Phaelos Interracial-Voice

Fade From ‘Black’
Reflections of a Human
By Adam Abraham

Adam Abraham Each time I sit down to collect my thoughts for this forum, I “tune” my mind to the subject of race and its associated dynamics. Although it may be a dubious statement to some, it is indeed possible for a “black man” to not see life and reality in a racial context on a “24/7” basis. However, or perhaps because when I do, a fascinating thing happens. The sphere of perceivable transformational options that are immediate and doable, as it relates to the lives of black men and women, tends to shrink. In other words, if I begin seeing things as a “black” man, rather than as the human being that I am, solutions to long standing individual and social problems appear to be more distant, rather than near. While it’s only a feeling, it’s not a pleasant one.

Socially speaking, it appears that, being “black” in America is about “bringing up the rear,” struggling for the minimums, fighting to gain “equality” by fighting to maintain inequity. It also appears to mean being angry, concerned about “catching up” or “getting our share”, racist in thinking (but inclined to deny it or justify it) and, more often than not, being socially and culturally myopic.

Being “black” seems to be about recruitment of the “right” people. A man or woman who is of mixed racial parentage, where one parent is considered “black” will be considered “black,” because they have “black blood”. (Has anyone ever seen a drop of black blood?) Their “race” will be deemed to be unquestioned even if the usual physical features are not so evident. Yet, by this daffy definition, there are many more “black folk” out there than meets the eye, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed (or exploited) by former “soul president” Bill Clinton.

While some “mixed race” men or women will stand accused of “passing for white,” others may be “super determined” to prove where their allegiances lie. They’ll get “extra black” -- more angry, more academically or behaviorally disaffected, more militant, or roguish -- to leave no doubt that they “belong.” The new movie, Malibu’s Most Wanted, where Brad “B-Rad” Gluckman, the son of a gubernatorial candidate, fully embraces the hip-hop lifestyle, demonstrates this proclivity to the satirical extreme.

I’m not making this up. I wish I were.

There are many reasons for this, with power, or the perception thereof, being at the core. Black people are believed to be a political, social, and cultural monolith. Many of “the believers” are black people themselves, as well as the rest of society. It’s true that there is great power in numbers. However, said power is thought to be conferred by singularity of collective thought and action, when no such thing exists in actuality. Oprah, or Denzel, or even Snoop’s deep pockets don’t open any doors for me. Unless you are one of those people, your power is realized and exercised through the singularity of inspired, enthusiastic, creative, original thought and action that you express.

The word “black” connotes a very specific place on the color spectrum, people who consider themselves “black” (or are considered so by others), are represented over the full range of human pigmentation. Yet perceptions are sometimes not so broad. We are gifted… but not perceived to be. We are intelligent… but not often perceived to be. In fact, we are too often disinclined to let others know just how bright we are. We are free, but often perceive ourselves to be oppressed. When we speak in “oppressed tongue,” joyful life options become fewer and farther in-between. This statement applies to any person, blacks included.

There are a few roads that are a bit too “well traveled” by black people in America, if their percentages of the overall population are considered. Gang membership and activity is one. “Drugpreneurship” is another. Prison citizenship, as a result of these and other activities, is yet another troubling path taken by legions of black men and women. While none of these examples make up the bulk of what constitutes “the black experience,” they often dominate the perception of what “being black” is about. Entertainers, including filmmakers, rap and hip-hop artists, comedians, etc. -- who make a sizeable living as the “new minstrels” -- exacerbate the perception. Are they responsible for it? No. They’re only riding a wave of opportunity.

Opportunists or not, the perception that goes along with being “black” is not a comfortable one for me, although it’s one I’ve learned to live with. Fortunately, it’s a self-perception I don’t have to embrace personally. I can see myself simply as a human being. Now some serious perception building is in order in that area too, but any improvement at this level of thinking will yield benefits on individual and collective levels. As we transform our perception as human beings, so will our perception of self, as (fill in the) blank people, be changed.

Today the perception of being “black” is one too often associated with trouble, struggle, and unrequited reward. It’s a perception of odds “stacked against” the individual and group, of playing fields that are “uneven,” and being on the “foul side” of the lines of human fairness. There is ample history to support these perceptions of “blackness”, but there is also ample reality to indicate that it need not be so, today. There are many examples which show that the power of vision, enthusiasm, ingenuity, and determination works for everyone equally. One thing that is not “equal” is our expectations of each other, and of our selves. No one can really measure such things. No one really knows the truth about what is really fair treatment, but the individual, because only we know how fair or unfair we are truly treating others.

America has changed dramatically in the 50-something years of my lifetime. Many doors that were “closed” to black people are now open. Some institutions send out engraved invitations to black people to join, but go wanting for the dearth of interested and prepared candidates to choose from. Math, science, and engineering in higher education, are just a few examples of professions where black people are conspicuously under-represented. To “fix” this problem, attorneys for the University of Michigan have gone before the Supreme Court seeking what amounts to “performance waivers” for black (and Hispanic) students, so that school administrators can, with good conscience, give them extra admissions points for simply being black. While this effort is championed by many blacks that want easy access to “designer label schools,” the fact that the perception that they may be unable to make the academic grade (like certain other over-represented “minorities”) is dismissed, or simply not discussed. In terms of buying power, black people represent the most powerful targetable consumer block with over $532 billion in annual gross purchasing power (according to 1998 Multicultural American Dream Index). In 1997, there were 259,000 African American households with annual incomes over $100,000, comprising 16.1% of all U.S. households. While this is an encouraging piece of news, it doesn’t change the fact that an overwhelming percentage of these people are employees, not employers. They are managed, and not managers, renters, not owners, stock people, and not stockholders, “executed upon”, and not executives. Many of them are one paycheck or layoff away from some serious stress. I speak from personal experience.

Black people are of vital importance to the vitality of the world economy, but don’t appreciate it enough. Perpetuating the idea that “race” and culture are prime determinants of one’s motivation and interest causes far larger opportunities to pass by unrealized. For all the great strides that are indeed being taken, larger leaps that stand at the ready are instead simply standing still. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Let’s face it; old perceptions “die” hard. Indeed, they never die. They don’t even fade away. New perceptions replace them. When a black man or woman advances a concept that benefits all of humanity, then humanity will take notice, as it did with Dr. Martin Luther King. When a black man or woman stands for equal justice under the law, demonstrating judgment that is not swayed by the color of one’s skin, but by the effect of the action, great strides will have been taken. Barbara Jordan gained this measure of respect. When multiple choruses of black men and women tell each other and the world, in the classroom and the workplace, that they don’t want remedial “supports” to be an assumed necessity simply because they are black, a great day will have arrived. It will have been a long time coming, but a sweet moment nonetheless.

Adam Abraham is author of I Am My Body, NOT! and A Freed Man: An Emancipation Proclamation (Phaelos Books), and is launching his career as a videographer with the “I Am” project. Mr. Abraham can be reached via email at adam@phaelos.com, or through his web site, www.phaelos.com.

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