My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.

Browsing Category Black Lives

Reflecting on the Dark Side

by on ·Black Lives, BLM, Lifestyle and Culture, Opinion

 Co-written with David White

My cousin, David, is a deep thinker, much more so than I am. I often marvel at his insight and what I see as his skill at analyzing situations. He is also very modest, so I’m sure he will admonish me for gushing over him in this post. But I call it as I see it. In addition to many things my cousin and I have in common, our intense dislike for small talk and delight in engaging in stimulating conversations often lead us into deep discussions, usually about politics and social issues. And since at least one (moi – and perhaps both) of us dislikes marathon phone conversations, we primarily correspond via email.

Yesterday, inadvertently, on the eve of Black History month, our topic was the Tyre Nichols tragedy. I did not watch and have no plans to watch the infamous video. Whenever a newscast predictively includes a portion of the videos, I change the channel or mute the TV and look away. I DON’T WANT TO SEE IT. The whole situation has become a repeat of an ongoing practice that keeps many of us (black people) in a perpetual state of sorrow for the victims and their families. The needless killings keep repeating like reruns of old TV shows.

Copicide, as I call it, is a modern-day Shakespearean-type tragedy not made for TV. Here’s how I described the plot of the ongoing series on my FB page: “Unwarranted murder by cop. Heartbreak and outrage expressed by the family. Calls for justice by Crump and Sharpton. Protests by activists. Expressions of regret and condolences to the family by city officials. Calls for reform by those same officials and politicians. Hashtag, here we go again. Second verse same as the first.”

As he often does, my cousin impressed me when he laid out his perspective.

I could write a dissertation on my feelings regarding the Tyre Nichols situation. It is so painful. But humans who feel they are licensed to hierarchize human life on a scale of “more or less worthy of humane treatment ” leads to this – one of the reasons (among many) I’m against the death penalty. Once you deem someone else’s life worthy of less respect than you would give your own, it logically proceeds that things like this happen. It gives [carte-blanche, my two cents] the authority and power to act on those prejudices.

I didn’t watch all of the videos but [saw] enough to know what it was about … Everyone intuitively knows that if that young man had been white and every other circumstance were the same, there would have been a totally different outcome, if any incident at all. 

I worked at a prison, and I know how easy it is for people to be depersonalized and dehumanized. And, to get into the racial part … Eddie Glaude on MSNBC alluded to a Baldwin citation, which I can only attempt to paraphrase. [He said] that racism becomes a systemic way to view others, and blacks can easily assimilate that same racist attitude given the right conditions. It makes it much more painful because many black people are oblivious to how we have adapted and internalized the attitudes we ostensibly rebuke.

I will never forget how hurt and ashamed I felt while walking the historic campus grounds at the predominantly white University of North Carolina. I passed a large group of black students in front of the main library and heard one female approach another person (a male, I believe) and, with a smile, greet him with “Hey nigger.”

Keep in mind that scores of students (mostly white) were making their way to and from classes at that time. I wanted to find Star Trek’s Scottie and have him beam me to my dorm and erase the memory. I’m sure they [the black students] thought they were being hip, cool, and defiant by uttering such an offensive word, and in their mind, making it powerless or some mark of distinction. But I know what they were really saying is “You may be at a white school, you might be academically gifted, but I see you the same way a lot of these white folks see you.”

That’s the sentiment that comes to mind when I hear about [the Nichols tragedy].  

 I know I’m going to sound like an old fogey, but whenever I hear the N-word, it jangles me. I will never be comfortable with that word, and it pains me when I see young people blasting their music, and every other word in the song is N-word this and N-word that, and white and black [people in proximity] hear this. I feel [that those who use the N-word] have an [warped] idea about what racism is and what it is not. For example, some think that a particular effect, attitude, and worldview make you “black.” And if you don’t conform to [that way of thinking], then you’re not really black.

When I was in college, many students dropped a class if they didn’t see any other black students taking the course because they had assimilated the idea that there are certain places where they don’t “belong;” not because anyone overtly told them that but because they had been acculturated to believe it. That’s why [some people] can treat a black stranger entirely differently from a white stranger and not see how that is a form of racism.  

Not to throw fuel on an eternal flame, I’m piggybacking on David’s thoughts about the intricacy of racism and the angst it causes by adding one more thing. I did watch the video showing an intruder’s break-in at the home of now-former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. When the door opened, the police saw a hefty-looking white guy grasping the arm of Peloski’s elderly husband with one hand while welding a hammer in his other hand, and the intruder still lives to talk about it. I’ll leave that right there.

