I find it fascinating when looking at blacks conservatives really like - Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Allen West, etc. - their popularity is in direct correlation to their public rejection of what most blacks find important. That idea's been the basis of this entire rant I'm on - that I was told I can't think, for instance, that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense but still like the Hip-Hop culture Trayvon Martin was immersed in. For me personally - facing the ferociousness of the anti-Trayvon attack - that was a step too far, kids.
Don't get me wrong - I love you and black conservatives. Everybody has made me think, long and hard, about the issues facing blacks and the country. But here's the ugly truth:
You don't listen to me (We had to have Romney, right? Savior of the Party?) so I no longer expect you to grasp why that handful of conservative black outliers don't define or represent blacks to me, not even a little bit.
This Trayvon experience - which I was completely unprepared for - has made it clear we are "black" Americans, with Africa as our mother and slavery as our father, trying to make a home for ourselves:
The problem with integrating into the mainstream is that it’s not very embracing of ethnicity. Cultural food, clothing, language, hair styles, and other elements that make a people unique, don’t always have a place in what many consider the ‘American standard’.And let’s be real, by mainstream I’m talking about an idea of White America. The reason I say ‘idea’ of White America is because many families that now consider themselves white shed their French, Italian, German, Scandinavian, Polish, British, Irish, Scottish, Portuguese and Spaniard ethnicities in order to embrace that ‘idea’. And not to generalize, some still celebrate their ancestry, but many treat ethnicity as something foreign or ‘old world’.Not quite the case with African-Americans. Though we’ve been in America for centuries, our ethnicity is as much a part of us as the heavy dose of melanin in our skin (everybody has it, we have a lot). Part of it is by choice, but most of it is probably because ‘Our Skin don’t fit In’. Don’t get me wrong, we have made our way into the mainstream, but we as a people love our food, dress, linguistic flavors, hair styles and other aspects that make us unique. So African-Americans aren’t going to shed their ethnicity anytime soon like other groups have in this country.
Here it is, plain:
When denied the ability to even stay in a house, you'd better be comfortable in your skin.
You know, like once a year, when I'm supposed to run around screaming, "Kiss Me - I'm Irish!"
