A government and society that is ever ready to restrict the freedoms of Black folks now offers “freedom” from Blackness. This census and social “opt-out” for the progeny of interracial couples allows them to hope to be considered “as something entirely separate, different and apart from” what Curtis Mayfield called the “dark deep well.” The Black “baggage” can be left behind.
The Multiracial Sheep is the White Supremacist Fox
by Jared A. Ball, Ph.D.
“More people born to interracial couples are happily accepting the racial placebo of ‘multiracial’ and multiple racial choices as official census categorization.”
Let’s be very clear from the outset. Multiracial categorization is an aggressive defense of white supremacy. Multiracial census categorization, particularly in the era of what some are calling the first Black and multiracial president, is, pun-intended, the bulked up steroid-induced version of the old sports aphorism that “the best defense is a good offense.” By aggressively encouraging younger generations to identify officially as multiracial the national desire to disappear worsening racial divides gets further juice by offering folks a chance to both adopt the illusion of the “post-racial” and to seemingly categorize themselves away from, if not out of, oppression. The beautiful dialectic traditionally developed in this country’s form of white supremacy was its built-in inability to be white and forced inclusion into Black which has made Black America, if even to a fault, among the most diverse, open and accepting communities in the world. It also increased the potential that that community would become more threatening to white domination which has led to the centuries-long development of neocolonial-styled light-skin privilege as a mechanism of siphoning off some of the more willing participants in an escape from blackness.
This continues and now in the form of official racial category. No longer, as a recent USA Today story suggests, will younger people be forced or even encouraged to see themselves as light-skinned extensions of Curtis Mayfield’s “dark deep well,” but as something entirely separate, different and apart from. Younger generations are being encouraged in far greater percentages to accept forms of, what some academics call, hyperdescent, or degrees of identity up the so-called racial caste scale.
“Black America is, if even to a fault, among the most diverse, open and accepting communities in the world.”
As we have previously described, there is a general delusion happening where the material conditions of Black people are worseningwhile assumptions of progress among Black people are increasing. Similarly, we have also recently discussed, that there is right now are-inscription of America’s racial slavery caste system forcibly locking Black Americans into permanent recessions and entombment at the bottom rungs of the nation’s social or colonial pyramid. So it seems equally alarming that more people born to interracial couples are happily accepting the racial placebo of “multiracial” and multiple racial choices as official census categorization.
As the 2010 census is disseminated nationally this month it brings with it all the old baggage of the enterprise, that is, it is used to mask gross inequality in distribution of national wealth, the locked-down gerrymandered political districts designed to assure that this fraudulent “two-party” system remains safely intact, and the sweeping under the rug of stolen prisoners who when caught up in an equally unjust system of mass incarceration are disappeared into distant regions and used to bolster the economic and electoral strength of their captors communities while not, of course, being able themselves to access any of the benefit they help to create by their incarceration.
National offerings of mobility in racial category, combined with a president whose multiracial background is used more to blunt discussions of racial inequality than to make them known and addressed, will further allow white supremacy to go unchecked and, therefore, to become more invisible and ultimately powerful. Self-identification is, of course, personal and ultimately up to the individual. But racial categorization is decidedly political and, therefore, means a responsibility that goes beyond any one person’s private choice. The history and current structure of race in this country and its impact materially on Black people who don’t have the immaterial option to be categorized out of their blackness nor the material option of avoiding that category’s real-life meaning in this society demands that we who are offered the devil’s hand up reject it and remain happily categorized with the those in our families whoare our family and who are not able to escape the ravages of being fixed to the racial floor.
When the Revolution Comes!!!
Professor Thompson played this song in class last week in class. Gil Scott Heron is the greatest along with the other Last Poets. Since then i filled my mp3 player with all my last poets songs. So when you see me walking around campus with earphones on you know what i'm listening to.
According to the Last Poets "When the revolution comes afros gone be trying to straighten their heads and straightened heads gone be tryin to wear afros," so we are in the midst of a revolution. Many may not believe this but shit is going down everywhere but we just don't see it on mainstream media.
