BLACK-ON-BLACK LOYALTY

By Clare X. Brown

Loyalty is something that is very important to me -whether it’s in personal relationships, or in relation to group loyalty.  One of the themes that run through this blog is the need for black people to show more loyalty towards each other.  Let me give three examples which I think illustrate how we as black people could show more loyalty towards each other.

First, black men need to be more loyal to black women.  This is well illustrated by the fact that so many “conscious” black men hero worship Eldridge Cleaver - despite the fact that Eldridge Cleaver absolutely loathed black women. Indeed, Eldridge Cleaver was a good example of a man who proclaimed he was pro black while being open about favoring white women over black women.  He openly acknowledges his rape of both black (and white women) in his book, Soul on Ice: 

I became a rapist. To refine my technique and “modus operandi”, I started out by practicing on black girls in the ghetto–in the black ghetto where dark and vicious deeds appear not as aberrations or deviations from the norm, but as part of the sufficiency of the Evil of the day–and when I considered myself smooth enough, I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey. I did this consciously, deliberately, willfully, methodically–though looking back I see that I was in a frantic, wild, and completely abandoned frame of mind.

 Amin Sharif notes that Cleaver:

 …felt not only inadequate with white women but with black women as well……..he never took full responsibility for raping his “black victims.” Instead, Cleaver strangely made his apology to white society. To them Cleaver made his appeal, We are a very sick country. I, perhaps, am sicker than most.

Despite all the terrible things he did and said, incredibly I still see his image regularly on people’s blogs etc…WHY?

Second, black women need to show more loyalty towards black men.  I find it disconcerting that some black women will spout the “sisterhood is global” rhetoric before they show any solidarity to fellow blacks.  For example, it is fairly obvious - certainly in recent years - that bell hooks targets a progressive white female audience before black folk…maybe the fame has gone to her head – I don’t know – or maybe it’s the money.  Likewise, too many black female bloggers are more interested in writing for blogher.org (a white feminist blog network) than blogging for a black- oriented audience; they seem to be more interested in getting their blogs linked by white progressives than writing anything of substance.  What can I say? It’s sad. 

Third, identifiably black “biracial” people need to show loyalty to the black group.  Yes, it is madness to identify equally with “both sides” when both sides don’t show loyalty to you.  At the end of the day, Black Americans accept black biracial people into the black community - or Black Americans wouldn’t be such a spectrum of different skin tones – however, white people have ALWAYS rejected identifiably Black Biracial people.  To obsessively cling to a mixed or “mulatto” status is just another form of disloyalty to your black brothers and sisters - and it further weakens the black group. 

Ultimately, black folk need to put loyalty to blacks before their loyalty to white groups.  If we did this, we would have more self respect and (for what it’s worth) more respect from others.

WHY WE MUST RESIST ASSIMILATION

By Clare X. Brown 

I believe that in this white supremacist world, there is something about being in close proximity to whites that causes many of us black folk to act completely and utterly against our best interests.  For example, Chinweizu (1994) notes “All you need do is introduce a white face among negrophobic blacks and they become disorganised, they become disoriented…”  In a similar vein, Bobby Wright (1984) pointed out that “everywhere one finds Whites and Blacks in close proximity to each other, the whites are in control” and observed that “Blacks rarely question this extraordinary universal phenomenon which defies every known statistical law of probability.” 

Being close to whites really does seem to have a literal brainwashing effect on certain black folk.  Indeed, I think it’s possible that those black men who put themselves through all kinds of racial indignities and isolation simply in order to marry white women may have been overexposed to white people at some point in their lives (as a child or as an adult).  Similarly this may be what causes their black female counterparts to bend over backwards to justify why white men make wonderful marriage partners (despite all the terrible things white men have done and continue to do to black people).  

And let’s not forget the plight of some blacks in the UK – a country with a small, very fragmented black population, where most blacks are overexposed to whites and white supremacist thinking from birth.  Most UK blacks have to confront the chilling experience of being the lone black in employment and/ or in educational settings and/ or in neighborhoods, and so on.  Indeed, it’s possible to argue that overexposure to whites/ white supremacist thinking, and isolation from other blacks is a factor in the extremely high rates of black schizophrenia in the UK (the highest rate of black schizophrenia in the world). 

