(grammar police, pull pin on this here round thing)
Making it to be a middle aged black man, FBA, has me thinking back on my mindset as it pertains to the racial structure of these here Americas.
One of my most prevalent thoughts in my twenties and thirties was....how are "these people" all acting the same, to various degrees of barbarism, no matter where you are? How is it as a Black man I can go to another Black man anywhere in the country and say "man it's rough out here" -- "man I can't call it" and we instantly know what is being talked about without further clarification?
Well the answer is obvious now as it was then, Media. How do you get an entire population on code while demonizing another? Movie, Books, Music, News.
I'm not here to insult your intelligence, you know these things already, you've seen the overt movies and read the overt books and heard the overt music and news. But do you think it has abated or do you think it's still here?
Just read this article that is part and parcel of a thousand cuts. (LeBron James can't believe 'Squid Game' creator's retort to his criticism)
"The feud we never knew we needed: NBA legend LeBron James facing off with "Squid Game" creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. One would probably win handily on the basketball court. One would probably defeat the other at the Emmys without breaking a sweat."
How is it, arguably the greatest basketball player living can only "handily" beat an Asian movie director in basketball but the Asian movie director can take out LeBron "without breaking a sweat". This falls into their favorite category of implied Black inferiority and plausible deniability. Neither one of them would "break a sweat" making a movie if we want to go there. Notice the words "win" and "defeat", if you can win that means you can lose, if you "defeat", there's no chance of losing.
You as a black person are bombarded with these micro aggressions and you as a black person are suppose to apologize for being offended.
I present to you a filter that once you start using it, you will not "find" but "observe" the anti-black sentiment in all forms of media/movies. It will actually be an onslaught of anti-black negativity that will/should have you disgusted even with your favorite movies (Color Purple, Magnificent Seven, Black Panther etc etc). First and foremost no matter how painful it is...watch "They Live"..this movie will be your template and adjust your mindset. Once you turn on these filters you won't be able to turn them off.
Filters
Black man is never allowed to be a survivable alpha male (Denzel in Magnificent Seven, Will Smith Legend) (Murder at 1600 with Wesley Snipes you say?? at the conclusion of that movie Wesley yells gun and ducks for cover, Diane Lane while handcuffed jumps in front of the bullet)
Black men and Women couples must always show some sort of discomfort or disdain for each other. Pay attention to commercials with a black woman and man, they are mostly never in loving lock step.
Blacks are always some type of coward. (John Boyega in Star Wars)
Blacks are always traitors (Lando in SW, Denzel Training Day, any secondary black saying it can't be done or it's too dangerous)
Blacks are to give their lives for whites (Will Smith Legend, T-dog TWD) (HONORABLE MENTION to Stowaway on Netflix...def watch that)
Blacks are never in charge (who thought Morpheus was in charge in the Matrix only to find out it was some old white dude? How about Shaw and Hobbs, Idris Elba wasn't even fully in charge as the bad guy. Tomorrow War with Chris Pratt, the Black man was already a veteran of the war but was not even considered to lead the expedition)
Black disrespect (The level of disrespect to a black person often comes out of nowhere, it almost hits you like a ton of bricks. For instance in the movie Brian Banks, there's scene of the Black man tossing up and down a banana in a throw away scene! In Jungle Cruise the white woman is NEVER set up to be some sort of drawing artist but on the boat she's arbitrarily drawing a picture of a monkey while looking at Dwayne the Rock and the picture has no plot device except for back room Hollyweird laughter.
Do you think White people and Black people watched the new planet of the apes movies the same way? The answer is no.
It's easy to say if you don't like it blah blah blah or if you don't like it don't watch or you are too sensitive....well in the real world people disrespect you in these very same ways because they see it all day every day. This is where micro aggression comes from and every time you let it go or don't get too worked up about it.....it will continue to happen to YOU.
We fix this by having a collective outrage about it and demanding that it changes. I can complain in the dark on an island or I can hold hands and complain. One of these scenarios gets things done.
