Those of you who know me well or hear me speak in class know that I LOVE me some Black people and Black culture. I am enticed by the mystical allure, revolutionary thought, conscious expression, educated ignorance, perpetuated miseducation, and cyclical slave mentality. I marvel in the glory and resiliency of such a beautifully unique group of people and recognize the privilege, power and pain associated with membership in this group.
As much as I LOVE me some Black people, lord knows they drive me crazy, disappointment me, and break my heart far too often. Our nationally allotted time for cultural expression recently passed last month. A whole 28 days is supposedly devoted to celebrating the accomplishments of Black people and the beauty of blackness. (Now please understand that my blackness in celebrated 365 days and in 2016 I will celebrate it for 366 days!) During this time some of America’s most profitable companies (due to the contributions of the black dollar) like to run their culturally sensitive commercials and I can guarantee you that at least 86.14% of Black people are fooled into believing these companies and organization truly give a sh%t about them. Now you may be wondering how I came up with this figure of 86.14%. This figure represents the guesstimated amount of my Black friends on various social media website that posted, shared, or laughed at this nonsense throughout our supposed “Black History Month”.
Now let us take a moment of silence to marvel at the ingenuity of this high tech social media coonery….
I’m assuming that someone made these at an attempt to be funny and I am almost certain that that someone skins looks like mines, however I would not be surprised if it did not. These caricatures are the representation of the metaphorical chains on the minds of Black people (young and old) whose imaginations are confined to ideological and psychological prisons that continuously perpetuate and reproduce negative Black stereotypes. It is apparent that Black culture has been accepted, commodified and exploited however Black people have not. But why would we when we don’t appear to love ourselves and each other enough to realize that people are not laughing with us, they are laughing at us…(insert shoulder shrug emoji with a confused face)
I promise to talk about MH is Ghana next time; I just had to get this one of my mind do it could rest.
One Love,
Kim
Kim, I am not black and cannot possibly fully relate to what you have transcribed above, but I empathize with what you have poured into your words. I agree that Black History Month was offered as a substitute for incorporating everything Blacks have done in this country into our textbooks. The pictures you have attached above are an abomination to Black culture and the oppression that Black folks have suffered for far too long. Please do not take offense to this, as I am what society has deemed me as “White”, but my awareness of the discrimination, oppression, and continued separation of Blacks in our society has been apparent to me for a long, long time. As a social worker, it is your and my job to bring continued awareness to this pervasive issue. Thank you for being off topic this week! I respect your post and your motivations behind it!
This is a great post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about this. Wow, just wow. Those memes are disturbing and not remotely funny. I know that humor can be a protective factor and coping mechanism, but laughter should never sacrifice anyone else’s humanity. So we have The Onion referring to Quvenzhane Wallis as the C-word on Twitter at a twisted attempt at humor.