light nigga, dark nigga… still nigga.

On June 13th 2019, the Toronto Raptors beat the Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. The Raptors president, Masai Ujiri, headed to the court to celebrate with his team. Customary with all team presidents, he didn’t think twice about joining the newly crowned champions. The act might be the norm for everyone but who’s doing it might not have. Bodycam footage released earlier this week shows alameda country sheriff’s deputy Alan Strickland pushing Masai, not allowing him on the court. Attempting to pull out his credentials, Strickland again shoves Masai. The team’s point guard Kyle Lowry sees the end of this and goes and grabs Masai to personally escort him to the court and that’s the end of the moment.

Alan sued Masai for emotional, physical, mental and financial damages, stating Masai was the aggressor. Anyone who witnessed it would quickly deny that claim but no one came forward and Alan had the benefit of being part of the most notorious gang in amerikkka, the police force. the badge was his flag he repped. being white helped.

in his most joyous moment of his career, Masai was reminded of one thing that this country makes sure to instill in all of us, no matter how much money you have, no matter the suit and tie, the position, the car, the education, the uniform, or the last name, you still a nigga.

don’t take it from me, who am i. take it from the Nigerian Masai Ujiri himself. “Yet, unfortunately, i was reminded in that moment that despite all of my hard work and success, there are some people, including those who are supposed to protect is, who will always and only see me as something that is unworthy of respectful engagement. And there’s only one indisputable reason why that is the case – because i am Black.”

light nigga, dark nigga, faux nigga, real nigga, rich nigga, poor nigga, house nigga, field nigga… still nigga.

“People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” Assata Shakur.

over the past few months, i have been thinking a lot about division in the Black community. what i concluded must absolutely be discussed in the context of colonization/slavery. it cannot live without the context of colonization. colorism and respectability politics. both have been practiced by African people all over the world but over the past five hundred years, African people in amerikkka have had the taste in our mouth way too long. time to throw it up and cook something that serves our whole community well.

let’s begin with definitions.

Respectability Politics is a set beliefs holding that conformity to prescribed mainstream standards of appearance and behavior will protect a person who is part of a marginalized group, especially a Black person, from prejudices and systemic injustices.

don’t grow your hair like that, they will think less of you. don’t sag, they will think less of you. don’t listen to that music, they will think less of you. don’t talk about Black issues, they will think less of you. don’t eat that, they will think less of you. instead, get a degree, they will hopefully think highly of you. wear a suit or dress, they will hopefully think highly of you. talk like this, they will hopefully think highly of you. get married, they will hopefully think highly of you. if you do these things and DON’T do those things, they will hopefully see you less of a nigger, more like a servant just trying to get a few crumbs of the pie. they will see you as a Respectable, not a Deplorable.

Rosa Parks was not the first person to sit down on a bus. nine months prior to the nineteen fifty-five Montgomery bus boycott, Claudette Colvin was arrested for the same act Rosa Parks did. why don’t you know her name?

well, Claudette Colvin was a fifteen year old girl who was unmarried and pregnant from a married man. she wasn’t a Respectable. Rosa Parks was an older woman who was married. oh and Claudette’s skin was darker. insert colorism.

colorism is a relatively newer word. in nineteen eighty-two, the author and activist Alice Walker created the word and defined it as “prejudicial and preferential treatment of same race people based *solely on their skin color.” i have noticed it usually performed in the subconscious mind. it often deems lighter skin people more holier and valuable than darker skin people (also, heavily, though not exclusively, practiced on women).

having more credibility due to the color of your skin is not new. for Africans in amerikkka during chattel slavery, slave masters would rape our ancestors all the time. it wasn’t abnormal for them to be taken advantage of in this way. when offspring would arrive, often times they would be of lighter skin. lighter the skin, the “better” the treatment would be. lighter skin slaves would be subjugated to the house, creating the term “house nigga,” which would be maids, butlers, mammies, snitches, mistresses, etc. they were closer to the people in charge but still enslaved. darker skin slaves would be in the field doing much more demanding physical work. but what’s “better treatment” to a slave. lighter skin women would be in the house more than darker skin women, but due to how close they were to master, they would be beaten and raped more, birthing light skin babies.

being in the house, they would wear better clothes, eat the food master ate (after master ate it), listen to music master listened to, took in the annunciation of the language, leading to even taking the mentality and attitude of the master. it would be advantageous to attempt to be just like this sub human being. although the master and all the white people around knew nothing a nigga could do would make them white, they did not discourage it. they in fact celebrated it. thus, leading to respectability politics.

see how these two go hand and hand?

these white people knew what they were doing and the impact it would have.

that mentality did not go away after chattel slavery. in fact, it heightened due to the work force and new opportunities Black people would now have. lighter skin Black people would be slightly favored, again, by those in charge (normally white people).