Making it to be a middle aged black man, FBA, has me thinking back on my mindset as it pertains to the racial structure of these here Americas.
One of my most prevalent thoughts in my twenties and thirties was....how are "these people" all acting the same, to various degrees of barbarism, no matter where you are? How is it as a Black man I can go to another Black man anywhere in the country and say "man it's rough out here" -- "man I can't call it" and we instantly know what is being talked about without further clarification?
Well the answer is obvious now as it was then, Media. How do you get an entire population on code while demonizing another? Movie, Books, Music, News.
I'm not here to insult your intelligence, you know these things already, you've seen the overt movies and read the overt books and heard the overt music and news. But do you think it has abated or do you think it's still here?
Just read this article that is part and parcel of a thousand cuts. (LeBron James can't believe 'Squid Game' creator's retort to his criticism)
"The feud we never knew we needed: NBA legend LeBron James facing off with "Squid Game" creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. One would probably win handily on the basketball court. One would probably defeat the other at the Emmys without breaking a sweat."
How is it, arguably the greatest basketball player living can only "handily" beat an Asian movie director in basketball but the Asian movie director can take out LeBron "without breaking a sweat". This falls into their favorite category of implied Black inferiority and plausible deniability. Neither one of them would "break a sweat" making a movie if we want to go there. Notice the words "win" and "defeat", if you can win that means you can lose, if you "defeat", there's no chance of losing.
You as a black person are bombarded with these micro aggressions and you as a black person are suppose to apologize for being offended.
I present to you a filter that once you start using it, you will not "find" but "observe" the anti-black sentiment in all forms of media/movies. It will actually be an onslaught of anti-black negativity that will/should have you disgusted even with your favorite movies (Color Purple, Magnificent Seven, Black Panther etc etc). First and foremost no matter how painful it is...watch "They Live"..this movie will be your template and adjust your mindset. Once you turn on these filters you won't be able to turn them off.
Filters
Black man is never allowed to be a survivable alpha male (Denzel in Magnificent Seven, Will Smith Legend) (Murder at 1600 with Wesley Snipes you say?? at the conclusion of that movie Wesley yells gun and ducks for cover, Diane Lane while handcuffed jumps in front of the bullet)
Black men and Women couples must always show some sort of discomfort or disdain for each other. Pay attention to commercials with a black woman and man, they are mostly never in loving lock step.
Blacks are always some type of coward. (John Boyega in Star Wars)
Blacks are always traitors (Lando in SW, Denzel Training Day, any secondary black saying it can't be done or it's too dangerous)
Blacks are to give their lives for whites (Will Smith Legend, T-dog TWD) (HONORABLE MENTION to Stowaway on Netflix...def watch that)
Blacks are never in charge (who thought Morpheus was in charge in the Matrix only to find out it was some old white dude? How about Shaw and Hobbs, Idris Elba wasn't even fully in charge as the bad guy. Tomorrow War with Chris Pratt, the Black man was already a veteran of the war but was not even considered to lead the expedition)
Black disrespect (The level of disrespect to a black person often comes out of nowhere, it almost hits you like a ton of bricks. For instance in the movie Brian Banks, there's scene of the Black man tossing up and down a banana in a throw away scene! In Jungle Cruise the white woman is NEVER set up to be some sort of drawing artist but on the boat she's arbitrarily drawing a picture of a monkey while looking at Dwayne the Rock and the picture has no plot device except for back room Hollyweird laughter.
Do you think White people and Black people watched the new planet of the apes movies the same way? The answer is no.
It's easy to say if you don't like it blah blah blah or if you don't like it don't watch or you are too sensitive....well in the real world people disrespect you in these very same ways because they see it all day every day. This is where micro aggression comes from and every time you let it go or don't get too worked up about it.....it will continue to happen to YOU.
We fix this by having a collective outrage about it and demanding that it changes. I can complain in the dark on an island or I can hold hands and complain. One of these scenarios gets things done.