Black Ink August 14,1991
10
Solid Transition
that he must truly believe in it, for
look at the variety of skin tones
among blacks in America today.
There have been statements issued
by many white slave owners who
hoped to “better” the African
American people by raping our
black women, often in the
presence of black men, fwcing
his white sperm into Mother
Africa. And yethisutterhypocrisy
led to thousands of lynching of
black men over the real or
fantasized rape of while women.
It would appear, then, that
whites would like to reap the
benefits of black people and
culture, but would like you to
keep your haixis out of their cookie
jar. This, inevitably, led many of
us U) think the white America is
better. Put more loosely, some
confused brothers and sisters
believed “while is right.”
Thus we have those among us
whose goal is to be accepted by
whites, and that usually means
giving up all that is Afrocentric
and embracing all that is
Eurocentric. This initiates the
demise of the proud sons and
daughters of Africa and the birth
of the shuffling, doddering Uncle
Toms and Aunt Tomasina’s.
But history has proven that the
white man’s Protestant Work
Ethic does not apply to the African
American. Blacks have worked
hard, from slavery to
sharecropping to this very day.
Yet the promise of the fulfillment
of the American Dream are
discovered to be empty, devoid of
content, as the cold hand of
American reality slaps the black
man’s face.
Yes, blacks do work hard!
Come home with me and I’ll show
you a place where twenty to thirty
black men, young and old, stand
huddled in the cold, small hours
of the morjiing next to a dirty
wooden sign which reads,
“Laborer’s Wanted.” Stand with
me and watch the white
construction foreman drive up in
his truck, get out, examining the
potential workers. Watch the black
men stand erect, chest pushed out,
trying to look as strong and sturdy
as physically possible. Watch the
white man pick his men and load
them into the back of the truck.
BL^ac itiK ^
like animals. Watch the other
black men as the tnick rolls away,
heads hung low in disappointment,
but waving, knowing that
tomorrow they will be up again
arul ready work.
Stereotypes are so hard to
break because their is a grain of
truth in them all. You can always
point to one example and say,
“See! I told you they were like
this.” And sometimes, it is easier
to live under the guise of a
stereotype than to reach out for
freedom and self-determination.
But we must be strong enough to
be who we are and proud enough
to show it without insecurity.
Eldridge Cleaver wrote about this
in his work. Soul on Ice. One can
hear the humanity within him cry
out when he writes “We shall have
our manhood. We shall have it or
well shall level this world in an
attempt to gain it.”
How does this apply to you,
college freshman? Well, at a
liberal white institution such as
Carolina, it is so easy to get caught
up in the atmosphere, so easy to
get drawn in, so easy to forget
who you are. Because success
seems to fall unto your white
schoolmate, it may be tempting to
adopt his Eurocentric world view.
For some, this sort of self-delusion
seems to work for them. They are
called “oreo’ s”, “grey”, and many
other things, but clearly their
success is at the expense of other
blacks. They are the ones who are
embraced because they are not
threatening, because they are
“different” w“not like the othCTS.”
However, the costs of self delusion
is the heavy burden which weighs
on the conscious, a burden which
each of these individuals must
bear. For some, the burden
becomes crushing and castrating,
and to heavy to carry.
Please! E)o not feel as though
you must assimilate into the White
Cultural Center called UNC-
Chapel Hill. Feel free to be what
you want to be, to do what you
want to do. Embrace self-
determination, for without it, you
will wander aimlessly, a stranger
to yourself. Let us view the melting
pot theory in an Afnxentric light
like the Rev. Jesse Jackson. We,
along with the other nationalities,
mix like a stew in America. But
the ingredients, although blending
together, still retain some of their
distinct, original flavors and
characteristics. The cubes of meat,
still brown, retain the flavor of
%
o
o
meat. The carrots, still orange,
retain their Vitamin A. The pieces
of tomato, albeit a little bit softer,
still retain their redness and acidic
bite. The potatoes, not so firm
anymore, still are starchy as ever.
We, the ingredients, blend and
come up with a wonderfully
exciting cultural mix, yet we can
still recognize the source of each
cultural tidbit. Again, I turn to
Baldwin, for said it best when he
wrote: ‘The black and the white
deeply need each other here if we
are to become a nation— if we are
really, that is, to achieve our
identity, our maturity, as men and
women.” Let them not carve
Europe upon your African Masks.
For the Young Ladies
I could not fmish this article
without saying a few words to the
females. Ladies, we all know how
few young, upwardly mobile black
men there are out there. More
importantly, I would think, is that
you ladies outnumber us men at
Carolina many times over.
Therefore, you may feel a little bit
lonely because there simply are
not enough good men to go
around. You may see certain
brothers dating light-skinned or
white women exclusively, and that
may get you down (or it may not
depending on your complexion!).
But do not allow these confused
brothers to dictate your emotions.
Do not let these confused brothers
to force you to adopt Eurocentric
beliefs, styles and gestures. Be
yourself and the rest will follow.
An excerpt from Virginia
Williams speaks directly to this
issue and I would like to share it
with you: "Black woman in a
blonde wig. ‘So tired. Been trying
for over 400 years to meet white
standards of beauty, to match
black with blonde, black with
white. Prisoned in by too tight
girdles, too tight bras, too tight
shoes. So tired!...So tiredof trying
to press my fleshy lips into thin
lines, to change the color of my
skin from dark to light, to capture
the Atlantic Ocean coolness in my
smile. So tired!’ So tired...until
one day, in feminine fury— and
black rebellion—she snatched the
wig from her wooly head,
screaming 'damnit!' and hurled
it into the greedy flames. And
furtherfed them with her bleaches
and creams, false eyelashes, too
tight lipsticks, too tight shoes, bras
and girdles. Alas, passion spent,
she stood unclad in ebony
splendor, soft full lips, natural
hair, the sun of Africa in her smile.
And she was tired no more." Get
the picture?
Final Words
My fingCTS now ache from
typing so much, but I feel as though
I have given you all a little bit
more than what you came in with.
I have so much mwe I want to say,
but I think I’ll save it for another
article on another day. By the
way, did you notice that I never
mentioned anything about school
and adjusting to the rigors of
college coursework? I did not want
to take on too much this time. But
just rwnembCT why you are here
at Carolina. And if you do not
know why, let me give you a little
hint TO GET AN EDUCATION!
Thanks forbearing with me on
this long meditation. Good luck
and again, welcome to Carolina!