What Does It Look Like?

have you ever been at an airport and see a veteran walk by and everybody start clapping and saluting him or her? or at stores or on shows, they will assert their history and get a whole lot of “thank yous” from those nearby. Black people will join the police force or get jumped in the gang called the army just to get a glimmer of what this “respect” felt like. really just want power and fear.

my dad’s brother Willie was in the army. he prided himself on being sergeant Willie! he made sure to let people know. and when he came back to Texas, white people made sure to let him know as well. Willie was still a nigga. i mean he fought and put his life on the line while they were at home living life, but he thought he was better than them. he still couldn’t sit where he wanted to sit, or eat or be in the same level as white men. but Sergeant Willie thought he was THE man. he was less than a man to the people he wanted to be the man to. 3/5ths of a man to be a exact. who are we putting on a show for?

and we say OUR country. OUR? ain’t nothing collective about this. OUR economy. OUR army. OUR president. OUR rights. to be an OURS, you must be getting something from that. you can’t just live and call yourself that thing. just because i live in amerikkka doesn’t mean i’m amerikkkan. i can’t put on a jersey and say ima Laker. i can’t put on a white coat and say ima doctor.

Martin Luther King graduated college at the age of nineteen. had his doctorate by twenty-six. was a reverend. wore suits and ties. he was killed the same way Philando Castile was. in amerikkka. by an angry white man with a gun who didn’t believe Black people were equals.

To be free, you must be acutely aware of being a slave. Assata Shakur.

but you still want the Black man to resemble a Dr.King, not a Nipsey Hussle.

that’s frightening.

wait…

that’s better. that’s more digestible.

we have to love us. love who we are in the midst of being hated by people. Nipsey Hussle owned almost everything he touched. he employed more Black men and women than you can count. and most of his employees had criminal records which would have prevented them from getting the job YOU wound want these Black men to have.

Respectables are focused on us “looking” like a business owner than a nigga. what does a business owner look like though?

E40 makes music and owns all of his masters (original recording of music. he controls who and where his music can be played and makes money directly from such). he owns at least four different alcohol brands, a record label he started nearly thirty years ago, a restaurant. but he looks too much of a nigga to get respect from most people.

respectability politics is mainly about presentation and not LOOKING the part. not having eyes on you. but i’m here to tell you, the eyes ain’t going anywhere. eyes will always be on you because you’re Black. remember the Raptors president.

lines get blurred when we don’t define who our enemy is. we let the oppressor tell us who and what to hate. natural hair, dark skin, tattoos, sagging pants, hip hop culture, smoking weed, socialism, speaking up.

add colorism in to worsen the treatment.

ask yourself and the homies and even women “name ten beautiful or fine Black women.” doesn’t matter the race. you can ask Black people that question, Asians, white people… nine out of ten will name light skin women. go head and try it.

and the one darker skin woman will have a disclaimer like “oh aye Kelly fine too. she not finer than all of the ones i named, but she can get it, too.” it’s as if they MUST throw a woman of darker hue in there for the sake of not appearing discriminatory.

check the last few commercials and movies you’ve watched. count next time how many are light skin Black women and dark skin Black women. media and society confirms the perpetual belief of light skin women being more valuable and beautiful than dark skin women.

but let me remind you. Black is Black.

i’m fighting for you. for us. don’t increase my stress. we’re hated by haters. don’t contribute to the hate. we already have enough to worry about.

Sandra Bland life was not spared because she had lighter skin. she was harassed because she was Black. she did not have to be as dark as Lupita to be pulled out the car and thrown on the ground then jailed and later hanged.

Nia Wilson was targeted because she was a Black woman. not because she had a darker hue to her skin. the white supremacist woke up, went to BART, saw a Black woman and set out to kill her. she was nothing but a nigga to him.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. had the cops called on him while he was trying to get into his own house when the neighbors criminalized him, accusing him of breaking in. he did not have to possess the skin color of Wesley Snipes to be seen as dangerous.

