'It’s a sad world where being black and
trying to get educated is seen as trying to be white'
Choc Ice, Coconut,
Bounty, what do these words have in common? They are used as a derogatory slur
when describing a black person trying to be white. From personal experience I
know what it is like to be called a coconut, a bounty, my friends used to call
me these words when we were growing up. I am a baby of the Brit Pop era, Oasis,
Blur, Suede, Kula Shaker, Ash, and Garbage the list of these bands from that
era of music can go on. I was a massive Oasis fan one of my favourite songs of
all time is ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ I know all the words to it and several
of their other hits. I loved reading and creative writing. The things I was
interested in was seen as weird, why? Because I was Black, my friends (white and
Black) could not understand how I could like stuff like that, as I was black it
is not the things black people are into.
I remember a friend
introducing me once to a girl he had just meet saying:
‘This is my
mate, he is a white man in disguise, and he likes Oasis how weird is that?’
It’s understandable
at that age for kids in Secondary school not to try and be different and poke
fun at others who are as the consequences of not fitting in can result into being ostracised and
bullied. I didn't get bullied for what I liked in school, maybe
because I played football for the school team and that I hung around with the
so called in crowd that I got away with it, or maybe it was my fierce nature to
do what I want and like what I liked I don’t know, but what I do know there is
a set template that black guys have to follow in order to be viewed as being
black and in many people’s eyes i didn’t follow it.
Fast forward to me
in my late 20’s A few days ago a woman said this to me in comment to a blog
entry I wrote last year;
‘I read your
blog, and in my opinion a white guy acting black is pretty bad, but a black guy
acting white is even worse.’
Her whole argument
was based on that Black men either break dance or body pop (based on probably
watching too much Britain’s Got Talent), rap, sing or just sell drugs, and for
a black man to go to University or even simply try to articulate his opinions
on issues that affect our society today in a blog is him trying to be white. I
was gobsmacked due to the woman’s age she was 52. This brings me onto what
Barack Obama said in 2004 in his keynote address at the 2004
Democratic National Convention:
‘Children can’t
achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and
eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.’
It is these low expectations of what a black man can and can’t do, that is
damaging a generation. Young black guys who are afraid to be deemed as
different by knuckling down and studying or liking things that might
be deemed as too white for them to like.
It
is more rewarding and cool to be a so called ‘bad man’ a ‘Top boy’ at school
then it is to be a smart articulate one, especially if you’re black. Every guy
I knew who was that bad man at school have always told me they wished they had tried
harder at school and how that they’re going to make sure their kids knuckle down. Think about all that lost potential of some of these guys who knows what
they could have achieved?
I
have mentioned several times this template of being a Black man, now I will
detail it to you this has been complied by many years of experience.
Most
like rap music
Thinks
reading books are for dickheads
Almost
went to prison
Smokes
weed
Can
dance like Chris Brown
At
least owns one pair of Nike Air Max’s
And
wear the laces in a ludicrous way
Never
heard of Indie music
Thinks
Oasis is just a fruit drink
Puts
an ‘S’ on the end of every word ‘I don’t know how to use the internets’ ‘I want
an iphones’ ‘nah man I’m not on Facebooks’
Is
Caribbean
Doesn't wear the shoes kickers (a girl actual said to me
a few years back when
commenting on my Kickers real black men don’t wear Kickers)
In
all seriousness this is an issue that has been affecting black communities all
across the world. It is sad that it is seen as a black kid trying to act white
because he wanted to be educated. It is something that needs to be addressed
quickly.
