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| Photo Cred: bing wallpaper |
Let me start this post by saying this is a topic long over due for discussion and I've been seeing this word everywhere as of lately with so many for and against the description used for black people or African Americans (if you prefer those word better.)
The word is Blackness and it is often misused to describe anyone of African American culture. This is where the confusion begins for many people like myself who are mixed or are light skinned African Americans.
The dictionary refers to Blackness as the fact or state of belonging to any group having dark colored skin. This definition means that blackness is a term used to describe the color of ones skin and not their ethnic background, which in my eyes just states that Blackness can't be a word used just to describe the African American culture.
I think this is a problem using this term to describe a culture when we know African Americans culture come in all shades.
This is where a lot of those questions pop up, especially with our young people, we define being black as a color of the skin, when we know being African American comes in all colors.
I personally have had points in my life where I was questioned about not being 100% black and for looking too different to be 100% Latino.
I have even been told by someone of my own black side of the family that I "was not really Black."
So today as an adult its important for me to claim both sides lovingly and understand all that makes me, me.
I have a close friend who is African American and is light skin and has always had a rough time proving to others that she is African American.
So when it comes to Blackness who really falls into this category, like I mentioned I know black people who fight to prove their black and I know dark skinned people who are not African Americans.
So in my eyes Blackness can't be a word for the description of African American people only.
It can be used for all African Americans and colored people who come in all shades of beauty.
While I do believe we have to highlight crimes done against African American people and the inequality we experience as black people, we also have to be aware that this police brutality, racism, and crimes against black people are targeting people of dark skin, and black culture.
Because of racism the word Anti-Blackness which without much explanation needed means someone or a group of people who are not for the black people(this does not include colored people)
Anti-Blackness is the reference to someone who specifically does not like African Americans.
This is what actually pisses me off, if your racist, your racist. There is no "I just don't like African American people because the truth is you don't like dark skinned people. I have friends who are dark skinned Latinos that could pass easily as being African Americans and have received the same treatment, no difference because they aren't black.
In their own words their is no change in attitude when they prove they are a colored person vs an African American.
It is all about their skin tone, something not even the fact that they speak Spanish too can change.
Racism is given shades, not acceptable, if you don't like a person based on the color of their skin you are racist.
The word should not be segregated based on who the color skin belongs to that you are hating on.
We see the President is aiming his racist indifference's on one culture of Mexicans by his desire to build a wall.
He is constantly putting down an entire race on the deeds of a few bad men.
There are many forms of Anti-black and some are labeled this because they are hating on the success of African Americans and our recent victim is Actress Gina Rodriguez.
She was under fire when she was accused of being Anti-Black when she commented on Social Media "Don't forget about us Latinos" in reference to a comment posted about the grand achievement of Black Panther's all Black leading cast, and that highlighted her past comments on pay inequality.
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| Photo Cred: flare.com |
Are Gina Rodriguez's comments Anti-Black?
This is where society runs with this nonsense and creates these separations. There are a lot of people out there who really deserve this black-lashing but I didn't feel in any way, Gina's comments weren't racist or Anti-black in any way.
The pay inequality rant seemed to be her spilling out inaccurate information, which is often what we get online.
Gina seems to have trouble with communicating herself with celebrity air, but she did not put down the remarkable achievements that the movie received nor that it was not well deserved.
There has been a long journey in the recognition of African American actors and actresses and the level and types of roles for them.
We have to remember it’s a journey all colored artist are fighting as well, and who also deserve to one day dream to have that type of exclusive cast and accolades.
Don't forget when we put aside these differences and these battles that are presented to us to make us separate ourselves, we as a whole of African American and colored people will never be the minority in fact we together become the majority.
In reality there is only one minority. And it is not us.
Boom!
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| Photo Cred: rochester.edu |
"The more you know of your history,
the more liberated you are."
~Maya Angelou~
