"We did not land on Plymoth Rock, Plymoth Rock landed on us!" - Malcolm X
I had a conversation yesterday night with some people very close to me who stated that while Malcolm X was a good person because he made great strides for the Civil Rights movement and for the progression of equality in this nation, that he was simultaneously a racist himself. I, personally, disagree with that point because I feel like he wasn't in the position - as a black man - to be the perpetrator of any substancial prejudice after he and his people were the victims of over five hundred years of unimaginable abuse from the white instigators and dominators in America such as J. Edgar Hoover and the Ku Klux Klan.
The thing that kills me about white Americans - this time, both liberal and conservative - is the hypocrisy of which they mostly hold themselves and their own historical figures, who fought for their causes, to a completely different standard than what they do for any other race's champions and historical figures. The same people who condemn Malcolm X, Paul Mooney, and Minister Farrakhan for taking up arms - both literally and figuratively - against their oppressors in this country are the same people who praise the likes of King Leonidas, John Brown, and George Washington for doing the very same things for their own people. The only difference for the latter three being their white skin.
It took me years to understand the issues that my family - and my black brethren abroad - have with the mainstream white society of this world, but like every other black person in this nation, I eventually got my "Nigger Wake-Up Call" (as Paul Mooney would describe it) in my teens. And, truth be told, the more I live this life of mine and fight this up-hill battle of an average young black man living in modern American society, the more I understand the extreme views that many blacks hold towards whites in the twenty-first century.
The unimaginable white hatred of Barack Obama simply for the color of his skin is the most recent example that I could give. Yet, when you call that issue out as a black man in the minority, the particularly racist whites in this country like Bill O'Reilly try to mislead the argument by saying that their problems don't rest with his skin color, but rather with his "politics". That's complete and utter bullshit and only the most naive of naive would believe it or even give a second thought to believing it.
These same whites who claim not to be racists are the very ones, in my experience, who will bluntly tell you to your face that they would never date a black person or therefore allow their children to date or love a black person. The echoes of stigma, disgust, and hatred in their voices when they make those claims are unadulterated too. And even further, whites don't understand that their very own mentality have made blacks just as unfavorable in the eyes of many (if not all other) racial minorities in both this country and the world at large; That fact has been proven to me many times over by Hispanic and Indian friends alike on numerous occasions, and that's because they've been taught by their parents - who, in turn, were taught by whites - that any and everything associated with black people was negative and to be avoided at all cost.
Whites just don't see things the way that blacks see them: A way in which we don't have the luxury of seeing the world, in which we're forced to play the role of the underdog, in a "peaceful" or "rose-colored" way. The reason behind that fact is because they've had it so good for generation after generation that they don't even realize it; their skin protects them. It protects them from police brutality, racial profiling, job descrimination, and the mere way that they're treated on the regular basis by every other ethnic group in this nation as the dominant majority.
That is the exact same reason why so many contemporary whites love and favor Dr. King over Malcolm X: Because King didn't upset their comfort zone with his ways of peace and kindness and messages of tolerance towards those who were - by overwhelming majority - the complete opposite towards himself, his family, and his own people as a whole.
King's ways of kind resistance may have appeased whites because they weren't held responsible for their own aggression towards blacks with retribution, but for blacks: Those very ways of "peace" and "patience" were an unrealistic option if there were to be any real or effective level of equality to be achieved in this nation. Things of that nature must be fought for, no one will hand them to you - especially when it's not in their best interest to do so. That's what whites don't seem to understand about the beloved Dr. King: His teachings (which were based off of Ghandi's who, by the way, believed in fierce retribution towards his oppressors given the ultra-violent ways in which he effectively drove the British out of India) did blacks no favors because a small and quiet voice cannot be heard amongst a larger and louder one.
Whites have the upper-hand economically, socially, and educationally in this country - yet, they're the first ones to throw around the oxymoronic phrase of "Reverse Racism" whenever they don't get their way in a world where they've been granted so much since birth by default.
Paul Mooney, one of my few heroes, once wrote that you could explain racism to white people in America and they'll simply not be able to grasp the topic. That example, especially, goes for whites who particularly make the claim that "blacks are their own worst enemies" in all of their arrogantly superior glory. The thing that those whites in question fail to understand is the fact that blacks did not create black problems, whites created them for us and now they don't want to take the moral responsibility for the extreme transgressions of which they plagued our people with.
But, as with everything else in life, people in power only choose to see themselves as the virginal, pure, innocent heroes that they'd like to be. When all is said and done, though, that doesn't absolve them of the fact that they're just plainly wrong about their innocence. White people don't seem to realize that just by being white, they've already got potential doors and opportunities open to them that people of color simply don't have because of the racial ignorance that their ancestors have passed down from one dominant generation to the very next, time after time.... they're just hopelessly blind to it. Blind to the true ways of the world and to their historically antagonistic role in it.
