women. I could care less. Just tell me HOW you made it. This is what I care about, not about some idiot who called someone the “N-word” 40 years ago from a moving car in Alabama. I also don’t have the time to enter into a nap count debate over how many naps Sen. Obama has on the back of his head and if that number qualifies him as a “real” Black man. Just discuss the issues that he stands for and let me make up my own mind. Never mind the shade of his completion or that of his wife.
I will be the first to admit to you that as a writer who spends a great deal of time writing about Black issues, it is very easy to get into a rut. While this rut can be a bit entertaining at times, I can honestly say that I learn NOTHING from it. As I mentioned earlier, the issues tend to stay the same with only the variable of place and people to keep us interested enough to post a well thought out comment that will be forgotten by the end of the week.
Here at Blackinformant.com, I try my best to go a little bit further beyond the some of the headlines out there that touch on issues that affect the Black community. I also try to highlight Black-authored blogs that go outside the box of talking points I mentioned earlier. For 2007, I hope to delve even further on some of this issues and how that can affect you.
Please do not get me wrong with this post. There are a number of Black-authored blogs out there that do try to go beyond the norm. My hope is that we would continue in this direction and not allow ourselves to get caught in the usual rut.
While some of these issues are very worthy of our continual attention, others need to die off with the Triple-Fat goose jacket and the fake leather Africa medallion. There are more important issues to talk about this year.
Like I keep saying…
Awww skip it.
Comment by DarkStar | January 3, 2007
Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people. The blogosphere is no exception.
Comment by MIB | January 4, 2007
Great comment, MIB!!
Comment by Duane | January 4, 2007
Why is the “American Dream” (primarily centered around the accumulation of individual wealth, status, and “stuff”
viewed as Mecca? How about raising the Dream-Bar up a notches–a few feet, actually–and elevating black america and all of humanity to their next levels?
[For some of us, we graduated on the top of our class, others of us were able to buy a house without the race-based roadblocks. Some of us have even raised kids who are doing well in school and have stayed out of trouble.]
“Some of us” are the key words there.
Not everyone’s reached the top of the ladder. Not everyone’s reached the middle rung. The reasons are varied and many and as complex as they are simple. Instead of dismissing long-standing social issues because, on your current rung, they appear to be “no longer a problem” and, instead of losing patience with those whose thinking or life circumstances didn’t/don’t/won’t allow them to blossom to the extent that you’ve blossomed, I think it’s important to remember that, in some way, shape, or form, we each have a responsibility to reach down a rung or two and pull up someone else before we take our own next step.
Whether we’re at the top of the ladder, the middle, or the bottom, we’re each holding valuable pieces of someone else’s puzzle. And, up, down, and sideways, we each have a responsibility to, not hoard those pieces, but to pass them on. Eventually, they’ll land in the right hands.
To move the black agenda forward, individual and collecting thinking needs to radically advance beyond “The American Dream.” Our ancestors didn’t suffer and die so that we could sit back and rip into each other on the net (because there’s no standard agreement on what’s or who’s “authentically black”)—and MLK wasn’t talking about iPod and BMW ownership when he spoke of “The Mountaintop.”
Dismissing past history and past wounds that still linger while elbowing each other out of the way (”Gotta make sure I get mine before you get yours.”
is not the way to open the dialogue. No, we can’t/shouldn’t be perpetual victims. But, on the other hand, we shouldn’t be forced amnesia victims either (”Oh, just forget about all that. Shove it in the closet or under the rug and “go along to get along.”).
I’m not liberal. I’m not conservative. I’m human. Personally, I don’t subscribe to the “American Dream” (I’ve got dreams of my own and my definition of success doesn’t include owning the biggest house on the hill) and I’m not a believer in the automatic, and often erroneous, assumption that class and status are the best indicators of character/integrity. Whether the individual pursuing them is black, white, purple, or green, I see the whole structure as divisive and irrelevant (not just to the black race, but the human race as a whole) in the long run. But, sadly, that’s the mindset [me, mine, and more] that’s espoused in this country and it’s the mindset that we attempt to “democratize” the world with.
When we stop running from the past, confront it, learn from it, and find strength in it…when we can see into and understand the hearts and minds of the platinum-weave wearers (growing up, were they these children, perhaps?)…when we can see into and understand the hearts and minds of those who choose to opt out (in the worst sort of ways…headline making ways) of a system that, for generations, has remained opposite their own cultural/spiritual/emotional defaults…and when we can finally step out from behind the man-made filters and masks of race, religion, money, status, and politics and talk to each other heart-to-heart, human-to-human, that’ll be the day when real change occurs. That’ll be the day when the circle is broken.
[Racism is no longer a problem for me and my family. I am finding that there are more pressing issues for me to worry or talk about...]
Imagine Harriet Tubman adopting that same mindset: “Got myself free. Slavery’s no longer a problem for me. The rest of you negroes have to fend for yourselves. I’ve got more pressing issues…”
…
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. this is to have succeeded.” –R. W. Emerson
“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” –Albert Einstein
Comment by Mary | January 5, 2007
Why is the “American Dream†(primarily centered around the accumulation of individual wealth, status, and “stuffâ€Â) viewed as Mecca? How about raising the Dream-Bar up a notches–a few feet, actually–and elevating black america and all of humanity to their next levels?
