"You're making Us Look Bad . . .!"

Racist hegemony or control can be subtle, baseless but powerful.

A major tool is the subliminally-accepted, perceptional, racial rhetoric used to describe proclivities and explanations for certain types of deviant or abhorrent behavior as it relates to the myriad of folks of color compared with that of Whites.

Take the statement in the title of this post . . .

For years, I have heard blacks and other folks of color say or express some version of this sentiment:

"Oh man!  Why did those idiots have to go do that!?  They're going to make the rest of us look bad . . .!"

This is an impugned burden of 'control' over your fellow human being, even complete strangers, that is impossible to achieve.  For that matter it's uproariously ridiculous to even attempt it. 

That effort, that duty is what I call wearing the cloak of Collective Judgement (Punishment).

The acceptance of this 'duty' has unfortunately sunk down to a deeply subconscious level in communities of color.  It falls out of our mouths absently in the rhetoric our community leaders and politicians use on an occasion of violence within our neighborhood. It is often in response to the negative attention being garnered due to the mainstream media choosing to hyper focus on an incident in particular.

Like Ferguson . . .

It's part of the 'black on black' crime narrative fallacy (whites kill each other at the same rates as blacks do because people tend to live among folks that look like them).

"They make us all look bad!  They're acting like animals . . .!"

This may sound familiar because it was used to describe the few occasions of rioting that happened in Ferguson.

But this isn't a new phenomenon.

This offense is something Israel has been accused of doing to the Palestinians - A few do the deed, the entire city gets assaulted and/or bombarded.

Although the situation with blacks and people of color in this country are not as obvious or stark . . . it is no less deadly.

We are perceived as threatening if we don't have a cheery demeanor for even a moment

Tamir Rice was shot without a scintilla of a chance to assess what the cop pulling up would mean to him.

Amadou Diallo was hit with a rainstorm of bullets for COMPLYING with an order to produce ID.

The fate of the Black Wall Street . . .

And the list goes on . . .

This sort of 'treatment' is actually against the Geneva Conventions yet people of color are treated with this radioactive social and legal stigma to this day.

Physically, socially, culturally this sort of 'lumping' is pervasive and ghastly one-sided.

The larger society has been using the media as the major means of subjugation, as the tip of the spear, so to speak, to intellectually and even culturally 'assault' 'undesirable and upsetting' group activity . . .

. . . That is, activity that 'upsets' the white privileged or supremacy status quo.

They use the actions of a wayward few and magnify it to an extent that it takes all the air out of the 'intellectual and societal discussion Room'.

Thus the entire group or movement gets 'tarred and feathered' . . . which turns off potentially sympathetic citizens from paying attention and possibly joining the movement and adding to its nascent momentum . . . that if it organically builds and is sustained  long enough could turn into a genuine, unstoppable movement for change or reform.

The status quo and those that pull those strings do not favor such things.

They have a vested interest, financial mostly as well as other reasons, to keep folks from coalescing around an action or activity to 'system-endangering' levels.

OWS, the Rodney King riots, and other demonstrations against governmental malfeasance have all been framed in this way.

The reasons for the protest gets lost in the minutia and/or sensationalism of the deeds of the misguided few.

"They're acting like animals . . .!"

Even our leaders of color have echoed these sentiments . . . which, in twist of irony, sound very similar to how the racists on Fox and other avenues have been describing the same events.

They 'help' the bigots put people of color 'collectively' down!

So when I hear black leaders as well as everyday black folk absently 'carry' this odious weight it makes me sad and a bit frustrated.

The 'making us look bad' suggests and implies we're trying to and have accepted a certain trope larger society has about our proclivities

This tome of behavior that we've imbibed so well and predictably follow, altogether represents a 'submission' of sorts to an ingrained white supremacy standard of 'collective judgement':

Whites get their 'ratchetness' to stay ONLY with 'the individual' . . . while people of color have an impossible 'task' of 'behaving' for 'all of Us', that is, 'accepting responsibility by proxy' for the behavior of every other person of color.

That we need to reject out of hand.

If it is allowed to build it will inform politics that will justify crushing the entirety of the protests or movements.

This has been done before throughout our history . . . and it has had a reasonably good batting average when it comes to extinguishing rebellion.

So being all masturbatory in terms of ignoring how you're being framed because "We know we're not about that!" are what I call the 'famous last words' of a movement.

You have to fight back.

And with the fickle and shortened attention span of the reality TV addicted public . . . you really can't afford not to.

We need to aggressively confront this on the interpersonal level, and when in the media space we vigorously fight these 'suggestions' that inevitably come from the 'host' or interviewer and call it out for what it is:

Racist.

Don't be afraid of that word.

Their line of questioning or portrayal directly aids the status quo . . . which is built on white supremacy and maintaining the blissfully oblivious or not so subtle superior power status/advantage of society's long 'chosen' ethnicity:

The Caucasian

And that is what Racism is.

A system design to impart benefit and preferred status on a preferred group.

Right now and for a while (centuries) it has been Whites.

I must say here (though I feel I shouldn't have to because if 'you' aren't who I'm talking about, the 'you' shouldn't have an 'issue' . . .) for the obtuse minded and thick headed of the majority reading this:

This is not an attack on whites in general.  Many whites do 'get it' and stand together with so-called minorities against this sentient apartheid we live under.

It's more of an attack on a system of societal control in all arenas that perpetuates white privilege (supremacy).  

It is also meant to point out how the lay attitudes of too many whites towards race, protect and propagate the aforementioned societal malaise.

This lastly and hopefully serves as  an impetus for us folks of color to re-examine our long-accepted practices of struggle and rhetoric to make sure we aren't undercutting ourselves.

Let me clear that in no way am I against self-criticism.  We do need to examine ourselves and constantly improve in order to hold more of a fount of unassailable moral authority when we take on larger society for redresses of historical and persistent wrongs based in racial bias.

But this self examination, while always necessary, does not invalidate the fact of racism and its effects on 'us'.

The fight holds merit is worthwhile whether we 'self-deprecate' or not!  

All I'm saying is when we choose to publicly 'scold ourselves' do so in a way that does not support the collective judgement I've been discussing.  It means choosing words wisely and being aggressive and smart with the politics of it, with a firm grasp of the historical tactics and record of how the media has been used (and is still being used) to subjugate people of color.

Or 'They' win going and coming . . .

The last thing we can afford is 'they' 'laughing' at us as we try to uplift ourselves . . . chuckling at the irony of it all . . . and toast:

"Not to worry boys.  The State of Our Dominion . . . is Strong!"

(C) "Obioma" 12/24/14