Forced Hate

Black people do not want to hate white people.

There is ample history that show Black people work harder than any other group to make America work.

Whether fighting in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and all other wars here and abroad, Black Americans have given life, blood, and liberty to the cause of realizing America’s ideals.

Black people built societies within America despite debilitating constraints, violence, and State sponsored roadblocks, all because we bought into the country’s forward thinking aspirations.

And Black people fought for freedom, liberty, Civil Rights, and equality and equity, multiple times during America’s history – a testament to the resilience, hope, and generational desire to direct America to get it right.

But at every step of Black progress there are artificial walls placed in our way by white citizens and their institutions – from homeowner’s associations, teachers, real estate agents, loan officers, doctors and nurses, farming bureaus, police and other law enforcement, city councils, judges, CEO’s, and of course, politicians at every level.

Those roadblocks present formidable obstacles that Black people diligently and energetically work to eliminate so we can better our lives – and white people’s lives.

And there are other roadblocks that are less official but equally insidious and deadly to Black people. They include domestic terrorists that the white media generously label “Militia” “Second amendment supporters” and “Patriots” because they are afraid of upsetting genteel viewers and family members.

What are Black people to make of a society and country that makes a way for armed white domestic terrorists in all public spaces, while also feeling the need to call law enforcement when innocent and unarmed Black people are in those same public spaces?

White people own hundreds of millions of personal weapons because they fear Black people. The entire gun industry and second amendment nonsense has one purpose and we all know what it is – to be ready to kill Black people “when the time comes.’

At the same time, Black people try to mind our business and live our lives.

And to live our lives we have to get along with white people.

We have to learn from white teachers. Shop in white-owned grocery stores and department stores. We have to work with white people, and serve white people in retail, restaurant, and other service industries.

We have to know where white women are in public so that we can either avoid them or guard our actions less they call the police on us.

We watch white people on television and in movies. We watch white stories where white people beat and kill Black people. And we watch stories where Black people kill Black people and a white person has to save them all.

We watch Supreme Court nomination proceedings where one side is all white people and the other side is half white people.

We see commercials that are roughly 70% white people. And we use social media that prioritizes the experience of white people over Black people, and which design their platforms to actively harm Black people.

We watch news that showcases white happiness stories but Black trauma stories, all of which are told by mostly conservative white men. And we see and read statements by white religious leaders, almost exclusively Christian, tell their flock how Black people are inferior, lawless, ungodly, poor parents, thugs, hoodlums, and without community leadership. And at the same time those white religious leaders vote for and support the same politicians white nationalists support.

The attempts to force Black people to hate white people are aggressive and encompassing. But ultimately the forced hatred doesn’t stick because, again, Black people have to survive every day in white society.

The hatred is forced but it finds no lasting home in Black people. And the fact that America is still here is all the proof one needs to understand and believe that Black people do not want to hate white people.

We will hear the question: What do Black people want? Posed as if we are alien to the country and even to the planet.

We want community. We want our family to be healthy, happy, safe, and valued. We want well paying jobs, clean communities, goods and services in our neighborhoods. We want funded schools, and low interest school and home loans. We want to be respected in public and at work and school. We want to love freely and build wealth for our descendants. We want Black women to survive childbirth, and for our babies to be healthy. We want clean water, air, and less pollution. We want fairness and accountability in law enforcement.

We want to see ourselves represented in all spaces. We want appreciation for our contributions to the country. We want fair wages and promotions, we want serious discussion and then action on reparations, and we want to be left alone to be who we want to be.

What we do not want is to hate white people.

We just wish so many white people would stop trying so hard to make that happen.

© 2020 Myron J. Clifton. All Rights Reserved.

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