Birth of a Nation

Racism is like that crazy uncle who lives on the top floor of the house and his family brings him dinner on a tray and leaves it on the floor and then knocks and runs back downstairs. That uncle is up there doing what crazy uncles do, and the family pretends he doesn’t exist, and the family NEVER acknowledges “unc” in public cuz everybody knows crazy uncle is alive and well and crazy.

Remaining oblivious on purpose is awkward but it quickly becomes normal. Until one day someone IMPORTANT decides they “NEED TO LOOK INTO” the fact that someone is harboring a crazy uncle on their premises.

Yeah, sometimes racism is like that. Some folks try to pretend it doesn’t exist.

When the video of the University of Oklahoma frat KKK kids sang their little new millennia Birth Of a Nation team spirit song, America got outraged. A lot of Black people did the slow blink. The collective national white shock and anger about overt racist issues often over-shadows the voicing of  the everyday slights and injustices that people of color live with on a constant basis. When a black person complains, its “pulling the race card.”

It’s a good, and interesting thing to see the outrage of white America when racist events are publicized. I know they wonder why our reactions vary from wild fury to indifference. I bet they’re dying to ask their one black friend who they only see at work:

“Hey how come Black people aren’t more angry about this fraternity thing?!?!?”

“Well, white people, you gotta understand we’re STILL furious from two incidences ago and Ferguson still stings and Trayvon’s not yet a distant memory and there’s Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, he was only 12 you know. We’re trying to decide if it’s safer keep our children off the streets and lock our sons in the basement till they’re about 40. We’re processing ANOTHER teen just recently being gunned down by police and we’re trying not to do a weekly body count because that’s just too frightening.  We still think about how Marissa Alexander was jailed for three years for trying to stand her ground, which we heard was a law in Florida. What’s that you say? She was finally released? The ish shouldn’t have happened in the first place.  So forgive us if we’re not throwing furniture and as shocked as you are because some privileged fraternity children do what we know people do when they think no one’s going to find out. This is the racism WE know exists that YOU try to pretend is a thing of the past. WE ARE ANGRY, but not surprised.”

The Ferguson Report was finally released and national outrage erupted because someone decided to finally “LOOK INTO” the rampant racism that people of color knew was there all along. We shall see what steps are taken to rectify the situation there. It’s fascinating how often issues like these are not considered “valid” until the situation is “studied” and then recognized by non-blacks.

I’d really like an explanation about this so-called post racial color blind nation that idealists like to pretend exists?  What the hell does post racial mean anyway, and when was the birth date? Was it November 4th 2008 A.O. (after Obama)? How about November 6th, 2012 A.O.II (second election) cuz that REALLY upset a lot of folks who couldn’t believe a brother got voted in again.

This crap is exhausting.