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Message to a Black Man

by on ·Black Lives

The longer I stay cocooned in my she cave (my home), the more relaxed I feel. I would say the safer I feel, but every day I hear on the TV news or directly from the mouth of a friend or acquaintance about something terrible that happened to someone while they were inside (what they thought was) the safety of their home. Just yesterday, I learned from a dear friend that her brother had been shot in his house by a stranger attempting to burglarize the home. Thank God, as I write this, her brother is still alive and recovering in the hospital.

Outside or inside, sometimes it doesn’t matter, does it? Nevertheless, the fewer people I deal with face-to-face, the happier I am. No stress, no mess, I always say. Something that happened this morning is a perfect example of why I think that way.

I decided to go to the store. I didn’t need anything that couldn’t wait until my regular order of groceries is delivered next week, or if I were pressed, like craving fresh fruits as I was doing this morning, I’d order from Instacart. Instead, I called my daughter, and we decided to go together to the store. I picked up a few items. As we were getting in line, a black man, I glimpsed from the corner of my eye and guessed was in his late 20s or early 30s, walked up behind us. I never looked back at him, but I could tell he was talking on the phone. He said to whoever he was talking to, “That’s why I don’t deal with black women. They’re all alike.”

My daughter was standing beside me, and she, too, overheard the man’s conversation. Like me, she purposely ignored him. To further convey our disinterest, lest he was thinking he could lure us into a heated conversation in defense of black women, I  began talking to my daughter.

Black people have enough challenges without the acrimony between men and women. And, among other things, I feel that the broadcast and entertainment industry fuels the flame. TV commercials featuring mixed-race families, especially those giving prominence to the coupling of black men and white women, are as popular now as air fryers. I know I am not the only black woman bothered by that, but I’m likely one of the few who would publicly admit it. Love who you want; I don’t care, but why do the commercials display such an unbalanced presentation of mixed-race families? Is it because we – black women – are stereotypically portrayed as angry? Even Michelle Obama could not escape that negative label.

The contempt of the man in the store for black women was evident. He was standing directly behind me and made no effort to lower his voice, giving me no doubt that he wanted us to overhear his conversation. I don’t know if he was actually talking to someone on the phone (He had it to his ear.) or faking it, but I suspected he was baiting a trap either way. My instinct told me that he was hoping my very attractive daughter or I would turn around and give him the how dare you look. That would have been his signal to engage us in a verbal confrontation. I envisioned him saying, “Who you looking at? Yeah, I’m talking about y’all.” And then I imagined that he’d say into the phone, “See, what I mean. Bitches in here all in my business.”

I know the game. I’ve seen it played before. I didn’t take the bait.

Instead, my daughter and I pretended we didn’t hear him. If I’ve learned anything in my life, one sure way to piss-off someone – or invalidate them – is to ignore them. So I turned to my daughter, and we began talking about the high cost of food. Had we reacted to his rant, we would likely have given him the pleasure of loud talking us or reinforcing his point to whoever (if anyone) was on the other end of his phone.

As I walked home, I pretended his conversation didn’t bother me, but it did, and it still does. Disparaging black women will not solve his problem. He has more profound issues troubling him. Perhaps it is self-hatred.

On February 14, 1990, Washington Post Columnist Donna Britt published “For Black Men, One From the Heart.” It was a warm-hearted Valentine’s Day message for Black Men who are often portrayed as criminals, perpetrators of violence, and dead-beat dads. Reportedly, that essay brought Britt dozens of roses, numerous phone calls from people expressing their gratitude, and several awards, including one from the National Association of Black Journalists. She also received high praise from us black women who agreed with her.

Black men do not have to fit the stereotypes. In 1965, in his book Message to the Blackman in America, Elijah Muhammed wrote, “One of the gravest handicaps for the so-called Negro is that there is no love for self, nor love for his or her own kind. This not having love for self is the root cause of hate.”

I still feel the sting of the words of the man who stood behind me in the store, although I think they would have been guided like a verbal missile to any other black woman within the sound of his voice. If I could say some things to him, I’d say this:  Like you, black women face the difficulties of trust, baggage from past relationships, and sometimes even economic instability. We know that there are many upstanding, hard-working black men out there. I’ve been with one for over 20 years. We respect you. We’ve got your back. All black women do not lump all black men into the same barrel. Please don’t do it to us.

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