I had a conversation yesterday night with some people very close to me who stated that while Malcolm X was a good person because he made great strides for the Civil Rights movement and for the progression of equality in this nation, that he was simultaneously a racist himself. I, personally, disagree with that point because I feel like he wasn't in the position - as a black man - to be the perpetrator of any substancial prejudice after he and his people were the victims of over five hundred years of unimaginable abuse from the white instigators and dominators in America such as J. Edgar Hoover and the Ku Klux Klan.
The thing that kills me about white Americans - this time, both liberal and conservative - is the hypocrisy of which they mostly hold themselves and their own historical figures, who fought for their causes, to a completely different standard than what they do for any other race's champions and historical figures. The same people who condemn Malcolm X, Paul Mooney, and Minister Farrakhan for taking up arms - both literally and figuratively - against their oppressors in this country are the same people who praise the likes of King Leonidas, John Brown, and George Washington for doing the very same things for their own people. The only difference for the latter three being their white skin.
It took me years to understand the issues that my family - and my black brethren abroad - have with the mainstream white society of this world, but like every other black person in this nation, I eventually got my "Nigger Wake-Up Call" (as Paul Mooney would describe it) in my teens. And, truth be told, the more I live this life of mine and fight this up-hill battle of an average young black man living in modern American society, the more I understand the extreme views that many blacks hold towards whites in the twenty-first century.
The unimaginable white hatred of Barack Obama simply for the color of his skin is the most recent example that I could give. Yet, when you call that issue out as a black man in the minority, the particularly racist whites in this country like Bill O'Reilly try to mislead the argument by saying that their problems don't rest with his skin color, but rather with his "politics". That's complete and utter bullshit and only the most naive of naive would believe it or even give a second thought to believing it.
These same whites who claim not to be racists are the very ones, in my experience, who will bluntly tell you to your face that they would never date a black person or therefore allow their children to date or love a black person. The echoes of stigma, disgust, and hatred in their voices when they make those claims are unadulterated too. And even further, whites don't understand that their very own mentality have made blacks just as unfavorable in the eyes of many (if not all other) racial minorities in both this country and the world at large; That fact has been proven to me many times over by Hispanic and Indian friends alike on numerous occasions, and that's because they've been taught by their parents - who, in turn, were taught by whites - that any and everything associated with black people was negative and to be avoided at all cost.
Whites just don't see things the way that blacks see them: A way in which we don't have the luxury of seeing the world, in which we're forced to play the role of the underdog, in a "peaceful" or "rose-colored" way. The reason behind that fact is because they've had it so good for generation after generation that they don't even realize it; their skin protects them. It protects them from police brutality, racial profiling, job descrimination, and the mere way that they're treated on the regular basis by every other ethnic group in this nation as the dominant majority.
That is the exact same reason why so many contemporary whites love and favor Dr. King over Malcolm X: Because King didn't upset their comfort zone with his ways of peace and kindness and messages of tolerance towards those who were - by overwhelming majority - the complete opposite towards himself, his family, and his own people as a whole.
King's ways of kind resistance may have appeased whites because they weren't held responsible for their own aggression towards blacks with retribution, but for blacks: Those very ways of "peace" and "patience" were an unrealistic option if there were to be any real or effective level of equality to be achieved in this nation. Things of that nature must be fought for, no one will hand them to you - especially when it's not in their best interest to do so. That's what whites don't seem to understand about the beloved Dr. King: His teachings (which were based off of Ghandi's who, by the way, believed in fierce retribution towards his oppressors given the ultra-violent ways in which he effectively drove the British out of India) did blacks no favors because a small and quiet voice cannot be heard amongst a larger and louder one.
Whites have the upper-hand economically, socially, and educationally in this country - yet, they're the first ones to throw around the oxymoronic phrase of "Reverse Racism" whenever they don't get their way in a world where they've been granted so much since birth by default.
Paul Mooney, one of my few heroes, once wrote that you could explain racism to white people in America and they'll simply not be able to grasp the topic. That example, especially, goes for whites who particularly make the claim that "blacks are their own worst enemies" in all of their arrogantly superior glory. The thing that those whites in question fail to understand is the fact that blacks did not create black problems, whites created them for us and now they don't want to take the moral responsibility for the extreme transgressions of which they plagued our people with.
But, as with everything else in life, people in power only choose to see themselves as the virginal, pure, innocent heroes that they'd like to be. When all is said and done, though, that doesn't absolve them of the fact that they're just plainly wrong about their innocence. White people don't seem to realize that just by being white, they've already got potential doors and opportunities open to them that people of color simply don't have because of the racial ignorance that their ancestors have passed down from one dominant generation to the very next, time after time.... they're just hopelessly blind to it. Blind to the true ways of the world and to their historically antagonistic role in it.
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