Following is a segment of an essay written by wmd.com\’s Mychal Massie, regarding al sharpton\’s complaining that no Black actors or actresses were nominated for academy awards this year.
I don\’t agree with everything Mr. Massie says. But a) I agree with a lot of it and b) in any event, it is an instance of what, for lack of a better term, I will call “Black tough love”, that we don\’t often see. And since I try to present all sides here, up it goes:
Itis a fate comparable to death to have a people so completelydependent on being a color for their self-worth. When will the dayarrive that blacks take pride in being Americans? When will the dayarrive when blacks are proud to be outstanding students with themajority being raised in two-parent homes instead of blaming thewhite man for their living in squalor? When will the day arrive thatthe majority of black children actually know who their father is andthe father actually lives in the home with them?
Howmany times must it be said? How long before blacks realize that petsare provided cages, food and expected to perform for their masterswhenever they are instructed to? Public housing, food stamps,constantly being told they should be angry, encouraged to live theirlives as if slavery and Jim Crow still existed, filled withresentment and antipathy – this is not the mindset of a freepeople. Nor is it the mindset emotionally and spiritually free peopleare saddled with. It is the mindset of pets that dance at theirmaster\’s orders.
Ihave said it many times: The only place blacks accept meritocracy ison the athletic field. But where has this mindset gotten them? Whatbarriers have blacks overcome dancing for their liberal masters?
Maligningthose whose cosmological view isn\’t based on skin color and whoaren\’t encumbered by being a color is the only option available tothose who live their lives as a color and being angry.
Is Mr. Massie making sense? Is he a proud Black man? An insensitive Oreo cookie? Something in between?
Your call.
