(Todd A. Smith)
On March 23, I appeared on a segment of “The Isiah Factor Uncensored” to discuss whether America is vilifying African-American women.
My segment consisted of all African-American men, while the segment before mine featured three African-American women, one Hispanic woman, and a White woman.
I had to walk out of the studio while the White woman, Republican commentator Angela Box, spoke because of the racist tropes coming out of her mouth.
The Hispanic contributor, Republican politician Carmen Maria Montiel, added some more racist stereotypes to the discussion.
But it had me thinking, why are some non-African-Americans so eager to express racist stereotypes, as if others can’t stereotype them?
And why does it seem that African-Americans are judged by the worst of us, while others are judged by their best?
Most school shootings and mass shootings occur because of White men.
However, people do not start running when they see a White man enter a building.
Most of the women flashing their breasts and making out with other women on camera in the “Girls Gone Wild” videos of the late 1990s and early 2000s were White.
Nevertheless, not all White women are stereotyped as whores.
Some White people can do the evilest and the most stupid things known to man.
But they never seem to be stereotyped negatively, at least not by many other White people.
However, when one African-American does something negatively, many White people generalize an entire race of people, even if other African-Americans do not even know the person who did something bad.
Stereotypes are always ignorant.
But racists need to know what it feels like when people use the worst from their community to generalize their entire community.
A White TikTok user told me the thing about stereotypes is that they originate from the truth.
Well, if that is the case, African-Americans should be able to stereotype the heck out of White Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans.
Yes, most school shootings are carried out by White people.
Yes, more White people are racist than many White Americans would care to admit.
Yes, walking barefoot in public is just as bad as African-Americans wearing bonnets and durags in public.
Furthermore, running through the neighborhood without a shirt is tacky and inappropriate.
Nevertheless, many White Americans do it regularly.
Yes, many non-African-Americans are late to work every day.
I know an Asian-American tailor who does great work but is allergic to keeping a schedule.
While one stereotype of Hispanic Americans is that they work hard, I am friends with some lazy Hispanic brothers who played around the entire time we were supposed to be working.
While African-American women faced criticism for dressing risqué at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, I do not see many people complaining about half-naked women of all races flaunting their stuff for all to see on social media.
During Spring Break in Houston, African-American women faced ridicule for twerking in public.
But when Miley Cyrus twerked at an award show, it was as if she discovered America, even though African-American women had been twerking in rap videos for years before she did it.
When former professional athlete Cam Newton dressed flamboyantly during his NFL career, he faced criticism from many in mainstream media and from fans on social media.
But when Joe Burrow does it, he is praised for his bold fashion sense.
When African-Americans experience blatant racism, many White Americans are quick to say that those racists do not represent all White people.
But somehow, if an African-American does something negatively or criminally, it is an indictment of all African-Americans.
While many African-Americans are doing ignorant things in the world, there are just as many White, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans behaving ignorantly too.
In fact, behavior that is seen as ghetto when African-Americans do it is praised as swag, wiggle and sauce when a person of another race does it.
It is time for American society to compare our best with the best from other races.
Compare a White Ivy League graduate to an African-American Ivy League graduate.
Comparing a White Harvard graduate to an African-American welfare recipient from a housing project is not a fair comparison.
I would never compare former First Lady Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson to a White woman on welfare, living in a trailer park.
I would not compare an African-American female at a debutante ball to an ignorant White woman fighting in a football or baseball stadium.
There are some bad-behaving African-Americans.
But there are also many bad-behaving White Americans too.
And it is time America stops ignoring ignorant White people, while amplifying and ridiculing the behavior of ignorant African-Americans.
Although many African-Americans need to do better and make better decisions, many White, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans are like the pot calling the kettle black when they criticize us.
Additionally, many White people have told me about their experiences with so many negative and bad-behaving “low-class” African-Americans.
But I have always wondered, how are they having so many encounters with “low-class” African-Americans, when many African-Americans do not have that many encounters with those stereotypical people?
Could it be that birds of a feather flock together?
Could it be that behavior is linked more to socioeconomic status than race?
And could it be that the White, Asian, Native American and Hispanic people are having so many run-ins with ghetto African-Americans because they are ghetto too?
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