Meghan Markle’s own husband came to her defense when someone said “obviously, seventy years ago, Meghan Markle would have been the kind of woman the prince would have had for a mistress, not a wife.” Harry said that “racial undertones” and it is ” outright sexism and racism by the media.” hell, if Meghan was NOT Black, we wouldn’t even know her name, quite frankly. what other people of the “royal family” do you know? i dont even have to say her husband’s name in order for you to know her. as fair skin as she has, she experiences a form of racism from the outside as well as colorism from the inside.

the racism won’t stop, we have to accept that. they don’t have a moral compass. however, we must cure OUR sickness.

my point in reminding you is not to label you a nigga. it’s to actually unite us all. they’re going to see us how they see us. they’re going to talk about us in their inner circles regardless. understand that thoroughly. you can only be responsible for yourself. i’ll explain later.

respectability politics within the community looks like what we experienced with Claudette Colvin. we tell our girls and boys what to wear and how to act. put on a show in case someone “who matters” is looking. elders tell girls don’t wear clothes that reveal any skin. it’s “worldly.” don’t take pictures like that. don’t wear tighter clothes because your future husband might be out there and turned away. how dare us?

we urge boys to not wear hats inside. HUH? why? literally nobody knows why or where it started. nobody knows what happens when you wear a hat in a building. does a wildfire start in Brazil? does a hurricane show up in New Orleans? i know what happens when guys do… NOTHING. the good ol pope wears a hat in church all the time and he’s quite famous. we tell boys don’t wear this but in the same breath we say “don’t police what women wear. that ain’t your body.” how about we all just shut up about what people put on their bodies. i don’t know.

if someone respects you, they will respect you. Beyoncé is revered by elders while she is uh oh uh oh uh oh uh oh’n. Meg Thee Stallion does the same thing but some people hate her. you can’t make people like you. stop trying.

donations. donations. donations. gifts…

do not confuse favors for freedom. please. i will say that again. do not confuse favors for freedom.

when they ALLOWED #BlackLivesMatter to be spray painted on some streets, that was a favor that too many mistook as freedom. having Black Lives matter on the basketball courts is favor, not freedom. when Barack was selected to be president, people to this day think he was elected.

if Barack was a dark skin man with the name of Tyquan Miller and had locs, and his Michelle’s name was LaKeisha, would he be the president? hell, would YOU have even voted for him? everything the same. president of Harvard, former lawyer, senate, married with wife and kids. every thing the same. but was dark and named was Tyquan Miller and had locs, would you vote for him? no. why? he doesn’t fit the part. although all of the presidents before were literal racists, war criminals and thugs and thieves, you are more inclined to vote for them than a Black man with a very ethnic name and natural growing hair. respectability politics tells you to focus on the looks. and the looks of being Black is unsettling to many. we don’t love Blackness yet. that’s why so many are rocked to sleep. Black people are concerned with representations more than reparations. forget what you will do for me, just look good screwing me. i’ll forgive you. but i can’t forgive you if you LOOK like the media version of what Black men from Chicago looks like. you all selected Barack because he made the cut of presentation. Barack was a favor, not freedom.

if we don’t check ourselves, we will never improve. representation does not mean revolution. Oprah being worth a few billion and Beyoncé winning grammys is not championships.

that’s called tokenism.

ahhh man. yeah we have to go there.

tokenism is giving a few people coins, awards, clothes, status and then parading them around as if that represents the masses of that community. and when anyone calls out systemic racism and disadvantages, they point at JAY-Z or Barack or Oprah… boy don’t we love dangling Oprah or Beyoncé like they’re the majority. notice how they’re all of lighter hue as well?