>Mary, please don’t go here. Slavery is dead and so is Jim Crow. Does racism exist? Yes, but so is passing gas. Just like I have options to move out of the way when someone “cracks one”, in many ways Black folks have more options today than we ever had in history to pull ourselves out of poverty.
[For some of us, we graduated on the top of our class, others of us were able to buy a house without the race-based roadblocks. Some of us have even raised kids who are doing well in school and have stayed out of trouble.]
“Some of us†are the key words there.
Not everyone’s reached the top of the ladder. Not everyone’s reached the middle rung.
>And not everyone will. To believe that would be an admission on your part that socialism is a solution (which it is not). In fact, show me a country in which everyone is on the same economic level and I will show you widespread poverty.
The reasons are varied and many and as complex as they are simple. Instead of dismissing long-standing social issues because, on your current rung, they appear to be “no longer a problem†and, instead of losing patience with those whose thinking or life circumstances didn’t/don’t/won’t allow them to blossom to the extent that you’ve blossomed, I think it’s important to remember that, in some way, shape, or form, we each have a responsibility to reach down a rung or two and pull up someone else before we take our own next step.
I think that it is best for you to be more specific here (as I was). Because if you are suggesting that issues like interracial dating or if a person has “sold out” his/her race are topics worthy of Black intellectual investment, with all do respect I would have to say that this suggestion is NUTS!!!
Dismissing past history and past wounds that still linger while elbowing each other out of the way (â€ÂGotta make sure I get mine before you get yours.â€Â) is not the way to open the dialogue. No, we can’t/shouldn’t be perpetual victims. But, on the other hand, we shouldn’t be forced amnesia victims either (â€ÂOh, just forget about all that. Shove it in the closet or under the rug and “go along to get along.â€Â).
Show me where I am dismissing past wounds that YOU (Mary) suffered.
I’m not liberal. I’m not conservative. I’m human.
You may not consider yourself neither, but you do stand for something, otherwise you would not have taken the time to write this long comment. If you were to list all of your convictions and compare it to these two ideologies you will find that like every other human being, you do have your leanings. For me, while I do not agree with all the tenets of Conservatism (something that I discuss here from time to time on this site), my leanings tend to go that way. In the current world of politics, Conservatism and Liberalism are the two major ideologies that hold any significant weight. Don’t believe me? Look at all the failed attempts to establish a 3rd party. While I may disagree with Liberals most of the time, the one thing I can appreciate about someone who does not have the problem of acknowledging their leanings is that at least they stand for something that does not change with the next debate or news headline. We all have core beliefs. If you don’t, then I would suggest getting some.
Personally, I don’t subscribe to the “American Dream†(I’ve got dreams of my own and my definition of success doesn’t include owning the biggest house on the hill) and I’m not a believer in the automatic, and often erroneous, assumption that class and status are the best indicators of character/integrity. Whether the individual pursuing them is black, white, purple, or green, I see the whole structure as divisive and irrelevant (not just to the black race, but the human race as a whole) in the long run. But, sadly, that’s the mindset [me, mine, and more] that’s espoused in this country and it’s the mindset that we attempt to “democratize†the world with.
Then I would suggest that you sell all of your belongings and move to a country where you can further wallow in self-humiliation that you were born as an American. If you have ever spent any significant time with immigrants to this country who met some level of success, oftentimes you will here the phrase “Only in America”. They are simply acknowledging the fact that America is one of the only places in the world where a person, armed with persistence, determination, good work ethics, and a fixed goal has a greater chance of success than other country. While slavery and Jim Crow is a part of Black history here in America, this issue no longer hinder you or me from living a life where we can be the chief architect. Unlike our grandparents, you can shop anywhere you want, buy what you want, invest into what interests you, travel freely, vote, attend just about any school you wish, endless resources for those who wish to continue their education in college (grants, scholarships, etc.), or even start your own school. Not to mention the fact that Blacks have outpaced the national trend in starting new businesses. Or how about the fact that many of us are now making enough to move out of inner-cities where local governments have historically ignored our concerns. For those that are still there , they are either there by choice, or they are in the process of getting out. All of this is the result of our Black forefathers who paid a very dear price for our freedom to do these things. So I am not going to honor them by being hesitant to celebrate what I/we CAN do. For most Americans, success does not mean getting the “biggest house on the hill” as you described. For most of us, it is about having the ability to A. pick the community we wish to raise our families and B. Getting a house that we can afford. Success does not mean excess.
[Racism is no longer a problem for me and my family. I am finding that there are more pressing issues for me to worry or talk about…]
Imagine Harriet Tubman adopting that same mindset: “Got myself free. Slavery’s no longer a problem for me. The rest of you negroes have to fend for yourselves. I’ve got more pressing issues…â€Â
The big problem with your statement here is that you are comparing me to someone who lived IN SLAVERY.
The main purpose of this site is to equip people like yourself with KNOWLEDGE on how you can move ahead. Wasting time talking about the things I listed early gets us nowhere. I believe that you are a very smart person and can admit that your success in life is not predicated on a few racist white folks that isolate themselves from mainstream America. I challenge you to list at least 1 incident last year where you were discriminated against BASED ON RACE and how that hindered you to move ahead in your life.
“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.†–Albert Einstein
That, I am. You should get to know me,
If you are a man of value, then you are living a successful life. - Duane
Comment by Duane | January 5, 2007