What i'm going to try and do here is give yall readers real news that you aren't going to hear on CNN,FOX, etc.
Sankofa of a Failed White Man
By Justin Hubbell, Contributing Writer
"I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity."
-Lotus Weinstock
Aint that the truth? I'll be god damned if doing the right thing isn't the hardest game I've ever played. When I say "doing the right thing," I'm not talking about being kind to people, because there are plenty of people who believe they're doing their civic duty by being nice all the time. What a load of garbage.
Being nice. Not hurting anyone. No yelling. Politeness. Nice.
If you can't hold up to these standards, then smoke enough pot to make it happen.
At the end of the day, you get to hazily raise your fist and croon, "hey man I'm doing my part."
If this isn't enough, then try going to three or four events, or if you're really radical, then try joining a group on campus. Yeah.
If all else fails, find Jesus and save yourself.
Or if you're not into religion, find Obama and save yourself.
I digress. When I began college, I wanted "to do the right thing." I joined the NAACP. Like many people who want "to do the right thing," I was completely oblivious. My brow was in a perpetual state of corrugation. I couldn't comprehend why we never discussed any issue apart from the African American community.
Well. There's actually quite a difference between "colored people" and "people of color." Go figure. I jumped ship when the opportunity presented itself and joined The Fahari-Libertad.
This is where I waged war against Whitey. Slightly more educated, I went to work at drawing satirical attacks against the WASP society. Too dangerous, the comics were censored. The result was a monstrosity, a self-explaining, self-deprecating pile of badly rendered horse shit.
Am I not an artist? Am I not "to do the right thing"? How dare they castrate my work! I jumped ship again. In fact I got a chartered flight this time. I made my own group. I'll add that at this point, I was even more educated.
"Whites Against Racism." Hell yeah. Fucking radical, man. Eat that shit.
It was my idea. I was the president.
And in all seriousness, what a great name.
The beauty of "Whites Against Racism" was that you knew exactly who was supposed to join and why. But, of course, a group like that can't operate unless everyone is comfortable, so we became "Students Against Racism."
Woof.
That wasn't my decision. That was the collective decision. The majority. I'm going to go off on another tangent and say that if you decide to ever become a leader, then own the title and lead. Leaders are vital to communities, and groups. The power of a leader is that if the group catches hell, you can blame everything on one person. The leader is held accountable, and the people behind the group get off the hook. If you're not a good leader, however, then none of your efforts will matter.
I wasn't a good enough leader, so I allowed the group to become a democracy. Long story short, it wasn't even a democracy so much as a group therapy session. And to make a shorter story shorter, it wasn't group therapy so much as an exclusive soap box hand-out. When it was your time to speak in that group, you spoke. And if it wasn't, then fuck it. And some people didn't get time, and other people didn't want time, and everyone who wandered in the room promptly left.
The most we ever accomplished was a showing of a film. Unless of course you count the time we went to an anti-racism workshop to collect our official "I-went-to-the-anti-racism-workshop" certificate. This semester, I threw in my towel, and the group caved in on itself. I told you it was my idea, after all. Every time I see an ex-member, I tremble with my White Guilt™. How could I? I was "doing the right thing," and I quit.
Here's another quote for you:
"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
-Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight
The fact of the matter is that you can't "do the right thing" and live comfortably. The people I know who are actually doing the right thing are some of the most reckless, masochistic people I know. Not a single one of them goes to SUNY New Paltz by the way. If they accomplish something, then they wipe the sweat from their brows and get back to work. No certificates, no plaques, no "give yourself a hand." These people throw themselves at their work.
I can't do that. I don't have the energy. I'm definitely too horny. And when I'm dead, I better have gotten my rectangular piece of wood with brass accessory. I want that plaque. I know now what I have to do, in order to do the right thing. I can't do it yet, not in college.
I'm too comfortable in college. I'm going to need some money though. Fuck.
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