Black people enjoy tokens. i get it though. but we only love it because we don’t know our history. to most of us, our history starts with slavery so ANYTHING above that is progression. ANYBODY who is on tv and the media talks about is a sign of growth. it is very strategic as it cradles us like babies back to sleep and makes us forget about the state the majority is in.

then we want to be involved in their system. we want to be them, just Black. we wanna be a Black man or Black woman in white face…. shake my head.

let’s go deeper.

colorism and respectability politics affirms the inferiority and unacceptableness and unattractiveness of Blackness. both of these ideas have been influenced and created by white supremacy. that is the biggest point i want to make. but now practiced by us. but it must always be in the context as such: it was created by white supremacy to divide and conquer a whole race of people.

colorism was started by white people intended to divide one within the community. but this division is two edged. division comes when the community itself sees lighter skin Black people, then we invalidate their oppression as a Black person. we dismiss their experiences and we don’t accept them as Black TO Black people. you’re light skin and i’m dark skin. which is just outrageously humorous when thinking about it. when a light skin woman go out in the world and get discriminated against by non Blacks, clearly due to her skin, it is obvious. we yell and record it with the quickness and stand up for her. but when it’s a dark skin man talking to a lighter skin woman, she’s no longer Black. she’s light skin.

so is she Black or is she not? we understand Black is Black to them, but we don’t accept Black as Black with us. starts with LOVE.

Black people get upset when other races express their dislike for Black people. we say that it’s an illness; it’s learned behavior; it’s based on a deep conditioning. those are all true. colorism is the simi. it is an illness. it is learned. it is based on deep conditioning. have you ever called someone out for being racist? they HATE it. you ever call someone out on being colorist? they HATE it. colorism is an illness. we don’t give illnesses to ourselves as it is given by someone who was or is still sick. we can pass it down. but most illnesses can be cured. that’s the good news.

the other sharp side is due to that division, we create even more by venturing outside our community and wishing we could have lighter skin offspring, lighter skin spouses as we accept the lighter skin standard of beauty. that leads to marrying either light skin women and men or even not marrying Black at all because the melanin is still there somewhere in the bloodline. some of us marry and reproduce with people who lack melanin all together on purpose.

as silly as racism is, colorism is even more! one day you’re Black, next day around Black people, you’re light skin. this is all a ploy to slow and destroy our community. it goes back centuries

respectability politics and colorism are both works of slavery because while you do what you feel you must do to separate yourself from Black ideas, policies, culture, sympathies and communities in order to get that white money or acceptance, you in turn start hating Black. you tell yourself things that are associated with Blackness is wrong and not a good recipe for success. men, women, culture, dress, traditions. you neglect your racial identity.

some grounded Black folk say “man master is horrible! he beats us. rapes us. makes us look stupid. takes our husbands and fathers and separates them from the family for the slightest infraction or for nothing at all. master uses our wives and mothers and work them to the ground. they take care of our and their kids and stand up for everyone while not receiving any credit but instead gives cred to the white women (we call them feminists). we need to leave asap. we have to. we have no future here. master hates us. we will die and just barely survive here. i want to live!!”

just change the word “master” to “amerikkka” and it’ll be the same.

but the house nigga will say “leave? leave master/amerikkka? this good ol food? these jobs? i mean i know i aint making much but it’s better than nothing. those Black men just need to learn how to shut up. if they didn’t yell or talk back, they wouldn’t have died (tell that to Philando Castile). them Black women need to just shut up and know their place. master wouldn’t have did that if that Black woman just shut up (tell that to Sandra Bland). our master is good to us. i know life aint perfect but we aint got no hope. the best we can do is shut up and dribble. the best we can do is act like them. when they say “jump, boy” just say “how high, boss?” when they say go to work for the whole day and don’t expect much in return, just say “yessa. this better than nothing.” i can’t separate. i wanna be closer to them. i wanna separate from you! not them. i’ll move and lose my identity to be wkth them. yall just don’t know hot to appreciate a good thing when you see it. i refuse to be a field nigga. ima house nigga. i say it with pride.”

“the Negro Revolution is no revolution because it condemns the system & then asks the system that it has condemned to accept them into their system. That’s not a revolution—a revolution changes the system, it destroys the system & replaces it with a better one.” Malcolm X.

some of our minds are so far gone and assimilated that we forget we’re Black. these ideas of being a Respectable favors those who are more articulate, can easily integrate and willing to adapt to whiter environments and adopt white mentalities. hoping to get to the other side of the fence, Black people will lose their self.

“i’m the only Black who works at this job. i’m the only Black in this neighborhood. i’m the only Black who graduated from this school. all you other losers didn’t try hard enough. all you did was complain, but i fought. now i am rewarded.” rewarded with what? all you did was lose yourself in hopes of being in white circles. you don’t aspire to be free. you aspire to just be around white people.

but still nigga. they’ll remind you. they always do. you’ll see. no matter how deep your melanin is or age or profession. ask Tiger Woods. ask OJ. ask Terry Crews. ask Candace Owens.

