Happy Friday good people. How y’all feeling today? It’s been a week since I hollered at y’all last, and you know my mind been philosophizing on some philosophical shit.
Peep this.
You ever wonder why whenever there is a matter concerning marginalized people, Black folks in particular, you can always bet your bottom dollar that Wypipo will come along White-peopling!?
Ooh, what’s White-peopling you ask my good sir?
Well that’s when White people, usually racist ones but not exclusively, cry, complain, yelp, feel intimidated, feel “unsafe” and just generally feel a type of way, when Black people have the audacity to complain about things like racial microaggressions, stereotypes, bias, White supremacy, and uhhhhhh RACISM.
So they do things like
- Whitesplaining,
- Whatshaming,
- Whitewashing,
- Whitelashinig,
- Whitetearing (usually done by White women),
This is White-peopling people.
Now according to Corinthians 22, (that’s not a thing just making a little jokey joke) Wypipo been White-peopling since the dawn of time.
But in case you need some more current examples here you have it.
Diddy tweets about Black women and like clockwork, White women come Whitetearing.
A month or so ago rap mogul Sean puff Diddy daddy Combs took to twitter with a simple tweet that read :
Pretty harmless right? All the brother did was salute Black women; just because. Well these are the types of responses he got:
& my favorite:
Like damn Becky! Y’all can’t fall back for one sec? Acknowledging one cultural group of women is not in turn putting down every other group. Not to mention the fact that as Black men growing up in a country where Whiteness is the norm, we tend to not celebrate or honor our women as often. White women are being affirmed constantly, even when they do outlandish shit, but the minute we affirm our Black women, there’s a media outcry. Y’all got to have several seats.
Proctor and Gamble “The Talk” video
Even more recently, Proctor and Gamble started a campaign called “My Black is Beautiful” in which they released a video called “The Talk”. Now, “The Talk” depicts a series of conversations between Black parents and children, where they are warned and advised on the dangers of navigating the White world.
These “talks” are realities that parents of color actually have to have with their children as they grow and experience the racism, sexism, colorism and all the other isms Black people face in White supremacist America. They were not made up or scripted and were no stretch or exaggeration of the truth, yet Wypipo could not pass up the chance at good ole White-peopling by calling the video racist.
Michelle Malkin, an Asian-American blogger and newspaper columnist who is a senior editor at Conservative Review, criticized what she called “Procter & Gamble’s identity-politics pandering.”
She added: “P&G should stand for quality consumer goods, not empty Protest & Grumble that divides more than it unites. If P&G isn’t willing to tackle the full complexity of race relations in 21st-century America, perhaps the company should stick to selling diapers instead of filling them.”
Like sis, really ?
It’s almost like, for no damn reason at all, besides highlighting Blackness and the oppression of said Blackness, Wypipo get up in a roar. As if praising Black folk is simultaneously calling for the overthrow of White folk, or God forbid, White supremacy.
Still think I’m dragging it ?
A few weeks ago, I stumbled on an article that made me laugh so hard I damn near spit out my fairly priced happy hour margarita. If you know me, you know I don’t play with no margaritas. The article was astonishingly titled, In defense of the White male and when
I tell you that it was the biggest load of bullshit I’d ever read; a classic example of White people, White-peopling. In this article out of the Boston Globe, one of the Whitest publications, Roland Merullo-this overtly White male enlightens us on classic Whitepeopling with such statements like
“While it’s certainly true that White men have started wars, participated in torture, and committed rape, they/we have not cornered the market on evil behavior. Idi Amin comes to mind. Pol Pot. Baby Doc Duvalier. Hirohito. Not to mention certain notorious female camp guards and serial killers.”
Like, Really Merullo?
He goes on to say
“Associating us only with evil deeds, selfishness, and violence is as misguided as making general disparaging statements about any other group: women, Blacks, Muslims, homosexuals. Yet, in certain circles, it has become acceptable — even laudable — to do just that.”
My guy Merullo goes on and on trying to draw comparisons between the treatment of marginalized groups and White men in particular; as if they aren’t the reason we have marginalized groups in the first place. He really wrote this y’all and the Boston Globe really published it. SMH. Shame on y’all.
This has been true since Africans were first stolen and brought to this country, but has become such a phenomenon in the post Obama aka The Blacks are coming to take over Era. News publications have released articles like Why White people feel oppressed, Explained and Why they feel oppressed, in which White people explain the ways in which oppression has marginalized them in this current sociopolitical climate. They out here shedding light, getting to the bottom of this fallacy of White oppression y’all.
Now I’m going to speak for all Black people when I say that we are used to and aware of that fact that when we use our voice to speak to the agency of our people, we pretty much know wypipo will come along with their divisive tactics to detract from the real issues at hand; honestly we expect it.
But that shit infuriates us, especially when its surrounding issues that need not involve Wypipo or their opinions at all. Wypipo love White-peopling in any instance where Black people rebel against the racist powers that be, either by calling attention to the racist inequitable structures and their treatment of Black people or shit, even when we just acknowledge the beauty and richness of our people.
With that being said, FUCK THE NFL!!
Fuck White supremacist structures and institutions that have the nerve to blackball Black folks because they dare have the audacity to stand up for… umm. Yea…. themselves and other Black folk.
As many of you know, the NFL season is fast approaching and the off-season has been fueled with talks and plans to boycott this racist all American institution, if quarterback Colin Kaepernick is not hired to be a part of a NFL roster. Influential Black icons like my guy Spike Lee are going as far as to throw a rally for Kaepernick so we can show the NFL that we are serious about boycotting them if he isn’t hired.
