Transcending negritude, again

Sigh.


What does this mean? What is it that Myers is really trying to say? I have some ideas but I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth. I'd be really grateful if someone could tell me what it is he means. Left to my own devices, I'm likely to think he believes that Black people are so consumed with self-loathing that his wishing away our Blackness makes us feel 'better' about the horror that is our Blackness. I don't imagine that I need to say the words but nothing could be further from the truth.

I really ought to be familiar with this line of 'thinking' by now, since it comes up every time a person of color who has contributed significantly to the society passes on (see my earlier writing on the topic) and yet, it shocks and annoys me every daggone time.

This time, I have nothing. I'm not going to try to wax philosophical about it. This time, I'm just asking the question and hoping against all hope that someone brighter than I will have an explanation. I live perpetually in a state of hope.

While I wait, I'm working on the text of a memo to go out to Myers and others of that ilk. It goes sort of like this: if your goal is to promote me, please be advised that saying that you never saw me as Black ain't the way to go. If your goal is to raise my stock, suggesting that you saw my work as separate from my race/gender/gender identity, ain't the way to go.

The reality is that in this country, like it or not, race, gender and gender identity are critical factors in how people of color experience the world. You would know this if your race, gender or gender identity were ever and always open for discussion. You would know this if your every move were evaluated against some set of criteria which you could never attain....unless deceased of course. Then all of a sudden, you were great because you weren't really Black. You would know all this if your race, gender or gender identity could potentially limit your freedoms. If you do not know any of this then, well, that's really on you because we who have been boxed in and blocked out for centuries have been shouting about the limitations and restrictions on our freedoms for quite some time. If in spite of all that talk (up to an including Ali's own utterances on these matters) you're still not clued in, that's on you not on us. Perhaps, if you'd seen Ali's Black skin, you might have had better luck hearing his Black complaints?

Just to reiterate in closing, Ali? Black. Prince? Black. Michael Jackson? You guessed it, Blackity Black Black Black. I'm sure I'll have to do this again some time in the not too distant future but, that's all for now.
Please attempt to govern yourself accordingly which just means, when in doubt, hush yuh mout'.