Race Issues Part 2 Black on Black Crime: The bourgeois Edition

If you Google black on black crime you'll be bombarded by statistics detailing inner city violence, pictures of chalk outlines and countless stories about the lives that have been destroyed. What you won't find are many stories chronicling the way some inside the black bourgeois are attacking poorer and less educated blacks. This form of black on black crime is often overlooked by many, but exploited by those who seek to validate the criminalization of  blacks. The most tasteless form of these attacks are levelled by "elites" who seek to distance themselves from the negative imagery associated with black life. In Lacanian terms this is symbolic castration. They (the black bourgeois) seek to separate themselves from stereotypes associated with their black skin.   

Every ethnic group has distinctions that can be used to create artificial hierarchies. Historically, the black community has used skin pigmentation, hair texture, and even eye color as in-group out-group signifiers. In sociological terms this is called colorism. Many of these distinctions have roots in slavery where light skin and straight hair were favored. The wealth and status gains made by blacks in the last half of the 20th century have provided another layer of distinction for those looking to embrace a false sense of superiority. 

As a teenager Spike Lee's movie School Daze opened my eyes to the various rifts that exist in the black community. There were two dominant forms of black on black crime  in School Daze. The first type was class based between the locals (who were often depicted as envious and jealous) and the students (who were mostly depicted as entitled and pretentious). The second type was race based between the dark skinned Pan-African students (depicted as militant and angry) and the light skinned fraternity brothers (depicted as fake and sellouts). 

In the 25 plus years since School Daze was released the psychological warfare between segmented groups inside the black community has grown more vicious. Social media has given a larger platform to blacks willing to spread the seeds of fear, distrust and hatred. As evidence for this claim I offer the likes of Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, Tommy Sotomayor and Pastor James David Manning. These men are my trinity of black hatred. You can find clips of each of them making the most derogatory statements about black people. Their critiques (mostly inarticulate and overly simplistic) are disguised as tough love, yet they rarely offer any serious solutions to the systemic or cultural problems facing the black America. They share a common ideology that blames black victims of racial injustice as the culprits of their predicament. These men have in their own way justified slavery, Jim Crow, inadequate schools, stop-and-frisk, mass incarceration and police brutality.

The ironic and fatal flaw in their worldview is that no level of self aggrandizement can separate them from their black skin. These self righteous blacks are susceptible to the same racial profiling and discrimination they dismiss or outright deny. From a phenomenological standpoint all of us are powerless in mitigating the way others tattoo us with their perceptions of the world. There isn't enough black on black crime to insulate the black bourgeois from non blacks who hold similar views about black men and women. My goal isn't to deflect or silence their criticism, but to call into question those voices who have nothing but contempt for black people. 

   

Race Issues Part 3 Undervaluing Black Women

In part two I tried to focus on the psychological war being waged by some in the black community. I avoided discussing black women; the level of disrespect they deal with is of a different nature. I know black men who have never dated a black woman. They love their grandmothers, mothers and sisters, yet (some) show outward animosity if not downright contempt towards black women. If black men don't value black women why should anyone else? There's a small (and relatively voiceless) minority of men and women trying to refute the lies being told about black women, but their voices are muted by comparison.

Claire Huxtable was one of the most beloved characters on television. She was beautiful, professional and hard working. Although she wasn't your typical black mother she was more realistic than the women who dominate television screens today. Claire has been replaced by Real Housewives, Basketball Wives and a slew of lesser known "reality" show divas. Many of these woman have provided the worst images associated with black women in recent years. Blaming these women won't solve the problem. After their fifteen minutes are up a new starlet will fill the void. The entertainment industry (with help from the viewing public) has successfully commodified black female buffoonery.

Black women (like all women) are susceptible to the physical abuse that's prevalent in our patriarchal society, but they also fight negative labels associated exclusively with them: angry, hoochie, welfare queen and hoodrat. The most pervasive stereotypes associated with black femininity are negative. All of these stereotypes and images have worked to reclassify black women as being less desirable and substandard. Realistic images of black women on television have been drowned out by a fame and fortune chasing minority who have proven that fame and fortune are worth their souls.

We have a First Lady who is often described as unpatriotic, angry and a freeloader. The Ivy league graduate who routinely made a six figure salary in the years before she was the First Lady has been reduced to being an angry welfare queen. Black women have struggled to control their image in greater society. No matter how professional and competent they show themselves to be they still find themselves fighting for legitimacy. Every time a black woman does something outrageous in the public sphere countless other black women suffer. 

Many of the black men I know who exclusively date white women say they would date black women if there were more sisters "on their level"; the reality is: black women are more likely to be college educated than black men. Society has put such a premium on Eurocentric standards of beauty (blond hair and blue eyes) that for decades black women have used skin lightening creams and hair products designed to make them look less like themselves. Black men are partly responsible for this. We have believed the hype that we turned white women into a symbol of success akin to a Rolex or a Mercedes.  

If you go to any church in the black community you'll see black women doing much of the work to keep the doors open. Black women disproportionately fund the missionary and teach the bible school and Sunday school lessons. It's black women who raise the children when daddy decides he's had enough, yet with all they do for our community we (collectively) don't value them. There's a reason society won't respect our women and we've given it to them.