Brother Ben
As if we needed anymore foolishness in the coming election season, Ben Carson recently put his foot in his mouth by eluding to the fact that President Obama hadn’t truly lived the ‘black experience’ because he didn’t grow up living in the projects, going to failing schools. What?! Yes, I have whittled down what he said quite a bit but in a nutshell, many, myself included, are saying old Ben was saying that Obama isn’t quite ‘black enough’.
We currently live in a world where people are fighting to prove that black people are not just a stereotype that’s portrayed by mainstream media, music, movies, and certain TV networks. And yet here we are with someone who wants to be POTUS questioning another black person’s blackness.
Enough already. The beautiful thing about the black experience, heck the human experience, is that it doesn’t fit neatly into any particular narrative. If I sat down and chronicled the experiences of every black person I know there would be some similarities, of course, but there would also be vast differences.
Brother Ben, let me help you out. I didn’t grow up living in the projects. There were no rats and roaches and people getting killed on the street corners every night. I went to public schools but they weren’t failing and I actually received a good education. And guess what Brother Ben? I’m black. There is zero doubt on my part, or the part of anybody who looks at me that I’m black, my mama is black, and my Daddy. And my two little black kids? They are living a ‘black experience’ similar to mine.
So I’m going to keep living my black experience…even if it doesn’t fit your narrative. And I’m going to wake up every day and be black enough.
Until next time…