(Todd A. Smith)
America is going through some strange times when White people are educating Black people on the Black experience.
First, President Donald Trump falsely believed that Black Americans would connect with him because of his criminal record and mug shot.
Now, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is questioning the blackness of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) because Crockett is intelligent, well-educated and did not grow up in poverty.
Although many White people, especially those on the conservative aisle of the political spectrum, claim not to be racist, whenever they discuss race, their stereotypical views of Black people prove their bigotry and ignorance.
Rep. Greene told conservative media personality Megyn Kelly, “She claims to be, you know, from her people…she puts on this image that she understands the Black American struggle. But let’s face it, the girl went to private school. She went on to, you know, I don’t know what college and law school she went to. It’s like…she’s a complete fake.”
By Green’s asinine logic, Rep. Crockett would not be the first fake Black person to speak up for the Black community and Black issues.
Tupac Shakur was also fake, as he attended a performing arts school in Baltimore.
The Notorious B.I.G. was fake because he went to a Catholic school like Crockett.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was fake too because he attended the private and prestigious Morehouse College.
Late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) was also fake.
Although the former Houston mayor grew up in the impoverished Acres Homes community, the son of a hotel housekeeper, he graduated as the valedictorian of the predominantly Klein High School (which is a public school), completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Houston and earned his law degree from Harvard University.
I know for a fact that Turner had an authentic Black experience because I grew up down the street from where he lived and grew up, and I attend The Church Without Walls like he did before his passing earlier this year.
In fact, his ex-wife had the same hairstylist as my mother and my sister for years.
Former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards must not have had the real Black experience either, because she went to Emory University before attending law school at Harvard University.
Edwards is running for Turner’s vacant seat in the United States House of Representatives.
I know Edwards had an authentic Black experience, despite being the daughter of a pharmacist, because she grew up around the corner from me and went to Eisenhower High School with me.
Even though Edwards has dedicated her professional life to helping poor Black people in Houston neighborhoods like Third Ward, she is fake because she received a good education and had educated parents.
It is as if Greene is saying that being intelligent negates someone’s Blackness because I guess intelligence is reserved for White people.
Getting admitted to a top-notch law school should not equal Whiteness.
And if it does in the minds of some people, then those people are the dictionary definition of racist.
To MAGA Republicans, criminality and poverty equate to Blackness, while education, a middle or upper middle-class background, and being smart enough to get into an Ivy League institution mean a person is not authentically Black.
Even if some Black people grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths, many are one generation away from poverty.
Many Black people who grew up in suburban neighborhoods had cousins in the hood who ate government cheese and wore their hand-me-downs.
Therefore, it is almost impossible for a Black person not to connect with the struggle, no matter how well their parents did financially or how successful they are in academia.
Additionally, the more success a Black person enjoys, the more racism they may face.
Police officers and random White people often do not look suspiciously at poor Black people living in poor neighborhoods and driving old jalopies.
However, when a Black person’s success helps them afford a luxury car and a home in a gated community, they often face more racism because racist White people do not believe they should have those things.
The old Black lady walking to the community church in the hood does not raise suspicion or cause White people to reveal their racism.
But the Black people who pull up to The Church Without Walls in a Bentley are probably causing all kinds of stereotypical things and racial slurs to come out of people’s mouths.
It might even lead to harassment or worse.
Many people have seen viral videos of White people threatening or calling the cops on Black people who might even be on their own property because they do not believe Black people belong in predominantly White spaces.
Unfortunately, I am sure that highly successful Black people like Crockett have endured similar situations.
Therefore, to say that people like Crockett have not lived the true Black experience is ridiculously stupid and out of touch with reality.
Because of how far they have climbed in politics, entertainment or corporate America, they probably deal with racism every day.
And racism and White supremacy are the Black experience in America, not necessarily poverty and subpar education.
But because of racism and White supremacy, many Black Americans do deal with poverty and subpar education.
However, when a rose grows from concrete, do not believe that it came from fertile ground.
After all, no matter what background a Black person comes from, they still must get everything out of the mud because they are constantly starting at a disadvantage because of America’s original sin of White supremacy.
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