Acting Black

I hear people complain, not my personal circle of friends but others on the net, that they are looked down upon by their friends for speaking well, for “acting white”.  That’s not necessarily true either.  I’ve had friends make those sorts of comments and criticisms and then I remind them that their particular circle of friends are all educated and articulate.  They don't really get that comment directed at them, they only pretend that they do so they can be included in the number of outraged and offended who have nothing better to do on the internet but complain about "those Black people."   It seems true however, that a great many people in our community still feel that to be educated is to be a sellout, is to “act white”. 

I have had several personal experiences where when I contradict someone’s misguided and tragically flawed logic or opinion, they tell me that going to college and getting a higher education doesn’t make me smarter than them.  I understand that as a defense mechanism, an attempt to make themselves feel validated and to lesson my arguments by believing that years of study, research, and reading have no impact on one’s body of knowledge.  It is, however, nothing more than a defense mechanism with not one iota of validity. Yes, going to college, studying, makes me more informed.  You might have common sense and you might be street smart but thinking you know about subjects that you haven't studied, getting your "knowledge" about subjects from listening to Michael Baisden, no, that does not mean you are more informed than I am. 

I’m also the beneficiary of numerous notes, emails and communiqués from individuals in the “conscious community”, individuals who are extremely informed and well read, that are phonetically misspelled, grammatically incorrect, and incoherent.  On the rare occasion that I respond to those sorts of messages, informing the sender that I’m discouraged by their lack of basic English skills, I’m usually assaulted with the concept that achieving the white man’s education, knowing how to articulate oneself well in standard English, is to be unable to grasp my true African heritage.  It always seems that the party line is that TRUE Africans can only communicate in ebonics or some variation thereof.   I shouldn’t need a key and a translation guide have to decipher an email about the plight of my people. 

All three mindsets are dumb. 

To me, acting like you are white would be to be ignorant of other people’s history and culture.  Acting white would be diminishing other people’s pain, using your skin color for unearned privileges, trying to oppress people in order to make yourself feel superior.  Being barely literate and uneducated doesn’t make you more Black, it doesn’t make your Black experience more authentic.  The more we as a people ascribe to the notion that acting white is to be informed, intelligent, and articulate, the more we assert that being “real” or being Black is to shun education, the more we are playing into the hands of EXACTLY what white people expect us and want us to be . . . dumb niggers.  Educating oneself in an institution of higher learning does in fact make you smarter than stopping your education at the 12^th grade.  How much smarter is up to the individual but to assert anything different is absurd.  Mastering the English language doesn’t mean you can’t fight for the revolution, it simply means you can address multitudes of people in a way that everyone can understand. 

To act Black is to behave in a manner where we excel despite the circumstances.  Acting Black is to make a way out of no way.  White people can excel in life because they have inheritances, nepotism, institutionalized racism that allows them to get a foot in the door for no other reason, with no qualification other than their skin color.  Acting Black is excelling despite the fact that we have to work twice as hard to get half as far.  Acting Black is carrying yourself with dignity and grace when white people try to belittle or demean your by making racist comments and then excusing it by saying, “I’m just joking.”  Our Blackness is our strength, our ability to survive, adapt, and shine.  Shine on Black man and Black woman, shine on.