Apparently, my brain won't let me get a good night's rest unless I write something about this subject (no matter how much masturbation is involved). This subject is, as of late, one of the hottest and most controversial topics in the country and has spread to most parts of the civilized world.
I've spent my entire life listening to people tell me that I'm "not black" because I don't fit into stereotypes of what... I'm supposed to be? The weird thing about being told that, is that it's either meant as a compliment or an insult. The reasons often vary, from the fact that I pronunciate most of the words I say the way that I read them (so I don't have a "hood" accent most of the time) to the fact that I like books.... okay, comic books over sports. I don't know what the color of my skin has to do with enjoying the art of the printed word, but apparently it's a big factor.
Coming up, I noticed how white people looked at me with a verdict already in mind about me, and I longed for them to understand me. My friends in the hood saw the enemy because that's what we were taught. The white man was the cop, the white man was the judge, the white man was the boss who fired you, and more often than that, the boss who wouldn't hire you in the first place.
And as I got older, I came to grips with that, but knew that if I just brushed off all of the racist undertones and forced myself as an individual onto the people around me, they would have to see me as a PERSON and not "Just another". I dreaded that title.
JUST ANOTHER
Just another poor black kid, just another criminal, just another charity case, just another lost cause.
But beyond all of that, I had no idea how much was really working against me. I had sized up the poverty, and had a plan to beat it. I had sized up the peer pressure, and figured, no sweat. I had sized up the stereotyping I would endure and saw how to get around it. But I didn't factor in all of the reality of the "System" bearing down on every single person who wants something different for themselves.
Here's the truth about why black Americans still need help. Why black Americans are still targets, and still need protection.
Years ago, the ACTUAL government introduced a highly addictive, highly destructive drug into black neighborhoods. Crack cocaine. The first men to cry "conspiracy" were silenced, as they often are, and crack cocaine became, and maintained as an epidemic in black communities. in 1986, the Iran-Contra Affair came to light, showing
Even further back than that, plans were laid to ensure that plans to target black Americans would be made much easier by having them in close proximity to one another. So plans were made to ensure that blacks would have a hard time getting out of the neighborhoods they were in, with real estate agents EVEN TODAY still making it harder for black Americans to move into predominantly white neighborhoods. The neighborhood options that were available being poverty and crime stricken with poorly supported school systems, resulting in more poorly educated black American youth. This meant that even when presented with the opportunity to compete, black youths come up short, in the fact that their education just wasn't there.
After black Americans were concentrated and their neighborhoods ravaged by crack addiction, the penalty for possession of crack was raised exponentially, meaning more people in jail for less of an amount of the drug. This obviously means more black Americans in prisons. And the news covers it all.
Poorer neighborhoods naturally see more crime, and through decades of media white-washing and general "black people are lesser human beings than whites" air about things, that still has a strong influence in Hollywood and almost all forms of media.
I'm sure this obvious Egyptian man wouldn't know anything about that.
I'm not going to give you a 100% run down of how hard the government has fought to screw over so much of its own population, but I mean, should they care that much? According to the 2012 census, white people are still over 71% of the ENTIRE American population.
But coming up as a black kid who wanted to do nothing but be a hero, and seeing, everywhere I went, consciously or subconsciously, people were always going to see me as JUST ANOTHER wasn't exactly the greatest encouragement to do the right thing. Especially when everything I see on TV depicting a black person either has them as a side kick only around to help some white guy achieve his goal and get his girl, or waving guns around and pouring champagne down some girls' asses, you really start to wonder if going into Wendy's for that follow up appointment is even worth it...
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