Black Acceptance in America

the race. The barriers that do exist in the race are internal discrimination,

difficulty to come to terms with the past, and changing ideologies to exist

in America successfully. The barriers that exist outside of the race are

discrimination from others in terms of political and social aspects and so

called “tolerance” for it.

name to identify this group as a whole. There is no unity in the preference of

what name this race of people preferred to be known by. Michael Paul Williams

in the essay “What’s in a Name” states that “Black Americans are far from

unanimous over the term, which begs the question: How can we [Black people]

figure out where we’re going if we can’t decide who we are?” (169) He is

describing the very barrier that this race cannot come together in major issues

because minor issues such as choosing a name can be difficult. There are many

differences in opinion amongst the race of what name they would prefer to

identify themselves by.

Black, Afro-American, and the archaic term of Negro in some cases. The term

Black can mean many things in terms of race. It was used as an alternative to

Negro. During the Civil Rights movement or otherwise known as the Second

Reconstruction in Black History, Blacks needed a new term to demonstrate their

newfound “freedom” in America. The term Black is a strong word that stands for

pride and strength. They were trying to stray from the term Negro that carried

a lot of weight with its definition. It is a Spanish word, which means Black.

In America the word Negro mutated to become the word nigger which means an

ignorant person. Black people were called niggers at one point because that is

how they were viewed.

the late 1960’s to early 1970’s. Black people were obsessed with being in

touch with their roots, so many of them stopped processing their hair and kept

it natural. The term Afro-American was born because many of them had a popular

hairstyle known as the Afro. This term seemed to make this race easier to be

identified. Another term that is used is colored. Black people could not

settle for this title because it did not capture the race as a whole.

was a term that was designed as a counter-attack against Negro and nigger.

Black people saw it as a new start to their history in America. It is obvious

that some like to be called Black rather than African-American. They prefer the

term Black people some claim that they cannot identify with Africa because they

were not directly from there or their family heritage was blended during

history.

different surroundings. Blacks may see other Blacks as sellouts if they do not

refer to themselves by a certain title. One side of the spectrum is that ours

roots are from Africa so the term African-American is appropriate. This

may be appropriate for Africans who come to America. Williams backs up this

point by saying:

Even as I proudly walk the streets wearing Kente cloth, I must admit that many of us have shamefully romanticized Africa while being blind to its problems. Beyond our ignorance, what separates us, for better or for worse, into what we are today. A people who’ve overcome tremendous adversity. A nation within a nation, some of us rising to dizzying heights, others mired in dismal conditions,others maintaining or struggling between the extremes. (170)

they cannot identify with Africa. The identification to Africa does not exist

to some because they feel that there identity should be related to America

rather than a distant land.

There is a battle occurring in the present known as Black on Black

discrimination or otherwise known as Light Skinned people vs. Dark Skinned

people. Brenda Payton who authored the essay “Black Like Me,” went to a party

on one occasion and her friend calculated the light- skinned and dark-skinned

people at the party. This behavior rubbed off on her and she began making

careful observations. She noticed that the people are either light skinned or

dark skinned and a few people were in between these classifications. Another

one of her friends made a close observation in the jails:

Recently a woman friend was doing some work in a California prison and commented on how handsome the brothers are inside. And she noticed something else. As a group, they were unusually dark-darker than the average group of dark skinned African-Americans. Her observation didn’t constitute a study, but it made us wonder whether the prisoners has been programmed to fail by teachers, relatives,a society that expected them to be trouble makers or stupid because they were exceptionally dark. (174)

This raises a major issue: are light skinned Blacks more privileged than dark

skinned Blacks or vice versa?

dark skinned African Americans made slightly less money than light skinned

African Americans. Being considered a light skinned person in the Black

society is considered an advantage to society. (175) This is what causes

tension and divisions within the Black race. The divisions are plain with the

terms that Blacks use to describe each other: chocolate brown, cinnamon brown,

paper bag brown, blue black, meringue, jet black, and café au lait. The

divisions can be traced backed all the way to the days of slavery.

