Here’s a million-dollar question: why do we wanna be like white folks so bad? Like, why are they the standard by which we measure ourselves? Stop looking at the screen crazy; I’m serious. I mean I knew there were some folks who out here bleaching themselves to be whiter and folks who don’t claim blackness, but I never knew for so many people whiteness was the goal. And you know what’s even worse? It’s the most fucked up, problematic, trash whiteness that folks are aspiring to. It’s the whiteness that rapes, infects, and oppresses that folks want to be like. It's all the worst parts of white supremacy that ya'll want, and be so mad that you can't have it. Do ya'll wanna be white that bad that you will take the worst parts of it to make you feel better? Raise your standards and get your life.
For the past couple weeks I've been seeing Black people say stuff like, “Ya’ll mad at R. Kelly but what about Hugh Hefner?” or “Everybody going for Usher, but nobody said anything about Charlie Sheen?” or “Leave Daddy Bill alone! Ya’ll not talking about Woody Allen this way!”. Not only are all of those lies (a simple Google search would show you that people BEEN talking about Woody Allen and Charlie Sheen, and Hefner is getting blasted by Bunnies left and right AND lost the mansion a while back), but they expose a deeper issue. Why do you want to see Black folks get away with fucked up behavior instead of seeing EVERYONE get punished for it? Yall wanna be able to be just like the most trash of white folks and are appalled that Black people won’t let you. Do you hear yourselves? Why is Hugh Hefner someone folks are worried about being like in 2017? How deep did you have to go to find THAT name? Were yall paying attention in the early 2010s when Charlie Sheen lost EVERYTHING? And honestly, that’s an insult to Usher that you compare the two! In trying to defend these men and their antics, we end up lifting up the worst possible white men and say that they deserve to be treated like them. Why are they the goals? Why are we even checking for these less than mediocre white folks? Are we that pressed about keeping up with white folks that we want equal rights to their fuckery too? We gotta raise our standards, ya'll. I don't know about you, but I don't want white folks table scraps so bad that I am willing to be treated like the most scandalous of them.
Now I wanna make it clear that I’m not stupid. I know that the media treats Black people differently based on the crimes they commit, but that doesn’t mean that we have to accept all types of BS just because of that. Yes, the media is quick to paint a black man as a rapist (especially when white women are involved), but that doesn’t mean that Black men are incapable of being rapists. When we are so worried about what white people think that we can’t function in our day to day lives we are captured by what is called the white gaze, and when that white gaze keeps us from holding each other accountable we have issues. And I mean real accountability, not that fake “Oh we need to stop sagging our pants and stop saying ‘nigga’” accountability, because that’s still caught up in the white gaze. I’m talking about real accountability on how we harm the most vulnerable Black people: Black children, Black women, Black queer folx, Black trans folx, and any intersection(s) of the four.
We claim we wanna be free, but we constantly oppress other, innocent, Black folks to defend the people with issues. If we look deep enough, many of us will find family members who do have done some pretty bad stuff to people, many times others in the family, but we’ll defend them and blame the victim for “antagonizing them” (see: Woman Thou Art Loosed). We have homeboys and homegirls who say some of the most fucked up stuff imaginable, but we’ll be silent around them and be complicit in ideas that make life for marginalized people unlivable (see: everybody who advocates for or outright attacks trans people). In the name of trying to show that “Black people stick together” we are actually tearing Black people apart. Ya'll claim to want solidarity, but only when it makes Black people look good to everyone else. Black people can be wrong, and we have to be able to call them out on their wrongness without being worried about what white folks think. As I’ve said before we should not be killing ourselves to protect the image and livelihood of the same Black people who would turn around and kill us if they had the chance. That’s just stupid, but I guess it does what you want and makes you just like the white folks you love so much.
In addition, we have got to stop selling this line that white people stick together more than us. That’s a lie honey. White folks will kill each other for the stupidest reasons in the craziest ways and will put each other on blast for the pettiest reason. At least the people we wanna (should) put on blast actually do wrong (and in the case of Trump's people, do wrong that we are not a part of). We don't have to be like these crazy ass white folks destroying each other and the world, we can be better. And no, I don’t mean any of that “twice as good” stuff; I mean if we can turn inward and address the homophobia, transphobia, and misogynoir in our communities that we can be so much better than the white folks that create entire systems to oppress queer folks, women, trans folks, disabled people, etc. We don't have to measure greatness by these white ass standards, and we don't have to try to keep up with white folks in getting away with oppression. I mean think about it, white folks en masse steal, kill, and destroy; do you REALLY wanna keep up with them?
What other ways do you see people trying to "keep up with the whites"? Can you think of any other issues/people we try to sweep under the rug in the name of "solidarity"? Be sure to leave your questions, comments, and concerns below and don't forget to like, share, and subscribe!