This sounds like a bizarre statement but it's how I feel. Hopefully this is a safe space to express that feeling.
When I say I'm not sure if I'm pro-black anymore I mean it in the sense I don't care about black issues. I care. I deeply care. But caring about those issues and being pro-black feel so separate. Being pro-black feels like in itself a specific identity. I want to reject that identity.
A lot of black Americans today act like our shit doesn't stink. On social media you constantly see white people being referenced as "yt" people. Social media combined with the lack of justice in America's court rooms and streets is radicalizing black Americans to an extreme. Being black now, beyond the defenses of our own humanity, is so tiring. It's black this, black that. Constant checks on how black you really are. Always puffing up your chest, talking about how "our people" do it the best. Dr. Umar Johnson shows up on The Breakfast Club and it sparks another fucking argument about interracial dating. You've got black people talking about black people messing up the "gene pool" sounding like some bucktoothed klansmen. I think many black Americans today are truly morphing in to what we hate: supremacists. More specifically, the idea that black people are better than other races.
Over the past few months I've witnessed countless amounts of apathy towards the struggles Asian Americans are going through from black folks. Sometimes it goes beyond apathy and into full of hate towards Asians. You've got people that consume Asian cinema, animation, games, and food like it's water and they don't have anything to say to speak out for people that are down because of targeted racism, something you should be able to relate to, and
I'm not sure what this mindset has actually done to improve the lives of black people.
I'm an artist and hang out in a lot of artist circles. You've got so many artists now talking about human experiences and all the black artists are just talking about blackness. Black black black black. It is uniformly boring at this point. As a black artist you feel pressure to have to constantly talk about being black. In fact, it's the expectation. Meanwhile, other races get to make art besides their race. Look how limiting being a black artist is. You've got Ta-Nehisi Coates, a great writer, talking about making Superman black. Spike Lee? All that dude does is talk about blackness. Where's Pretty in Pink featuring black folks where people can feel normal? Every single goddamn black movie or show that comes out now is some fucking misery porn that hinges itself on the throes of black pain. How original. How unique. How utterly banal and will be forgotten in five years time. Lovecraft Country, that Janelle Monae movie, Them;etc. Where's the black positive tv shows or movies?
I'll always care about the struggle but I'm so sick and tired of anything and everything being defined by blackness. I feel so bad about feeling like this too. I don't know how to handle these feelings.
When I say I'm not sure if I'm pro-black anymore I mean it in the sense I don't care about black issues. I care. I deeply care. But caring about those issues and being pro-black feel so separate. Being pro-black feels like in itself a specific identity. I want to reject that identity.
A lot of black Americans today act like our shit doesn't stink. On social media you constantly see white people being referenced as "yt" people. Social media combined with the lack of justice in America's court rooms and streets is radicalizing black Americans to an extreme. Being black now, beyond the defenses of our own humanity, is so tiring. It's black this, black that. Constant checks on how black you really are. Always puffing up your chest, talking about how "our people" do it the best. Dr. Umar Johnson shows up on The Breakfast Club and it sparks another fucking argument about interracial dating. You've got black people talking about black people messing up the "gene pool" sounding like some bucktoothed klansmen. I think many black Americans today are truly morphing in to what we hate: supremacists. More specifically, the idea that black people are better than other races.
Over the past few months I've witnessed countless amounts of apathy towards the struggles Asian Americans are going through from black folks. Sometimes it goes beyond apathy and into full of hate towards Asians. You've got people that consume Asian cinema, animation, games, and food like it's water and they don't have anything to say to speak out for people that are down because of targeted racism, something you should be able to relate to, and
I'm not sure what this mindset has actually done to improve the lives of black people.
I'm an artist and hang out in a lot of artist circles. You've got so many artists now talking about human experiences and all the black artists are just talking about blackness. Black black black black. It is uniformly boring at this point. As a black artist you feel pressure to have to constantly talk about being black. In fact, it's the expectation. Meanwhile, other races get to make art besides their race. Look how limiting being a black artist is. You've got Ta-Nehisi Coates, a great writer, talking about making Superman black. Spike Lee? All that dude does is talk about blackness. Where's Pretty in Pink featuring black folks where people can feel normal? Every single goddamn black movie or show that comes out now is some fucking misery porn that hinges itself on the throes of black pain. How original. How unique. How utterly banal and will be forgotten in five years time. Lovecraft Country, that Janelle Monae movie, Them;etc. Where's the black positive tv shows or movies?
I'll always care about the struggle but I'm so sick and tired of anything and everything being defined by blackness. I feel so bad about feeling like this too. I don't know how to handle these feelings.