Even the messages of seemingly “ultra-conscious” black folk seem to be at risk of being diluted by too much contact with whites.  Take the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal - most of his supporters are white, and this which may be having a deleterious effect on his ideology as he appears to embrace a Marxist (“power-to-the-people philosophy”) rather than an unapologetically “pro-black” ideology.  And what about Malcolm X?  After his famous trip to Mecca, and his interactions with white Arabs, he changed his perspective on black-white relations, which arguably contradicted everything he used to stand for.  Don’t get me wrong - I have tremendous sympathy for the positions of both Mumia and Malcolm X.  In the case of Mumia, the man may be once again fighting a death sentence, and clearly doesn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing his supporters.  In the case of Malcolm X, at the end of his life, he was treated disgustingly by the Nation of Islam, and had nowhere to turn, so it’s hardly surprising that he was willing to collaborate with whites at this time…I am confident that had Malcolm lived he would have revised the opinions he formed before he died (when he was obviously under extreme stress). 

As I hope the above examples have demonstrated, black people need to be cautious about the price they are paying for closeness to whites.  If blacks as a people want any hope of dignity, and indeed survival, we need to embrace black autonomy; if we want to gain self-respect, and respect from others, we must stop running after white people; we must stop being afraid of hurting white people’s feelings; we must stop trying to be so damn “fair” to white people all the time - hell, do white folk generally give a damn about hurting our feelings or being fair to us?  As Frances Cress Welsing (1989) argues “Instead of engaging in our past practices of complaining, moaning, crying, groaning, begging, clapping hands and singing, ‘We Shall Overcome’, black people must analyze our problems and take the necessary steps to eliminate them.  I say that it’s time to redirect the energy we put into connecting with white folk to connecting with each other.  Instead of relocating to predominately white countries like France and Canada, we need to be relocating to majority black countries.  Rather than seeking out majority-white places like Seattle and Portland, we need to be moving to “Chocolate Cities” like Atlanta and DC.  Instead of trying to join white institutions, we need to be supporting and building black institutions.  In preference to buying houses in white neighborhoods, we need to be buying houses in the black community.  We need to work at obtaining employment in settings where we can interact with other black people - even if this means taking a lower salary - and / or consider setting up our own businesses.  We MUST NOT send black children to majority white schools – if necessary, we need to home-school our children.  We need to support, love and marry black people rather than chasing after white ones.  In short, let’s offer ourselves and our children some kind of solidarity - as other minorities do - as any self-respecting people does.

POOR INTERRACIAL INTERACTIONS - WHO’S TO BLAME?

By Clare X. Brown    

While there are black people who generally get on very well with white people and vice versa, I believe that black and white interracial interactions are inherently problematical because of the baggage that comes with living in a racist society. There is often suspicion/ discomfort from both sides…In a recent post that I did on white oriented black people, Damali argued:

you get back what you give out. Meaning that if you are a friendly person, that’s generally how you will be treated in return… if ANY person, not just blacks, is putting out negative energy or behaviours into the universe, more than likely, that’s what they will get back… Its about personal accountability. And i don’t believe that any black person is above that…

I strongly disagree with this viewpoint because:

• This perspective fails to acknowledge the reality of what it is like for a black person to live in a racist society and the awkwardness that whites often inject into interracial interactions which can make it difficult for black people to be “natural” and “super-friendly” with whites all the time…I feel very strongly that you simply cannot make “colorblind” judgments about interactions which are affected by race.
• Furthermore, I feel that the logical conclusion of this argument is that blacks who do not manage to “assimilate” as well will have to “take the blame for it”…”they didn’t interact in the right way”…”they were not friendly enough”… “they weren’t outgoing enough”…”they didn’t smile enough”…”they have a chip on their shoulder”…”they are paranoid” etc etc…I see this as a “blame the victim” philosophy…and I think it’s also very much about “proving oneself” to whites/ “winning them over” by showing one has a “great personality” etc … like most of western ideology, it encourages the pathologizing of black people and enables whites to delude themselves that they have the moral highground.

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