It’s time to admit that America will never really include black America

[n2doc]

By Reniqua Allen

Last week, after watching another black man die at the hands of the New York City police, I can’t help but wonder whether there will ever be true equality for African Americans. The number of African Americans that have been victimized, murdered, terrorized, shot, and left for dead seems not just to be a legacy of some bloodstained Jim Crow past, but a part of a present moment that seems just as bleak. While there has been some progress, the narrative of the black experience in America feels remarkably static, as if it’s just shaken up, flipped, and twisted for a new generation.

It’s making me question whether America is truly the best place for African Americans.

I recently watched a film from the 1970s called Space is the Place. It’s about an African American leader who wants blacks to leave an oppressive America for a new land in outer space where blacks will have more agency and equal opportunities to thrive. On the surface, the movie is every form of ridiculousness you can imagine, with a slick-talking pimp, outrageous wardrobes, and a spaceship that looks like a pair of binoculars. But the heart of the film, the idea of mobility and liberation through migration is intriguing—and one that has been missing for nearly a century from our current dialogue about upward mobility and the state of black America.

Is it time to revisit?

I don’t have to repeat all of the ways in which black lives are challenged in America. You’ve heard all the statistics. Read about Trayvon, Jordan, and Emmett. Watched as the nation grieves for missing white girls, while the stories of 64,000 black and brown girls remain unheard. Look at Ta-Nehisi Coates’ piece on reparations or glance at some of the most recent reports about black life and you’ll find higher rates of unemployment, a larger wealth gap, more foreclosed homes and lower education rates. Last year the Washington Post found that “the economic disparities separating blacks and whites remain as wide as they were when marchers assembled on the Mall in 1963.”

1963!

But none of this is a surprise. Nowadays it seems as if the stagnant state of the black community has been normalized, accepted as part of a reality instead of a crisis that needs to be attacked as ferociously as one would a plague.

more

http://qz.com/237642/its-time-to-admit-that-america-will-never-really-include-black-america/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. It's a good article

Well worth going to the link- as the first few paragraphs don't really get into the 'meat' of what she's working through with this.

[chervilant]

2. What I find horrific

is the fact that Eric said repeatedly "I can't breathe!", and they rifled through his pockets while he laid there not breathing!

And, not a peep from the M$M!!!!

What's it gonna take?!?!

[Neon Gods]

3. Where is the outrage?

I'm a white guy married to an African American. I see what she (and her family) has had to put up with first hand. I also have to live with the apathy and skepticism of my fellow white friends and family who are convinced that everything is just fine, blacks who want to get ahead can, and blacks who "live in poverty, subsidized by the taxpayers, have no one but themselves to blame." In the past ten years or so I have yet to meet a white person who feels any outrage at the high unemployment rates and obvious discrimination taking place in America, and I think that is partly due to the fact that we see so little outrage in the black community. The NAACP is impotent and most black church leaders appear quite satisfied with their lot and don't want to rock the boat. Where is the outrage?

In some ways things were better in the 60s because the discrimination and hate were on public display and Americans were shocked and disgusted. Today's discrimination is far more subtle and it will be much harder to change.

I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure change will only happen if blacks organize, expose the discrimination and DEMAND change, loudly. Also, African Americans, especially in the South, need to vote in the largest numbers possible in every election.

I do think America will eventually be a color-blind society, but that is little consolation for those of us living now.

[wcast]

5. AA's have been deligitimized for so long in America (400 years or so) that many automatically

blame them for whatever happens. Hurricane Katrina is a prime example. I feel your pain as my ex-wife is black, I am white, and we have three children together. My children experience situations on a daily basis that most whites refuse to believe exists. At 22, my son has been pulled over more times than I have at 47. Not only do they pull him over but, as a big man of 6'3" and 220 lbs, they call back up and canine. Doesn't matter that he is one of the nicest kids you would ever meet, or that everyone from friends to bosses love him; all they see is a big scary black man. My daughters have it easier but still hear many negative comments from white friends, who seem to "forget" my children are bi-racial, about AA's.

As for outrage, I think there is plenty of that. But what does outrage matter when you aren't heard? Jeremiah White spoke a lot of truths, but aside from knowing he said God Damn America, how many listened to his words in context? The problem with outrage is people become tired of it very quickly and tune it out. I think what you said about AA's voting in the largest numbers possible is the best answer. Since Obama AA's have found that they are a potent political force that can swing elections and voted in higher percentages than whites the last Presidential election. However, southern whites are fleeing the Democratic party which is offsetting to some degree that effects of black turnout. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/southern-whites-loyalty-to-gop-nearing-that-of-blacks-to-democrats.html?_r=1

To me the biggest issue that is impacting race relations today is fear. Many whites are afraid of losing their majority or favored status and many are literally losing their minds and are fighting, literally and figuratively, for the America that they remember. Here is a study that shows that fear of losing majority or favored status increases political conservatism. http://blog.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2014/04/fear_of_a_black_planet_study_f.html

Here is another that shows Whites believe in affirmative action when compared to Asians. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/13/white-definitions-merit-and-admissions-change-when-they-think-about-asian-americans#sthash.ybl3wisR.dpbs

I wish I could say it will get better quickly, even though things are far better today than when I was a kid, but I don't think it will. It will come, in fits and starts, and I think my great grandchildren will know a more equal America. I hope I'm around to see it.

[yurbud]

4. Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act are within my lifetime...

My dad who grew up in the Jim Crow era is still alive and working.

His parents were so virulently racist, it scared me as a kid even when I didn't know any black people. His dad just died a couple of weeks ago.

When the last of the generation that grew up with a conscious awareness of Jim Crow going on around them is gone, or at least gets so old they let go of the levers of power and filter out of police forces and the like, these kinds of attacks will finish dying off.

I would rather it be sooner if we can figure out a way to make that happen. If it means only having black cops in majority black areas or something like that, then fine, whatever it takes.