By now you've heard that the disorderly conduct charges against Dr Henry Gates have been dropped with a sorta-kinda apology from the prosecutor. I've spent much of the day reading and thinking about the various opinions put forth by my colleagues in the blogosphere, as well as those comments generated by the many posts that have been written in the wake of yet another racial collision in America.
I've been tired of having to deal with racism for a very long time, long before it hit this ODS level where we currently find ourselves. ODS stands for Obama Derangement Syndrome. I don't know who coined the phrase but it is very apropos for the times.
Throughout the day, I have been surprised at the reaction from Black people to this latest incident. On one hand, everyone says they are not surprised that it happened-only that it happened to probably the most distinguished of our scholars. Many even cite the quote made 40 years ago by Malcolm X....”what do you call a Black man with a PhD”
I don't have to finish it...you know the punchline.
All of us, who are close to my age have lived that joke our entire lives. So Skip Gates getting arrested in his own home should not have surprised any of us, of a certain age.
Yet, I think it did. And I think it startled us, because on some unconscious level, despite our gut feelings, we really and truly wanted to believe in this myth of a post racial American era heralded by the coming of Barack Obama.
From what I have discerned from the media reports, the only crime that Dr. Gates committed was that of raising his voice to a white man. It still gets us killed if we're not careful. Usually though, it leads to lots of discomfort for us, as Dr. Gates discovered.
Racism is one stresser that we can all do without. When you're stressed, you can't relax. You can't sleep. You get a stomach ache that never goes away. ...always looking over your shoulder to see if some pale and arrogant MF with an attitude...male or female doesn't matter...is coming up on you pissed off because you eye balled em the wrong way...
And if you're Bougie...and you've played the game the way they want you to play the game...grown up quiet..gone to school..stayed out of trouble...accomplished more then they ever dreamed....made more money then they ever imagined....
Watched as they daily co opt your culture...your music...your way of dancing...your way of talking...your way of dressing......the way you wear your hair....
Watched them as they resort to needles full of silicon to plump their lips like the ones God gave you... or drop mass amounts of money for butt implants to mimic the roundness of your ass.....spending all day in the sun to imitate the very color of your skin...some even spraying it on from a bottle...
They want to be us but only with their privilege intact.
It is truly a wonder why we as a people haven't gone postal...We continue to stifle our outrage, even now.
Because if we ever as a people acted toward them the way they continue to act toward us...There would be some seriously ugly stuff going down....
The comments from those who chose to identify themselves as white also show that they will never get it. They will never understand, and at this point in my life, I don't care whether they understand or not.
We just need to get over it. Put it past us like we've done so many times before.
The upside to all this....they are disappearing...period...
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