What Can We Do.

as always, we talk about issues but we have to discuss solutions.

Black people, what are we doing?

we talk about other people standing up for us and “go talk to your neighborhood and teach them about racism.” we’re quick to look at a white person and yell “you have white privilege. do something with it.” yes true.

but we can only be responsible for ourselves. every single person is only responsible for their own actions. be accountable.

if you wanna vote, okay. vote. but voting isn’t going to cure this colorism. it’s not going to cure self help or accountability.

how are we countering colorism? how are you rejecting respectability politics and letting people be who they’re comfortable being? how often are we reading up about revolutions and our ancestors?

are we freeing ourselves? no man or woman can GIVE you freedom. you take it. you go for it. are you freeing yourself?

we talk about reparations but don’t know how to spend money. we talk about free college but don’t pick up books. we have to act as if no outside group from today moving forward is going to help us. that means we have to focus on community. we have to mend the broken hearts and heal our wounds.

we have to take colorism seriously. it tears us apart. we have to be able to identify it as quickly as we do racism. read up on it. talk to people who know about it. who experience it.

learn about stocks or cryptocurrencies.

and as always, challenge the status quo. things will be difficult. i get why going with the flow is the choice most take. but how rewarding is it when you don’t challenge your set of beliefs? challenge the way you were taught. we question life and God and love but we don’t challenge the government and laws and normality’s. we check other people but we don’t check ourselves. it starts and ends with ourselves.

i have said this time and time again and i will continue to say it: we must unlearn everything we have every learned and learn at this age we are at now. it’s a favor to ourselves and the world we surround ourselves with as we SHOULD be more mature and aware of the harmful ideologies we possess the older we get. and we have to do this numerous amount of times throughout of life. not just TODAY. that’s why reading is so important. we must update our minds as we do our phones. we must read. scientists have different projects and theories so often because situations and culture changes. everything changes but our minds. time for an update.

a lot of things we do is out of habit. most things are actually. we don’t even think about breathing, walking, how we text, how we look at the person we love. we just do. but the more things we have control over, the better.

we must check ourselves.

ask yourself who taught you to hate yourself? your dad? your mother? music videos? magazines? barbie dolls? your boyfriend? maybe your first girlfriend? how about your elementary teachers?

there is no time for separation within the world. we must all unite. but before we conquer the world, we must tackle our community.

we cannot project our subconscious views on others because we haven’t dealt with them. the hardest thing is change.

how dare ANYONE invalidate an experience of a Black person. if a non Black person does it, we’re fighting. if a Black person invalidates another Black person… that’s just some willie lynch, slave master ideas working in present time.

the antidote is unlearning what we have been taught by the media and masses. but at the same time, we must work on loving ourselves. that is the cure to almost everything. love. i’m emphasized that throughout. it’s your duty. love yourself and it doesn’t stop at an individual level. it means you, your blood, your people, your culture, your history. it is YOU. you cannot love the branches of a tree and not love and appreciate the roots. you just can’t. saying you love Black when you’re only talking about aesthetics is not the same. that’s a fetish. loving darker skin Black men does not rid yourself of colorism and dating lighter skin Black women is not enough symptoms of dubbing someone colorist.
we must dig deeper.
we all suffer from some form of PTSS. as Dr. Joy Degruy accurately calls it, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

implicit biases must be checked and they must be countered. we have to be aware.

the people who know their history tends to loves themselves and others who look like them. they have an appreciation of their ancestors and traditions and foods and biological features and accents and moves and music.

Black people, we have to work on ourselves. they’re going to call us what they call us. they’re going to see us how they see us. but there must be an undying love for all things Black. that does not mean we have to accept and not condemn Black people. that means we have to spend the time to learn why Black people are the way we are and have an unconditional love for Blackness. we have to be FOR Blackness. not reject it. that’s anti Black. Malcolm X once said “i am Black first. my sympathies are Black. my allegiance is Black. i am not interested in being amerikkkan because amerikkka has never been interested in me.” we cannot pledge allegiance to money. we cannot salute the flag that has been the symbol of hate and death that others have saluted while killing or hating us. we cannot submit to white supremacy. once the Black man and Black woman is loyal to the Black man and Black woman, life WILL be smooth. we WILL be free. be loyal to you.

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