He speaks so well! He's so well-spoken!

It's funny - I used to support Joe Biden's candidacy for president...and deep down, I still might.  I saw him on an appearance or two on Real Time with Bill Maher, and he really impressed me.  This was a man willing to say that the American people "are wrong" about Saddam's link to 9/11, and say it in no uncertan terms.  He seemed brave and, dare I say it, articulate. 



Then this happened.



Naturally, I'm taking issues with what Biden said about African-American Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.  Lest I be accused of being a singularly overly-sensitive Negro, Eugene Robinson's editorial in today's WashPost says what I'm thinking better than I can.  Some excerpts:



"What is it, exactly, that white people mean when they call a black person "articulate?"...



"...Yes, I'm ranting a bit. But before you accuse me of being hypersensitive, try to think of the last time you heard a white public figure described as articulate...."



"...I realize the word is intended as a compliment, but it's being used to connote a lot more than the ability to express one's thoughts clearly. It's being used to say more, even, than "here's a black person who speaks standard English without a trace of Ebonics."

The word articulate is being used to encompass not just speech but a whole range of cultural cues -- dress, bearing, education, golf handicap. It's being used to describe a black person around whom white people can be comfortable, a black person who not only speaks white America's language but is fluent in its body language as well.

And the word is often pronounced with an air of surprise, as if it's an improbable and wondrous thing that a black person has somehow cracked the code..."



"...Articulate is really a shorthand way of describing a black person who isn't too black -- or, rather, who comports with white America's notion of how a black person should come across.

Whatever the intention, expressing one's astonishment that such individuals exist is no compliment. Just come out and say it: Gee, he doesn't sound black at all."



The rest of the editorial is excellent, too.  It encapsulates the frustration of many black people when they hear such descriptions.  Chris Rock has made jokes about it, centering around the term "well-spoken" often used to describe athletes, especially black ones, who can form complete sentences when they talk.

It's condescending, and potentially harmful.  It's also something that I have personal experience with.  Here's why it's so bad: coming from a white person, it's almost the most patronizing thing that he/she could say without meaning it.  It implies that most black people are too uncouth to speak well, wthere it's their fault or not.  Even the smart ones are expected to have trouble being well-spoken. 



As bad as that is coming from a white person, I can kinda laugh at that brand of racism.  Usually, it's not intended to be harmful, and black people have experienced much worse forms over the course of history.  It's typically not worth getting worked up over. 



You really want to piss me off? Tell me that I'm not black. 



You will have succeeded.  In fact, you might just have lined yourself up for an ass-whooping.






First of all, I'd say about 99% of white people have no idea what it means to be black.  So it's just downright insulting, ignorant, condescending and arrogant for any white person to presume that they can gauge someone's level of 'blackness.'  I wouldn't dream of telling a white person that they weren't white, because I don't know what beng white is like.  [Unless it was within the context of an appropriate discussion, of course.]



If you're white and you've said that about a black person, how the hell would you know?  How many black people from different parts of the world, different social strata and different upbringings have you gotten to know that you think you are qualified to make such a statement?  No matter what the answer to that question is, chances are very high that you still don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about. 



As damaging as that sentiment is coming from a white person, it's even worse when used by one black person to another.  A black person calling another person not black' or 'white' is the most self-defeating, poisonous, playing-into-the-oppressor's-hands sentiment that I can imagine.



And it's happened to me.






My favorite teacher told me this story: Back in high school, I was eligible for an award given to the highest-achieving senior black student.  The teacher in charge of giving the award was an African-American teacher who had never had me as a student.  I had never even had reason to speak to her.  She was head of my high school's Black Student Union, an organization I'd never been a part of. 



I didn't get that award, and I didn't think much of it at the time.  After I graduated, my teacher told me that she had been in on the meeting where the award recipients were selected.   When she inquired as to why I, being the highest-achieving black student in my class, wasn't going to receive the award, the black teacher in charge of it said "Oh, well, he's white."



Really.



That's funny, because I don't remember being treated like a white person when I was growing up.  I don't remember my brothers, sister and family being white.  I don't remember going to Nigeria every few years to visit a bunch of white relatives and hang out with white people.  I don't remember visiting my mother's undeveloped island birthplace in west Africa and thinking, "Man, it sure is strange to be surrounded by all these black people."  



I'm sure this isn't the first time people have said shit like this about me -- but as you might imagine, I haven't yet encountered a black person who has the guts to say it to my face.  Only a few ignorant non-blacks seem to have that special combination of brazen chutzpah, innocence and tactlessness.



I bear no superiority complex towards African-Americans normally...but my attitude dramatically shifts when some woman with a last name like Johnson or Washington calls me "white."  You don't say?  Based on my name and my first-generation background alone, I'd say I'm a lot closer to my black roots than you are.  I'm not saying that's your fault, or that this makes me better than you. 



Then again, I'm not going around calling black people 'white', either.  It takes a very, very special circumstance for me to go down that road.



Coming from a black person, the notion that dark-skinned people who speak without trace of an accent or ebonic slang, who spend a great deal of time with people of other races, who get good grades, who don't join relatively pointless, race-based organizations in grade school, and who dress certain ways or listen to certain music are white is setting black people back a hundred years. 



Nas has a song called "What Goes Around Comes Around."  In it, he talks about how different attitudes in the black community are poison.  He pays special attention to the self-hatred found within some parts of the black community.  At one point he says "I don't judge Tiger Woods, but..."  Yes you do, Nas -- with those words, you just did.  Apparently, Tiger doesn't "represent" enough.  Since he doesn't place himself exclusively in the 'black' box, Tiger isn't "down".  And oh look -- now he even has a white wife, too!  What a traitor!  Ridiculous. 



That kind of brainless, short-sighted perspective is poison.  Blind conformity is poison.  Telling someone who knows where they come from that they aren't black enough is poison.  If you're black and you find yourself routinely saying things like that, you might as well put on a pointy white hood and join the KKK.  It's those attitudes that lead to so many black men getting shot or winding up in jail -- "I have to represent, I have to keep it real, I have to maintain my street cred."  That teacher might think it's different.  Nas might think it's different.  It's not as different as they'd like it to be. 



I doubt white supremacists have ever come up with a more effective way to keep black people down than turning black people against each other with the 'soft' or 'sellout' tag.  And it's even worse because we're supposed to be on the same team. 



I'm not saying that black people have to integrate and get along well with white people.  It isn't a prerequisite for empowerment or a requirement for success in life.  But it certainly doesn't hurt, either.  It's worked for people of all races...and, most important, it usually isn't even a conscious decision.  If a white man moves to Japan, it isn't going to hurt him to become more Japanese in his customs and lifestyle.  It might come naturally, just by being around Japanese people.  That's a cultural example, when what I'm talking about are attitudes couched in racial stereotypes. 



Believe it or not, this isn't a tangent.  Joe Biden's comments, George Bush's comments and that black teacher's comments are all tied together.  They may never realize it, but they are all linked by the same underlying simpleminded, backward attitudes towards racial identity and cultural awareness. In and of themselves, they don't seem all that bad.  Unfortunately, the baggage and underlying implications are far more harmful and sinister.  The sooner both blacks and non-blacks understand this, the better off we'll all be.

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit