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Just a few thoughts about racism and certain reactions to black behavior ahead of rooting for my man Richard Sherman.
Of all the responses that I've seen black folks locally register over the past few weeks to some high-profile incidents involving black men -- Sherman's interview, Jayru Campbell's body slam, Cush being Cush -- the most frustrating and puzzling is this sense of shame that some of us harbor.
Sure, we will say we shouldn't be judged by the actions of other blacks. But knowing that non-blacks will often judge us collectively anyway, we are quick to criticize blacks who mess up as "setting us back" and "making it easier for the racists" and "proving that it's true what they say about us."
This is wrong.
Nothing that black people do or have ever done can ever justify the racism we endure daily.
Black men don't get beaten by the cops or jailed for crimes they didn't commit because their pants hang low. Black youth are not incarcerated at higher rates than whites because they speak slang or listen to hip-hop. Black women don't earn less than white men who do the same job because they have a "bad attitude." Our schools aren't underfunded because a black teen is in a street gang or because he strolls with a limp. L. Brooks Patterson doesn't hate you because you talk loud at the movies.
Black men were getting lynched when we wore suspenders and suits. Black women were being passed over for jobs when their names were Hattie Mae and Anna, not Shaniqua and Mercedes.
Be it the slaughter of Emmett Till or Travyon Martin, the railroading of the Scottsboro Boys or the Central Park Five, the mistreatment of black people at the hands of white America has not a single damn thing to do with our behavior.
Of course, behavior still matters greatly. Of course, we have a duty to try to achieve and build and live functional, fruitful lives. And yes we are bound to hold each other accountable on matters of principle. But that's for our sake, for the sake of our families and our communities. We have an obligation to excel for us -- not because black failure "proves racists right."
We should hold ourselves to the highest standards that the best of our history has set -- but black people shouldn't delude ourselves into thinking that "acting right" will save us from white supremacy. It will not. It never has.
We strive to be the best we can at whatever we do. But let's stop believing that, when some black man or woman messes up or "acts out," shame is the proper response and that our human frailties are so much worse than other people's. Let's get past this notion that that our being good and proper will shield us from a pathology that has festered at this nation's core since we were first brought here.
I hope Richard Sherman gets to talk even more shit after today's game. I hope he's as confident and passionate and boisterous as ever. And I hope that if/when he is, black people -- and really, all folks of good conscience -- are smart and self-assured enough to not care a whit about what racist reactionaries think or say.
Because win or lose, no matter what we do, haters gon' hate.