mother who was dark skinned and a father who was a white slave master. Being

light skinned these slaves usually worked in the master’s house and had a pair

of shoes. These are some of the things that darker slaves did not have the

privilege to enjoy. The child would get little to no attention from his/her

father but would get all the feelings of tension and envy from the darker

slaves who worked in the fields. From the time of slavery, the point was made

clear: light-skinned Blacks are better than dark-skinned blacks because light

skinned Blacks are closer to being white and being closer to white was

considered better than being closer to jet black. Brenda Payton sums it

up, “Light skin became indelibly linked to success, supremacy within the race,

and beauty.” (176)

barrier that should be removed. That is easier said than done because these

views stem back from centuries of teaching within Black families that light is

better than dark. The children who were taught this would have to believe

because that is what they saw in school and in society as well. Payton goes on

to say:

But until we take a thorough, hard, unflinching look at this problem, we can never hope to heal the wounds of slavery and achieve racial unity. And once we finally take it on, we shouldn’t expect to solve it overnight. It took nearly four hundred years to create [slavery]; it’s going to take a lot of time, honesty,hard work ------and determination------to undo. (176)

The light-skinned theory vs. dark-skinned theory is not going to dissolve

into the air. Black Americans are exposed to the idea that the lighter the

better and this is from childhood. If everybody in the race is ready to

change some sense of their internal racism, then the problem would be solved gradually.

can be attributed to their history in this country. The history of the Black

race in the United States can be traced back to the colonial times when blacks

were brought to this country as indentured servants. They arrived around the

period of the 1600’s. In the mid-1750’s, many Blacks worked as slaves in the

southern part of the United States. In the South they worked on plantations

for the owners. Other slaves worked as craftsmen, messengers and/or servants.

In the northern part of the United States, slaves existed as well but they were

not able to work in the fields due to the difference in climate. They often

took jobs in factories, homes, and shipyards that dealt with the field of fishing and trading.

colonies in the United States passed the laws called slave codes. The codes

did not allow slaves to own or carry weapons, meet or move without the master’s

permission, and testify against a White people in court. For example: a slave

would run away and if he/she was caught he/she would be killed by the master

and the master would not get in a lot of trouble with the law about it.

Eventually, these codes were the main reason why the “uprising” took place.

Slaves realized that they were not being treated fairly by their masters so

they would often flee from the plantation or wherever they worked. Fleeing the

plantation was a major risk because slaves were considered property to the

master, which meant that the master has the power to kill a slave without further consequences.

Amendment, discrimination still continued to thrive. Blacks were allowed to

live free lives but they were still enslaved. This era was known as the

Reconstruction Era. Blacks were unable to establish themselves in this

country because they were indebted to their former masters and laws in the

southern region known as the Jim Crow laws prevented them from advancing. Many

amendments were passed in this time period to assure that Blacks would be

treated equally but the discrimination remained. They were not able to attend

certain schools or live in certain neighborhoods. They were taunted by groups

such as the Ku Klux Klan who made it clear that they did not want Blacks to

have the same freedoms as Whites do.

discrimination they would have to accept and move on from history. Many Blacks

often use the excuse of slavery as a scapegoat for why they would not have a

chance to make it in the world in 2002. As the writer DeWayne Wickham in the

essay “The Color Line,” says “Race matters in America.” (151) It is agreed that

race matters, but it should not continually be used as an excuse for mistakes

due to lack of effort and an inability to function and live in a society that

is dominated by people that are not Black. Peggy Peterman wrote in the

essay “Lest We Forget” states that race matters but it must be fought through

for survival, “Where is the weapon we used for so many years against our

oppressors? Where is the determination, classism, its first cousin? What

happened to the song in our hearts, in our throats, and the first and the fire

in our eyes? Where is the dignity and self respect?” (140) The ideas of

Peterson are the basis for how Blacks can begin to change their ideology

towards life in general and how they are treated in society and the political

world, outside of their racial barriers.

Blacks from advancing in America without looking over their shoulders.

According to DeWayne Wickham “America’s warm idea of racial equality became a

deadly stranglehold as many whites came to see affirmative action as an

encroachment upon that to which they feel entitled.”(152) Wickham is saying

that Whites feel threatened by the policy of affirmative action and feel that

they should be entitled to the same treatment that minorities receive in terms

of that. Affirmative action policies are designed to increase the numbers of

people from certain social groups, including Blacks, in employment, education,

business, government, and other areas. Blacks have the benefit of affirmative

action because they suffered from discrimination in the United States.

Affirmative action programs have many features, which include the removal of

social and political barriers so that people may compete equally, and quotas.

The quotas guarantee that a certain group of minority is included in set

proportions.

