Black People Don’t Like Talking About Racism
Black Fragility and Meritocracy create Racism
The Black cookout is an escape from white society. No one loses their humanity at the cookout.
Love over baby-back ribs and mama’s potato salad (just say no to raisins!) suspends our reality as police bullet magnets
Discussing racism is never lip smackin’ good.
“Come’on n’get these yams’n collard greens and stop talk’in bout racism!”
Even amongst ourselves, Blacks are uncomfortable talking about racism.
Racism is our daily reality. It causes a similar shame, guilt, anger, anxiety, and helplessness white people experience.
This is Black fragility.
Black fragility: Black people’s denial and/or aversion to discussing racism, often stemming from feelings of shame, anxiety, anger, inferiority and helplessness.
We’re taught to center whiteness at the expense of our humanity. White schools with white curriculums in white neighborhoods teach us. We watch the white media make white superior and convince us that Black is bad, dirty, weak, dangerous, and just not good.
Racism’s intent is to maim, shake, silence and shatter us into bits. Black fragility ensures just that.
Blacks and Meritocracy
Black investment in meritocracy fuels racism. Meritocracy promises equity and access to society through hard work. This doesn’t mean institutionally racist organizations will acknowledge our work. Claudia Rankine says Blacks,
achieve themselves to death trying to dodge the buildup of erasure.
Blacks work 200% harder than whites. The outcomes are decreased life expectancy, life-threatening stress-related illnesses, higher rates of unemployment, segregation, police brutality and taxed based schooling where your zip code defines the quality of your education. So much for meritocracy.
The constitution bankrupts meritocracy. Under the Three-Fifths Compromise, Blacks were three-fifths human. Only WASP men (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) negotiated its terms. They ensured we would never have equal access to the republic.
While we chase the American dream, whites pacify us with diversity initiatives — such as affirmative action. Meanwhile, they continue stashing the good stuff, pillaging our lives through false hope in The American Dream and permanent confiscation of peace of mind.
Meritocracy ignores history and the oppressive structures that prevent us from reaching our potential.
Playing the fool
Let’s think of all the racist Black jokes we’ve laughed off as Black people. Or, a missed moment of solidarity at work with your one fellow Black colleague who publicly denies racism is a problem.
In these moments, our need to assimilate and get along is more than our need to survive with dignity.
Silent complicity in racism is a symptom of Black fragility. Not discussing racism increases racism. In silence, we pretend to be strong and play the fool rather than appearing weak. But who are we fooling?
Going along to get along
To be Black means running an endless script of self-correction.
- Want success in the white world? Code-switch. Cater to whiteness.
- Don’t talk about racism. It makes everyone uncomfortable.
- Don’t speak too loud! It’s threatening. White people are nervous.
- Always shave. They’ll think you’re a thug.
- You can’t do what white people do. (says every Black mother!)
- Don’t move your hands too much. They’ll think your violent.
- Don’t wear a hoodie at night. Someone will shoot you!
- Don’t stay in the sun for too long. You’ll get darker.
There are few “cookout” spaces where we’re allowed to be real. Code-switching to avoid the discussion of race is a way of life. Speaking freely about our oppression makes you a pariah.
Hiding our Blackness
Black fragility hides our blackness to promote white supremacy. It’s comical. We know we’re Black. Everybody knows! Why deny our greatest obstacle in society?
Many Blacks think:
I’m not oppressed! I did nothing wrong. I’m well educated. I have a job with health insurance. I’ve never been to prison.
As long as we’re too ashamed and afraid to call out racism even in our safe spaces — like at the cookout — we will be dominated by white supremacy. Judging ourselves based on the white gaze literally exhaust our lives away. Just as you’d never stand for raisins in the potato salad, don’t stand racism for white comfort. In the end it hurts us all.
Noted conductor, educator and activist Brandon Keith Brown engineers society from the podium by decreasing the racial stigmatization of underrepresented minority classical musicians. Brown is a prizewinner and the audience favorite of the 2012 International Sir Georg Solti Competition for Conductors, and guest conducts prominent European orchestras including the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester-Berlin, Badisches Staatskapelle, Staatskapelle Weimar, members of the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Jena Philharmonie among others. Upcoming debuts include the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, WDR Funkhaus Orchestra Köln, and the Cape Town Philharmonic. Upcoming debuts include the Johannesburg Philharmonic, the Slovak State Philharmonic Košice and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra. He is a student of David Zinman, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, and Gustav Meier. graduating with a master’s from Johns Hopkins University. Initially trained as a violinist, he attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music studying under Roland and Almita Vamos.
A noted social justice advocate, Brown’s writings on race have been featured on The Medium and in the Berlin Tagesspiegel. He is a frequent podcast guest and speaker on the intersection of race in music and education.
Speaking request: info@brandonkeithbrown.com
Instagram: @brandonkeithbrownconductor
Website: www.brandonkeithbrown.com
