Issues Of Black America Part One

There was a time, we as a people aspired to prove we weren't different from anyone else, now we constantly fight to show we aren't. Keep reading, it isn't always a good thing. What black people have become today are a race that despite anything else any other race does, seems to be a look at me, I will not conform to the countries standards type race, striving as hard as we can to make being black a statement. In a way it appears as a long desperate attempt to make up for the time our ancestors spent as slaves. I shouldn't need to mention how our race is it's own, we may have descended from those Africans brought here, we obviously aren't exactly pure. The whites, Native Americans, and Africans were all crossbreeding to the point of; here we are. Despite everything, we still have something to prove, something for the most part, utterly stupid.

Overkill, compared to other races- especially white men, we have this notion to be masculine overkill, which perpetuates the very reason whites used us as farm equipment to begin with. Savages in any way possible, to be aggressive at a constant rate, dominate as possible, to the point it seems it's only to convince ones self. Strutting around as if untouchable, unbeatable, still wondering why white folks treat us the way they do- or at least how we say they do in most cases. You can't complain about how white people feel about  us, when most of the time black people as a race, try to prove otherwise, they are a unique race through what are simply stereotypical actions, forcing white people to feel the way they do. You can't change the way a person feels perpetuating what they may already think, it doesn't work that way.

It's funny in the fact that as we battle white people culturally, , we are also in the midst of battling ourselves. Rejecting anything that isn't hood enough, for some, a facade of sorts. This leads many black people to be afraid of doing things, that aren't black enough, or at the very least, simply afraid of letting it known to those who'd declare heresy. Others lash out in ways to "keep it real." I promise that it's not selling out to just leave your thugged out bubble, and culture yourself in a worldy manner with an OPEN MIND,and move on. Culture is a wonderful thing- black culture, I just think we take it too far. Doing "white people stuff," is not conforming, such as RUN-DMC and Aerosmith, walking this way- all it is, is bridging the gap. Rock and metal bands doing Michael Jackson covers, black kids at the skate park, in the goth scene, the hipster scene, racing motorcyles, and other vehicles. The black men in rock bands, such as Dave Matthews Band or Hootie And The Blowfish, who's leader, I might add has been doing country for a while now, along with Cowboy Troy- another black country singer. Bridging the gap. People like that, like me, are trying to prove we aren't all what the world sees, which I might add, actually is the portrayal  the majority of our race forces the world to see. Feels like a catch 22.

In my short life, I see all of this, those so ghetto, it's ignorant, stupid may be the better word, as stupid is the lack of knowledge, and refusal to learn. Then the ones who get money, get bourgeois(Boodgy, I guess it's spelt and pronounced for black people), running towards the far other end of the black people spectrum. Black people are quick to criticize, and blantantly, sometimes vehemently ridicule anything or anyone, who isn't hood, or who's different- like me. I grew up in the hood, tried to listen to rap(I am actually now, real picky, because most of it is not for me),  tried sagging(such a neanderthal act), I discovered rock, pop, and wearing a belt properly made me happiest. Compared to me, most of my family is ghetto- even the ones who aren't that ghetto. None of that set with me, I wanted to do,and aspire to other things. Some would say I act white, but, to me most white folk aren't as judging as my own people. The friends I have now are like that, a few can be more ghetto than I allow myself to be- which is kinda ironic, but all they did was bridge the gap.

I can count how many "non-traditional" black people I have met on my hands, by that I mean the only thing black about them, as it should be, was simply their skin color. Don't look at mentally stepping off the block as a loss of a culture, but more of a gain of everyone else. The first step is to ignore the "traditionalist,", once you get out, you won't be alone. Stop letting ghetto life hold us down.