I was reading a discussion thread on a sexually-oriented website the other day and there was a question posed by a white dominant asking why there weren’t more submissive black men. There are about a dozen responses – ALL from white men, waxing philosophically and trying to justify their racism and stereotypes with clichés. Not one black person, dominant or submissive, responded. I was dismayed by the situation, but upon reflection, I had to acknowledge that I probably would have been even more disgusted had a Black person responded because, overall, we as a people are ill–equipped to discuss race in any way that moves the discussion beyond, “Color doesn’t matter.”
Then I reflected on my now defunct website, my shut down yahoo group, and this very blog. For the most part, the comments added by my own folk sort of resonate around, “Yeah, I agree,” or, “That was nice.” With few exceptions (and there are some notable exceptions) Black people don’t respond to the topics and forums that confront white people and their racism. Let me write a piece about getting fucked in the ass, and Black people come out of the woodwork to comment. Let the topic be about dismantling white people of the fallacy of their unearned, inherited supremacy . . . and you will be deafened by the sound of virtual crickets.
Sadly, all too often, when Black people do get the gumption to add their feedback, the comments are, I’m sorry to say, barely literate and disjointed. More often than not, their comments reflect a brainwashed mentality that tries to appease the egos of white folk. White people, white men really, don’t have a problem espousing whatever contrived logic they’ve come up with to justify their perceptions and they will go on and on . . . and on to make sure they have the last word. White people control the conversations about race and black people stay mute.
I’m here to tell the world, as long as we keep letting white people dictate conversations about race, we will forever remained mentally enslaved. As long as we can’t communicate beyond that of a third grader, as long as we are ill-prepared to dismantle their bullshit, we might as well be back on the plantation picking cotton. I know I personally provide more than enough thought-provoking material that can be the foundation for lots of discussion. We need to be able to muster up more than a feeble, “I feel the same way,” in order to really do the work of deconstructing white people of their false sense of superiority.
