I'm Black Ya'll

Remember CB4 when the group split up and Dead Mike had his single? (I love youtube! I thought his name was "Black Mike," until I went back and added a hyperlink.)

I'm Black ya'll!
And I'm Black ya'll,
And I'm Blacker than Black and I'm Black Ya'll

And I'm Black Ya'll and I'm Black Ya'll, and I'm Blacker than Black and I'm Black Ya'll!
And I'm Black-bligity-Black-Black-Black-ta-Black-Black and I'm bligity Black-ta-Black Black Ya'll!

We'll I think the movie was making another point through satire, but it's what runs through my mind when I identify as Black, and other folks try to coercively correct me; urging me to change my cultural moniker to "African-American". I used to identify as an African-American, and took great pride in the identity. I loved the pan-African connection, and the recognition that I do not know where in Africa my ancestry runs so I claim the continent entire. I am of the soil and people of Africa; the descendant of enslaved people with a history that predates the trans-Atlantic trade of "rum and sugar," which built the fortunes that continue to flourish today. As an aside, I went to an institution whose endowment is traceable to the fortunes of slavery, and it looks very much like a plantation to this day.

So, I was an African-American, and people like me to use the term African-American, because "Black" has such pejorative connotation in their mind; particularly when I'm speaking to older folks who have some relationship to the 1960's Civil Rights struggle and the Black Power Movement. Some have gone on to proclaim their membership in revolutionary circles by declaring themselves "African". Yes? The progeny of Black Power revolutionaries, and their insightful critiques of "So-called Negroes." Africans!

And, the label for the masses, Afro-American? Based on Euro-Americans, as that was what we strove to emulate, right Mr. Booker T.? Well, since there is no Afroca, we became African-Americans, able to hold our heads high. Relaxed, Jheri Curled, Fried-dyed and laid to the side- heads high. African-Americans- a noble race of scholars, mathematicians (don't get me started on Imhotep), inventors, poets, artists of every stripe (I remember in a class I took, "The History of Lynching in the United States," near the end of the semester one of the white students in the class noted, "You know, it's as if Black people in America have been the despised purveyors of culture." DAMN! Couldn't have said it better myself!) singers, choreographers, soldiers, confederate soldiers!, kings, queens, and original homosapiens supported both by anthropological and genetic findings. African-Americans! We!

My mom is African-American. My father is Afro-Caribbean. And the same hierarchy of oppression that exists with respect to skin color outside of Blackness, exists within Blackness. I don't mean the brown-bag test of acceptable blackness, and fettishization of light-skinned brothers and sisters that was prominent until sometime around the end of Al B. Sure's career. I'm talking about the hierarchy of acceptable Blackness that exists within Black communities which posits African-Americans at the top of the hierarchy of oppression.

To be Black in America means to be African-American. But, what of the experience and needs of dark-skinned, Latino(a)s? Haitians? Jamaicans? Straight-up outta Africa Africans? In my community, it was very clear that to be Black is to be African-American, and "foreigners"were met with mockery and contempt. I understand the processes of internalized oppression, and the self-replicating nature of oppressive systems. Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch the children of black-skinned people assimilate into African-Americaness.

So, what does it mean to be African-American other than to have black-skin and to speak without the betrayal of a foreign accent? Well, if you and or your parents were foreign-born, or have other ancestry, it means that you must acquiesce your cultural distinctiveness in order to be grafted into a history that may not involve your family. Sound familiar?

Being African-American means being accepted as part of a broader community, which you may or may not relate to, but have been ascribed to. Being African-American means being part of a rich tapestry, which may negate the particularities of your cultural identity.

Dress like this.
Talk like this.
Laugh at this?
Learn to accept this.
This is your place.
Do not challenge it.
Many have before you,
I can show you their tombstones if you need.
Step into this role, because this is what society will allow you to become.

Do not threaten our community.
Do not jeopardize our safety.
Be black like this,
because this is what we have figured out to escape the ravages of racism.

Agonizing, and tortuous, the best we can figure out
is to appear safe and friendly or angry and unapproachable;
just to find some rest from the maddening process of being targeted and attacked only then to
be ignored.
Attacked, and then blamed for being angry.

We are hopeful that someday life will get better,
maybe in the sweet by and by.
Maybe our children won't notice that they have been broken by racism,
as long as we break their hopefulness young enough.
They can live in this toxic soup and be
just fine.

Be Black like this.
Do not terrorize or terrify us with foreign ideas. We are tired, and we are weary.
God Damn It! We are doing the best that we can!
Be Black like this, because this is what we know.