Good Old-Fashioned Nigga Hate

By Saundra Bunton

We discussed the recent outburst of criticism that has surrounded Barack Obama ever since his historic election day win. People who two or three months ago were shaving his name and image into the backs of their heads. Who were contemplating naming their firstborn Barack or Baracka. People who thought that he could do no wrong and who questioned anyone who even considered voting for someone else, anyone who took the right to vote seriously and tried to do so responsibly. People who bought up every piece of Obama 08 paraphernalia they could get their hands on.

Now all of a sudden Obama is only half-Black. Now all of a sudden he's a no good Uncle Tom because his agenda doesn't speak only and directly to Black america. Now we can't depend on him to care anything about what we need as a people or a constituency. Now he doesn't know what it means to be Black.

Call me crazy but that sounds like good old-fashioned nigga hate.

Our accomplishments are never good enough for us. We are either tearing someone down because we believe that their successes have pulled them out of touch with our struggles, or we are condemning someone because they have failed to prove what Black folks are capable of. All the while we are sitting at the sidelines not doing a damn thing or making a single ripple in the pond because we are too afraid of catching the heat from our brothers and sisters.

It is a serious shame that this is what we are still going through but I've been reminded that we have only been free, truly free, for the past forty-three years. That is nothing in the grand scheme of things. But we can't always blame our pessimism and our lack of motivation and our slave mentality on conditions outside of ourselves. At some point or another we have to realize that we keep choosing to see the glass as half-empty.

I don't expect for Barack Obama to come sweeping through Black neighborhoods like Spiderman, rescuing us from the Green Goblin and Venom and whatever other villains terrorize us. Mostly because the villainous afflictions that we suffer from are primarily mental. Obama cannot force you to hope or dream or believe in a better tomorrow. He can show you the light, can be an example of that light, but you have to choose to step into that light. You have to choose to embrace the light and to allow yourself to begin to shine.

I had intended not to talk about anything election-related in my next post because I don't want to dwell on Obama's victory. But his victory has reminded me of how much we still treat each other like crabs in a barrel. So this is actually not about him, but about you. Yes you. You crabby negro who keeps snapping away at any crab who dares climb up too high.