Instead of Whites coexisting side by side with Blacks, the Whites move to the

suburbs. This caused the Black population to dominate the cities. The fact

that Whites felt they had to leave their neighborhoods because of the invasion

of Black people made them mad. Some Whites demanded that affirmative action

stop because it is advancing the minorities but punishing the Whites.

down. As Wickham states:

Today’s racism is a subtler brand of bigotry. It’s wrapped in talk of “reverse discrimination.” Disguised in the rhetoric of right wing conservatives. And hidden just beneath the thin skin of those who say they favor equal opportunity for blacks to gain access to the American mainstream, but not equal results for those of us who work just as hard as they do for the chance. (153)

Instead of people being racist , they decide to dance around the issue and

display rejection subtly.

and the school system. In the days before affirmative action, it was

impossible for a Black person to get a mortgage. In the present, a Black

person can face the discrimination of biased mortgage lending. Bias lending

practices by mortgage lenders is hurting the advancement of Blacks. The

schools system is no different. The schools are also affected by this. The

schools are segregated due to mortgage lenders and the removal of Whites in the

city. Instead of Whites accepting that they are fine with their surroundings,

some beg the government to help them pay for private schools even though they

complain about their tax paying dollars.

The internal discrimination that does exist within the Black community is

obviously stemmed from the issue of slavery. Some even go as far as

classifying Black people into separate groups. As mentioned earlier, Payton

who wrote the essay “Black Like Me” said all of the classifications that Black

people use. It seems that people on the ‘Light” side of the spectrum have to

conjure up tolerance to deal with the dark side of the spectrum. Payton

mentioned that one of her friends, who is a light skinned person, said that it

is hard for her to make friends that are darker than her because they, the

darker people, assume that she would be stuck up and think that she is better

than them. On the other side, a darker black person would feel that they are

always trying to prove themselves when they are around lighter skinned Black

people because they often were taught from the beginning that being light

skinned is better. Darker skinned people are taught to build a certain

tolerance that light skinned people are better than you are. Light skinned

people are taught to build up a tolerance for dark skinned people.

tolerance and little acceptance. They are willing to tolerate the government

creating laws especially for Blacks and other minorities to advance. Once

those laws start to cut in on what they are supposed to get, the tolerance

seems to fade away. They begin to protest that their rights are being violated

and they deserve a fair deal. Yes, all people of any race deserve a fair share

but it seems that Whites have been getting the fair share since the beginning

of the United States. Some Whites need to realize that in order for them to

survive in a country like America, in an age such as this, they would have to

give up on the idea of tolerance and move over to the concept of acceptance.

Santa Claus theory. Jeff Rivers authored an essay called “White Christmas,

Black Santa” which discussed the concept of why there are not as many Black

Santas as there are White Santas. This issue was explored when he was a young

child. He realized that his father had no tolerance for Santa. As Rivers put

it “Daddy didn’t want me to think that some white man in a red suit gave me the

things that my parents work so hard to provide. He didn’t think that a white

man was likely to give me anything but grief.” (182) This is true for the time

that Rivers grew up in. As a result Rivers never believed in Santa Claus

because his father made sure that the point was made that his parents worked

hard for the gifts under the tree.

time. He wanted her to be exposed to a Black Santa or any other rather than a

White one. He wanted this due to the fact that he was raising his daughter in

Oakland and Oakland is a town that is surrounded by many people from many

places and cultures. A close observation was made that most of the Santa

Claus’ were white. He made it a point to search for a Black Santa because he

wanted to make sure that his daughter was not left out in the scheme of things

when it came to her people being represented. Rivers realizes that there never

will be a Black Christmas and he has accepted that. Instead he decides to put

his own spin on Christmas. He adds multiculturalism to Christmas. As Rivers

says “So while black love and black music will always be the most important

part of my not-so-white Christmas, white Santa Clauses will be as welcome in my

house as Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song.” (184)

could be made. Apparently, Santa is classically known as a white bearded man

who spreads love and joy to children around Christmas. He is believed to live

in the North Pole with his wife Mrs. Claus. Even though the classical Santa is

not multicultural he still expresses the same message through his actions. The

pigmentation should not be an issue if Santa does his job properly.

these principles that continue to stick around would be abolished. Acceptance

is the key that opens the door to the breaking down of these barriers. The

ideologies are to change in a society and political atmosphere such as

America. The point is people have to let go of past norms to fit in, in the

future and it is known that people do not like to be left

out.

Payton, Brenda. “Black Like Me.” Thinking Black. First Edition.