Black in America? Yawn.

So, against my better judgment, I watched some of that “Black in America” special they had on CNN.  I’d love to comment on it, but I’m not sure I saw much that warranted comments.  Not that it was a bad special.  It was pretty decent.  But seeing how I know a person or two already that’s like all the folks they profiled in the special, it wasn’t that illuminating.  “Hey, let’s talk to a guy in jail!”  Well, I already know a couple of those.  “Hey, let’s talk to a guy that hangs out with white people!”  Met him, too.  “Hey, let’s talk to Michael Eric Dyson and Roland Fryer!”  Same as before, though it’s debatable whether I’m better off for having met one of them.
This is what gets me…
Do black people have problems?  Certainly.  How particular to black people were the problems discussed in the show?  That’s questionable.
Anyway, since I really don’t have time to get into all of this, I just want to throw out two things that jumped out at me while I was watching.
1.  At some point, we’re going to have to stop pretending that there’s no such thing as talking like a white person.  There certainly is, and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that.  Most of us can tell on the telephone whether a caller is black or white.  It’s in the tone of voice, choices of idioms and colloquialisms, etc.  You just know when you’re talking to a white person on the phone or when you’re talking to a black person, and there’s nothing politically incorrect about saying that.
Now, here’s the thing…every time I see one of these shows, there’s always some dude on there lamenting that as soon as he talks, people say he talks like a white boy.  Invariably, that dude sounds like a white boy.  Then, said dude goes on to say how he speaks in proper English and how offensive it is to say that he talks “white” because he speaks proper English.
Let me say this one time to all of you people that perpetuate that nonsense.  There are certainly ignorant people that think speaking properly is talking “white.”  Interestingly, a significant proportion of those people are white.  Dunno how it is they’re not called on the carpet for that, but whatever.  I’m not pretending there aren’t fools out there that don’t get it, but let’s not act like the fools are representative of the larger group.  Only black folks are represented in the mainstream by our fools.
But in general, it is NOT proper grammar that makes one say a person talks like a white person.  If that were the case, there would be a lot more people out there talking about how Martin Luther King talked like a white person.  Malcolm X, too.  Ever hear anyone say that about Jim Brown?  Michael Eric Dyson?  Michael Jordan?  Because all of those people certainly speak and spoke in proper English, but I don’t hear the streets saying they talk like white people.  You might hear someone say they were “proper,” and I heard that one a lot growing up.  But teasing someone for talking “proper” and saying they sound like they’re white are two different things.
It’s because they don’t.  But if you sound like Carlton Friggin’ Banks, you sound like a white person.  And think about it — the people these things are usually said about grew up around lots of white people.  I know this because I grew up around a lot of these people.  If you grow up around a bunch of white people, you’ll probably come out talking like a white person.  Same applies for white folks that grew up in black neighborhoods.  I mean, what do you expect?
For a supposedly thought-provoking series to perpetuate — often using a really annoying green tea spoken word dude to get the point across — was ridiculously.  If you’re not smart enough to see past that madness, you’re not smart enough to tackle the subject of race in America.  Period.
2.  This is what I want.  Keep your “what’s wrong with black people” specials.  Keep Roland Fryer at home, tell Dyson to start working on his next book, and don’t call another one of those Negro neocons to admonish us.  Nope, you can keep that special.  I’ve seen it too many times.
There are a lot of things in black America that need to be fixed.  Most notable among them is the idea that only black folks should be concerned with black America.  It’s America, jack.  I understand the game, though.
Which brings me to my point — that we’re still talking about BLACK America as if it’s something separate, like American Samoa or something, should give you a reminder of what remains the biggest problem in this country.
Racism.
I guess it’s gotten out of style to really talk about racism.  The discussion is a lot more fun for people if it’s somehow about black folks taking this racism as an indelible given and just work around it.  Forgive me, but I’m just not prepared to settle for that.
So this is what I want…
These folks act like these specials about black people are so important, right?  That they’ll give us a portrait of “what it’s really like to be black in America.”
Personally, I’d like to find out what it’s like to be white in America.   Get a room full of white folks and get them talking about white America’s problems.  And how ’bout you start that off with a full on two-hour discussion of racism.  Let us ask the majority, the greatest beneficiaries of racism, to talk about what they’re going to do to fix that scourge on its people.  Talk about how they plan to eliminate this societal flaw that’s persisted for so long.
Racism remains America’s ugliest legacy, so let’s take a TV special there.  No black folks on the panel.  Just white people having a frank discussion on racism.  I’d love to see it.
(Before I go…there are lots of people that get on black people for the idea that family business shouldn’t be discussed in the streets.  Yet so many white commentators continue to look for any explanation imaginable in a situation to avoid pointing toward racism.  If that ain’t the same thing…)