The Black Student's Manifesto (work in progress)

This entire post...from another blog...could be equally applied to anyone who does not identify themselves (or cannot identify themselves) as white in America. That doesn't mean that it is irrelevant for white people, simply that it takes an "enlightened"--yeah, I know that sounds really offensive. i'll change it when i think of a better word choice. until then, sorry--white person to accept what I'm saying as potential truth and ACT accordingly. I don't mean to exclude anyone, I just got caught up in a thought and pursued it. I mean what I'm saying, but I did want to be completely clear that I could have equally called this the "Minority Student's Manifesto", I simply don't feel as though I have any right to speak for a group that I only remotely identify with. And there's plenty of black conservatives who would disagree with me anyway. So I'm not universal with mine's. But too the meat!--------->

A friend of mine, when he found out that I was an AAAS major, asked, "So did Chris become the typical African-American Studies major?" My response was, "there's an AAS archetype/stereotype?" Apparently so. Or at least I suppose so. I'm not upset by that, because that requires an admission of a black intellegentsia--somewhere--that whether he agrees with the premises of that intelligentsia, he has to acknowledge its existence, thereby acknowledging me as a member of the "talented tenth." (Did I forget to mention that my friend is a moderately conservative, white Republican?) Anyway, so I thought to myself, if I were the one who told him of my major, what would he have said to me? I think he would have asked something along the lines of "why?" So here it is:

I can't imagine surviving as a black person in America without at some time or another examining my identity. White people don't share that anxiety. There is no question of whiteness--despite the existence of whiteness studies, which is an attempt to problematize whiteness in the same way that blacks have problematized their negrescence--it is an accepted fact. There is no standard of whiteness. Despite thousands of years of art, cultural development, and recorded history, whiteness is maleable and virtually transcendent of the racial signifier that is "white." Blackness doesn't have that. Not in America at least. When I go to class, I learn about the triumphs of western civilization. My classes glorify the tyrannical nature of western expansion. The enlightenment is seen as an era of intellectual growth; as opposed to the period that produced western racism and dogmatic white supremacy. The Greeks created philosophy; rather than Greek philosophy being a product of Greek conquest in Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. We laud western civilization in American schools rather than critique it, more often than not. The western world is designed to reaffirm the whiteness of every white person that is fully immersed within it. Which, to me is...okay(?). I'm not complaining about the fact that white civilization actively promotes and affirms white identity. What should I expect? But when white people hear my major and ask me, "what are you going to do with that?" My first thought is, "how can you believe that an active, scholastic, search for identity is an impractical endeavor?" The successes of white students over black students in America just might be, in part, a result of an undefined identity. A certain dissatisfaction with whom one is and can become. True, white people can REdefine their identity; but the fact is, it has been defined once--if not numerous times--already. Black people do go to college to learn, but every adult will admit that college is just as much about education as identity assimilation. It is designed to put you in a successful frame of mind. To mold you into a confident, intelligent human being. And I find it sad and oppressive to think that so many people don't understand the importance of tracing my...identity.

Here is a compelling metaphor. A black man in America is a human on Mars. Sure, presuming that Martians are humanoid, a human could get along on Mars. You could learn Their history, Their culture, assimilate to the way They do things; but that won't get You through the day. At the end of it all, you still have to come to terms with the fact that you are not a Martian, but a (wo)man. And that that reality must be realized, recognized, and accepted by the Martian world for you to be comfortable living there. If Martians wore boots on their ears (and I don't mean earrings) and expected you to assimilate, you might not like it. But given 400 years, you wouldn't think twice about it. There would be a loss, that once discovered, would have to be unearthed in its entirety. You must be developmentally satiated to survive life in a foreign environment.

I know...I'm an "American." I was born here, I live here, and I'll probably die here. But the fact is nobody has said what that means. And if they did, I wouldn't agree. I don't like dogmatic definitions of identity factors. While I may be American by birth, we still haven't had a president who looks like he could be related to me. When I make moves to pursue my future, I do it through people who see my skin color first--and my work and ideas second. When the world thinks about Americans, they know that there are black people--hell they know there are indigenous people, but they imagine white flesh. Part of the reason they integrated the military during Vietnam is because the Viet-Cong wouldn't shoot black soldiers. (Divide and conquer?) Imagine sending segregated black troops into an occupation in Africa. Who would the black soldiers sympathize with? Am I an American? By the text book definition yes. Am I an American in reality...not yet. With problems like white flight, privilege, supremacy, I'm at an integrative loss. I can't integrate into a society that doesn't want me as me. I can't assimilate into a society that tells me that assimilation equals glorifying the past of their forebears--but mine were immaterial, inferior, and primitive. For all of your intellect, Chris, I'm more afraid of you than admirous of you. I would rather shun you than compete with you. The world I live in DEMANDS me to find me. If I can't learn it the same way that white people learn their identity--everywhere--I'll learn how black people learn their identities--anywhere.