Kaepernick, the talented former quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, sent NFL fans, owners, and commentators, both White and Black alike, into an uproar as he protested by taking a knee during each performance of the national anthem.
That racist ass song that highlights America’s beauty while incorporating lines like:
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave. From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave”
Yeah, that’s the song.
Kaepernick protested a song that intends to bolster the glory of America for all is citizens, while Africans in America are having their civil liberties violated everyday.
All last season Wypipo and even some Black people were losing their damn minds, so much so that this topic dominated most if not all of the major sports outlets. Now, Wypipo complaining about Black people’s complaints of their treatment in this country ain’t nothing new, so we don’t usually sweat it. Hell who I’m fooling? We do sweat it but you know, you have to pick and choose your battles wisely. But when they start playing with Brothers coins and livelihood, well that’s when we stop being so nice and understanding.
So you mean to tell me, almost a month away from the start of regular season football, and a quarterback who is better then a lot of starting quarterbacks with jobs today and more battled tested then most new quarterbacks coming in, still doesn’t have a job? While scrub ass players like Blake Bortles and Jay Cutler have jobs. Really?
Let’s be clear. Colin Kaepernick is jobless because he decided to speak out against the police brutality, murders, and other state sanctioned violence that we have seen perpetrated against Black people. This ain’t got nothing to do with his physical capabilities or his mental acumen in terms of football IQ. This is because White owners and fans alike can’t take the fact that a Black man with major privilege will use his platform to bring awareness to the atrocities faced by Blacks in America.
Like how dare he not stand for the national anthem and salute this nation’s flag, when we pay him all that money to toss the pigskin around! Owners think that major salaries and big endorsement deals remove all Black professional athletes from the realities of everyday Black folk. It doesn’t. Lebron James, arguably the face of basketball for this generation, still has to deal with issues of his house being vandalized, with the word nigger spray painted on his property.
Don’t get it twisted. Black people be White-peopling too but we usually identify it as cooning.
You’d think the NFL, which is comprised of 70% Black men, would see more Black men actually backing Colin and supporting his stance; hell even making the same bold statement that he is. But you don’t and you probably won’t because like Black folks in the midst of other racial conflicts, some are just too scared to sacrifice any of their own privileges, possessions, security for the collective good of others, especially when it comes to their paper.
If you ain’t gonna support, don’t comment but don’t be like these fools:
Both of these men got caught up in way worst controversies and actually went to jail for the felonious crimes they committed, yet they out here giving advice to Kaepernick about how to get a job in the NFL.
Again.
Really bruh???
This is cooning aka Black people White-peopling at their best. This brother isn’t taking a knee for a bigger salary or better endorsement deals. He’s taking a knee to represent the collective oppression and abuse of all our people, and yet you got Black people critiquing him and defending the league and it’s owners decisions. This is out of hand.
No I will not stop talking about the way Black people be White-peopling when White people come around.
Why you ask?
Because I’m here to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. The reason Wypipo be White-peopling is because in America it’s been ingrained in us to center White:
- Feelings
- Attitudes
- History
- Ideals
- Sentiments
Basically, everything that’s White is right and the norm, and so we work tirelessly to not offend our White counterparts.
The problem becomes worse when we take this mindset into work spaces and classrooms that are full of culturally diverse people and we don’t realize the harm it does to our kids and ourselves. If we constantly validate and affirm the whitelash that comes with the acknowledgement or advancement of Black people, then we set a tone that positions all White people and forgets those who are being marginalized and oppressed. Y’all know, the whole All lives matter vs Black lives matter. That’s what White-peopling does. It takes the focus away from the Black bodies being beaten, arrested, shot, and murdered every day. It takes attention away from institutional racism and White supremacy that hinders Black people at every turn.
So how do we combat this?
Well first off we have to understand that this system needs to be dismantled; POINT BLANK PERIOD. We all attempt to be disrupters, but disrupting White supremacy ain’t enough y’all. We gotta destroy the entire system and build anew, in a process that centers all people and that doesn’t seek to marginalize anyone who ain’t White. So you dismantle these systems by:
- Positively identifying and affirming all of our culturally diverse people; especially Black people who bear the weight of this horrid treatment since we were robbed from our homeland.
- Stop. I mean seriously stop coddling Wypipo and tending to their incessant need to centralize and normalize Whiteness. Stop making Whiteness central to our realities and our histories.
- Stop normalizing Whiteness and imparting this to Black and brown youth.
- Do your due diligence. We’ve all attended schools where Whiteness and White history is the dominant history told. But that ain’t everybody’s history. Tell the story from a point of view that doesn’t celebrate Wypipo, while constantly denigrating anything Black. Learn the truth so that you may spread the truth.
- Be reflective and look into your own biases and notions that help to celebrate and make Whiteness central. We are our own worst enemies and when we don’t realize toxic habits within us, then how can we do purposeful work that seeks to liberate others.
We have to make constant efforts to decenter Whiteness and destroy White supremacy and privilege. We have to be out here making clear to Wypipo, the atrocious history of the African in America and their inequitable experience under White supremacy so that they can understand exactly why equity is so vital. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Equity for Black people is a benefit for all people.
Be great. Get great. Hold it down good people!
Culturally Responsive Educators of the African Diaspora 