(Todd A. Smith)
Generalizing is never a good thing.
But almost every Black person has probably had a White person accuse them of playing the race card.
Even with evidence of systemic racism and the numbers to back it up, many White people seem to believe that if a Black person mentions racism that they are making excuses for their predicament in life instead of working hard for what they want in life.
However, when conservative White political pundits like Tucker Carlson and former President Donald Trump call a Black person a racist or blame their anger and frustration in life on reverse racism, I rarely hear White people criticize them for playing the so-called race card.
While people can falsely believe systemic racism adversely impacts White people if they choose to, why don’t the same rules apply to Black and White people?
Instead of people like Trump calling Black attorneys general racist, shouldn’t he just work hard at not breaking the law?
Instead of people like Carlson blaming White replacement theory for the changing demographics of the country, shouldn’t White couples just work harder in the bedroom to make sure White birth rates outpace the birthrates of minorities?
No.
People like Carlson and Trump just fan the flames of hatred and division and make a segment of the White population falsely believe that true equality and diversity is racism against White people.
When people like billionaire Elon Musk believe that equity is unfair, those people epitomize privilege and being tone deaf.
In July 2021, Lawrence Glickman of The Atlantic wrote, “In the conservative world, the idea that White people in the United States are under siege has become doctrine. In recent weeks, three prominent figures have each offered their own versions of this tenet.
“In June, Brian Kilmeade, one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, claimed that activists were ‘trying to take down White culture.’
“Also in June, Tucker Carlson, speaking on his nightly show with anti-White mania graphic in the background, implied that racial strife was imminent and asked: ‘How do we save this country before we become Rwanda?’”
With all due respect to Kilmeade, no minority is trying to eliminate White culture.
However, White people systematically separated those of African descent from their true culture.
Slaves were forced to practice religions foreign to them.
Slaves were forced to speak the English language and forget their native tongues.
Slaves had to disconnect themselves from their African names and accept Eurocentric names.
Slaves had to hide their rituals and customs and assimilate into a country built on White supremacy.
African-Americans, after slavery, still had to disassociate themselves from African and African-American culture to make themselves more palatable to White people.
That often meant putting chemicals in their hair to make it look more European.
African-American entertainers like The Temptations had to produce albums of American standards (also known as songs by White people) just so they would be welcomed into White establishments like the Copacabana.
Their typical Motown Sound had to become Whiter for them to be accepted by mainstream White culture.
Motown even had to take the pictures of its artists off album covers so that mainstream White culture would accept them and buy their records.
James Brown had to dress a certain way to look more acceptable to White TV audiences.
Michael Jackson had to make the “Thriller” album more pop just so he could be accepted on MTV.
With all that discrimination, African-Americans played the game so that they could knock down barriers for the next generation without totally forgetting African-American culture.
So, while the demographics of the country might be changing no one is forcing White people to change or assimilate.
Therefore, White culture is in no danger.
And with all due respect to Carlson, the racial strife that exists in this country is the fault of racists like him who rather divide the country for ratings and money, than to tell the truth, which would bring the country together.
And with all due respect to those that might not like my entertainment anecdotes, African-Americans have dealt with real racism in every facet of life.
To those that say that racism is a thing of past generations, research the fact that African-Americans often face harsher punishment from the justice system in comparison to their White counterparts when everything like crime, criminal history and jurisdiction are the same.
To those that do not care about convicts and criminals, look at how African-Americans have points deducted from their credit scores when applying for loans for homes and businesses when everything else is equal to their White counterparts.
Look at how homes owned by African-Americans are often undervalued until those homeowners have their friends who happen to be White pose as the homeowner.
Then magically, the home is often worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars more.
All that is systemic racism and all that leads to the wealth and power gap that exists between Black and White Americans.
But therein lays the problem for bigots like Trump, Carlson, Kilmeade and Musk.
With the changing demographics and more diversity means more equity for people of color, which will level the playing field.
That’s what the real problem is.
White racists fear that their power will be replaced and instead of having a monopoly, they will have to learn to share.
That is going to happen regardless so racists who do not get accustomed to that reality will have a hard time coping in the future.
Oh well.
Too bad.
So sad.
