#black shaming

[twobillionaires]

Post it on tumblr since Facebook never cared about what I speak about. Black won’t listen, white opinionated, but tumblr will always be tumblr.

[thecombatbender]

NO ONE SHOULD EVER. EVER APOLOGIZE FOR BEING BLACK, WHITE OR CISGENDER

I hate to play the ‘Not All People’- card, BUT SERIOUSLY THO, NOT ALL PEOPLE ARE ASSHOLES SO DON’T ACT LIKE IT. 

[auralightman]

PLEASE DONT TAKE THIS AS RACIST

I'm seeing a lot of white characters being turned into different races with the defense that "there isn't a defensible reason they aren't black". Listen, they are white. I love black, white, tan skins but shaming white skin is just as bad. We should be happy with the characters, and not try and change them from white to black, OR black to white. please don't take this as racist. This is merely an observational opinion I have

[whatwhitesdontknow]

Stop any black person over 40 and ask them about the eighties and early to mid nineties. They're probably going to tell you about Michael Jackson and Madonna and all the other wonderful music. They're going to tell you about The Cosby Show and A different World and all the other great shows. They're going to tell you about how black people stuck together and self hate wasnt even a concept they had ever thought possible. Then ask them what happened in less than just 25 years? People want to bitch at young kids under 25 about the condition of the black community, but to be honest its nobody’s fault, but they hold the information to help. Black shaming, divisive movements and white romance worship are all things that has never existed but has sprung up in that time frame. I see young black adults looking for answers that people were around to see began. I dont know why people aren’t more verbal. Maybe they’re still living in the past were arguably black culture peaked. But these aren’t very hard questions. What happened and when, and do they have insight on any solutions. They should have a fucking clue.

[strugglinghijabi]

Three Cheers for Black Shaming? Moving Beyond the Trend of Self-Hate

I hear a lot of criticism that black people don't adopt as much as white people. Adoptions is a wonderful thing, so I think it's always a good idea to do it more, but I think black people should get more credit for all the informal adoption we do. Everyone has an aunt/cousin/sister/friend who took in "Man Man an'em" while the parents got themselves together. Tons of black people open their doors to their nieces and nephews because the parents either weren't able or just weren't willing to care for them. Tons of black folks invite neighborhood kids over after school because they know the parents work late. Tons of black folks send a meal a few houses down because they're not sure if the kids will get to eat. Tons of grandparents step up and become parents--sometimes in the middle of the night with few financial resources and hardly any clothes for the kids.

But I digress. This post isn't about black adoption. It's about our rush to put ourselves down. Sometimes I wonder if people of other racial/ethnic backgrounds enjoy putting themselves down as much as we do. We've gotten so used to being beaten down and hated that it has become easy and comfortable for us to follow suit. We harp on our faults and rush to share videos and articles that highlight us at our worst. None of that will help us rise. None of that makes us better.

We have to acknowledge (even if no one else does--especially if no one else does) that greatness never left us. Even as scarred-backed slaves and reluctant mistresses, we were great. It was the scars that showed resistance and the reluctance that showed loyalty, living proof  that we were never meant for this: this darkness, this lowly existence, this fractioned humanity, this minstrel show of embarrassment and pain.

Source: blackpast.org. Gordon, runaway slave, 1863.

We were never meant for black codes, vagrancy laws, pig laws, Jim Crow, back entrances, police dogs, lynchings, unlawful imprisonment, and pitiful educations. We weren't meant for self-hatred and white idolization.

Source: pbs.org. White actor in black face as Jim Crow, a dancing, singing slave, c. 1828 Some people wonder, "Why are blacks still doing so poorly? Slavery was over a long time ago."  Hell, I've wondered that myself, but information without perspective can be misleading. If we count 1865 as the ending date, it hasn't even been 150 years yet. And given that Jim Crow kicked in immediately after the war and held out until 1965, we're really looking at a little less than 50 years...

Add to that the psychological damage that has eaten away at our self-image.

Add to that racism that still exists to this day.

Add to that toxic media messages about black male aggression and impotence. (Hmm, odd combo.) 

Add to that toxic media messages about black female sexuality and antagonism. 

Add to that the effects of strategically placed drugs and below-standard education.

Add to that a learned focus on materialism and consumerism. 

Add to that a decreased focus on marriage and maintaining families.

It's a lot. But through it all, we are here! We have persevered and we have produced:

Abolitionist: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner, Truth, Maria Stewart, Mary Ann Shadd, J.W.C. Pennington, James Mars, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Harriet Jacobs, etc.

Writers: Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, Zora Neale Hurston, Jame Baldwin,  Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Richard Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Ralph Ellison, Countee Cullen, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, etc.

Activists/leaders: Malcolm X, Stokley Carmichael, Marcus Garvey, Phillip Randolph, Mary McLeod Bethune, Medgar Evers, Homer Plessy, Thurgood Marshall, Ella Baker, Assata Shakur, Elijah Muhammad, Warith Deen Mohammed, Clara Muhammed, etc. 

Doctors/Scientists: Daniel Hale Williams, Vivian Thomas, Ben Carson, Rosalyn Scott, Neil deGrasse Tyson, George Washington Carver, Mae Jemison, Emmett Chappelle, etc.

Inventors: Garret Morgan, Lewis Latimer, Benjamin Banneker, Madame CJ Walker, Otis Boykin, Patricia Bath, Lonnie Johnson, etc. 

Entertainers: Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Alvin Ailey, Cab Calloway, Gregory Hines, Josephine Baker, Judith Jamison, Debbie Allen, Savion Glover, Sammy Davis Jr., Michael Jackson, Misty Copland, Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk; Earth, Wind & Fire, etc.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and many of the people could be listed multiple times in other categories. It is only to give a small example of the excellence that has grown from our stock. We don't have to fit the mold that's been created for us. It's okay in your best interest to be better than expected. 

The depths of blackness

It isn't necessarily the responsibility of others to believe in the resilience and strength of blackness, but I have trouble accepting that we don't even believe in it. Did you not come from people who literally fought for freedom, outran dogs for freedom, created railroads to freedom? Are you not the progeny of those who risked life and limb for what should be simple, human rights? Are you not the descendants of people who built their own houses, businesses, hospitals, stores, and schools during a time when it was criminalized?

We come from a people who could be beaten down and still come up singing, not in joy but in strength and defiance. The message: my spirit is something you can't touch. The vibrations of those songs are in you. They're in all of us. How can you not rise?

Source: unc.edu. Plaque honoring Black Wall Street, North Carolina

Even in the midst of racism, I see black beauty. And I didn't see it, I'd silently believe in it until we were reconnected again. It doesn't sit well with me to think of my sisters and brothers as deadbeats, losers, drug dealers, thugs, whores, and tyrants. Even if there are those that fit that description (and I concede that there are), I rest assured that there is always an explanation for abnormal behavior. For every black man that doesn't live up to his potential, it is only because he was taught not to. For every black woman that has become hardened and cold, it is only because she was taught to. There is no failure intrinsic to blackness. 

There is no failure intrinsic to blackness. 

There is no failure intrinsic to blackness.