I really have no other way to say this, than to just say it. I mean nothing racist or evil by it at all. Please keep that in mind as you read.
How can we ever get rid of the black/white divide when it is forever being brought up in rap music, Black History month, the Miss Black America pageant, the fact that a kid steals, is aggressive to a cop, gets shot and it becomes a 'because he was black' issue, etc. Forever holding yourself apart is not the way to let us all become the human race, instead being black or white.
White History month would be considered racist. Black History month is about pride. How long would a Miss White America pageant last? It would be shut down before the first woman sauntered out on the runway. There is nothing wrong with celebrating your ancestry, but not everyone is allowed to. It needs to be across the board.
Not long after the Michael Brown shooting, there was a white boy in very similar circumstances, and very little was said about it. He was considered a naughty kid who paid the consequences for his actions.
Regardless of what neighborhood you come from, what your financial situation, it is up to each individual person to be responsible for his or her actions. My heart goes out to each and every person caught up in this mess. Whatever thought process, moment or whatever it was that led each one to try to fight perceived hatred with violence, it breaks my heart.
In this supposed age of enlightenment, all of this should be far behind us. Slavery was a horrible, horrible part of human history. But it can't be used as crutch when things go wrong. I have heard people say that bad things happen to them because their ancestors were slaves. We are all responsible for our actions. Don't rob a store and find ways to play the 'poor me' role because of what happened hundreds of years ago. Stand proud and make something of yourself. The best way to overcome the past is to make a better future. The same can be said for white people. If you come from generations of poverty, strive for more.
As I said above, I don't mean anything racist or black/white by any of this. I am simply saying I feel it is time to stop holding ourselves in the black/white categories the world can't seem to get past, and move forward.
You may not mean to be racist, but what you said is racist, and ignorant. Black people, and I say this as a black person, are not using slavery as a crutch. The US, through many different systems and institutions, has systemically put black people at a disadvantage well beyond slavery's end. The issue is that people think that the abolition of slavery put black and white people on equal ground. But it didn't. Integration didn't even happen in the South until my mother was almost a teenager. To put that in context, I am 30 years old and my mother is a baby boomer. We weren't considered full citizens until the 60s. Indigenous people didn't become citizens until the 70s! Racist housing policies, white flight, redlining, voter disenfranchisement and the destruction of wealthy black neighbourhoods (google Rosewood and Black Wall Street) were institutionalised racist policies that happened throughout the 20th century and continue to this day. So yes, black people and minorities in general have every reason to be angry at the continual discrimination that we face every day.
Black History/Latino History/Indigenous History/Women's History Month all exist because for the rest of the year all we learn about is factually inaccurate histories of the victors, also known as wealthy white men. Black shows and magazines and the rest exist because without it, people like me, with dark skin and kinky hair, would hardly be represented in the media. I knew so many black girls growing up who absolutely hated themselves and wanted to be white because everyone is told that whiteness is the default for beautiful. I'm not sure why you have such an issue with black media but haven't commented on the disproportionate whiteness of media. And hip-hop will always speak out on social inequalities because it arose in areas that were created in order to disenfranchise black/brown bodies, so of course it is a genre of protest and anger. And in all honesty, I'm not sure how we are meant to move forward when white women clutch their purses when I walk by (I'm a 5'3 woman), when white girls call me ghetto and laugh as I walk by (grew up in the suburbs, but even if I hadn't they were still being super racist), when as a student I was told constantly that I was only allowed in university due to affirmative action (I was 3rd in my high school class). How can black people move forward when society criminalises, sexualises and dehumanises black bodies, even those of black children?
And more to the point, why should minorities assimilate our cultures into the dominant hierarchy of white American values in order to be considered forward-thinking? To be considered better citizens? Can you honestly not see how privileged and, indeed, racist it is to demand that marginalised people be more like you (with the inherent assumption that your way is best and normal)? How can anyone see the murder of so many black children, murders upheld by the legal system, and think that the problem lies with black people and not with the country built on black bodies and by black bodies?
