I do not believe any true form of social acceptance can be gained through assimilation. The assimilator loses a part of themselves and those they mimic are lose the benefit of learning to interact with those unlike themselves. They are being given a false view of what acceptance looks like.
When I was younger, in order to not be objectified by my male counterparts, I would act like a boy to avoid patriarchy. “Oh Amani’s cool. She’s bro,” was synonymous with “Amani’s not a regular girl, so we won’t treat her how we treat regular girls. She can have respect”.
However, this method led to me objectifying my woman comrades. If not directly contributing to the terrible comments, my silence reinforced these sentiments to women. The easiest way for me to not persecuted, was to act like my oppressors.
I find the same to be true of historical movements. The respectability politics Black people are entrenched in are counterintuitive to me. Due to ostracisation, African Americans have created a culture for ourselves that has been reduced to crime and bad hip hop in the media.
Black people have been trying to prove that they are ‘just as good as’ for hundreds of years now, which I feel is counterproductive. Black people and any other minorities deserve respect because they breathe— some of us cannot even do that; we are being systematically murdered in the streets, in schools, in our neighborhoods, and prisons.
Shuffling and working twice as hard to get half as far in a system that was built on our labor is not worth it. In a system built on Our oppression, how do we expect it to have room for us? By ‘acting white’ — which is a term in itself that is deplorable, excellence is not white— and mimicking white supremacy’s ideals of decorum, diction, and values, we dig ourselves into a bigger hole.
Black lives matter, but which ones?As a community, we celebrate our Talented Tenth, college grads, and when something unjust happens to them, there is an outrage. However, what about the injustice that riddles the lower-income areas that are an overwhelming proportion homes to people of color on a daily basis? The systematic under-serving of impoverished communities made of black and brown people and our disproportionate incarceration rates are existential injustices that keep us second-class citizens.
Any call to prove that “not all black people” are ghetto, ratchet, dumb, or ugly is taking away the humanness and the right to respect those that are should have. Assimilation to show humanity instead of demanding our white counterparts to recognize that because we are alive, we are as human and deserving of respect as anyone else, perpetuates the racial issues we have at hand.
However, this method led to me objectifying my woman comrades. If not directly contributing to the terrible comments, my silence reinforced these sentiments to women. The easiest way for me to not persecuted, was to act like my oppressors.
I find the same to be true of historical movements. The respectability politics Black people are entrenched in are counterintuitive to me. Due to ostracisation, African Americans have created a culture for ourselves that has been reduced to crime and bad hip hop in the media.
Black people have been trying to prove that they are ‘just as good as’ for hundreds of years now, which I feel is counterproductive. Black people and any other minorities deserve respect because they breathe— some of us cannot even do that; we are being systematically murdered in the streets, in schools, in our neighborhoods, and prisons.
Shuffling and working twice as hard to get half as far in a system that was built on our labor is not worth it. In a system built on Our oppression, how do we expect it to have room for us? By ‘acting white’ — which is a term in itself that is deplorable, excellence is not white— and mimicking white supremacy’s ideals of decorum, diction, and values, we dig ourselves into a bigger hole.
Black lives matter, but which ones?As a community, we celebrate our Talented Tenth, college grads, and when something unjust happens to them, there is an outrage. However, what about the injustice that riddles the lower-income areas that are an overwhelming proportion homes to people of color on a daily basis? The systematic under-serving of impoverished communities made of black and brown people and our disproportionate incarceration rates are existential injustices that keep us second-class citizens.
Any call to prove that “not all black people” are ghetto, ratchet, dumb, or ugly is taking away the humanness and the right to respect those that are should have. Assimilation to show humanity instead of demanding our white counterparts to recognize that because we are alive, we are as human and deserving of respect as anyone else, perpetuates the racial issues we have at hand.
White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way . . . they were right. . . . But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place. . . . It was the jungle white folks planted in them. And it grew. It spread . . . until it invaded the whites who had made it. . . . Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.
----Toni Morrison, Beloved
Black people, like all humans, are multi-faceted, complex beings, and should not be simplified into caricatures, harmful or helpful. Like all people we are, and we do ourselves and the liberals who long so badly to be our allies a great disservice when we package ourselves into nice doses of white culture in brown wrapping for people to take in and pride themselves on being tolerant*.
Dear white supremacy, take all of us, especially the parts that do not resemble you.
***Tolerance is a word I hate when speaking of giving people respect. Who the hell is anyone to tolerate another human being? The word has a generous connotation. I’m tolerant of _______ people to my ears is the same as hearing They leave a bad taste in my mouth, but I’ll let them stay. We all have the same amount of rights to be on this planet and fair treatment, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, sex, class, race, ability, ethnicity, or belief.