It is part of the American way to blame the poor and the oppressed for their condition.
Many Blacks who have managed to navigate through the sea of racism and oppression in this nation look down on those who for myriad reasons have not. A great number of those who have "overcome" have done so merely as a birthright-they come from comfortable backgrounds.
It is sad, indeed that many African Americans who have been fortunate enough to have been born in situations to advance easier believe that the playing field is level.
How arrogant, elitist and silly when statistics of arrests, convictions, bank lending, college admissions and hiring practices prove out discrimination and de facto oppression.
We as a people will always face a certain bitter roadblock because of self-hating escapists among us who believe that whatever they have achieved is because they are individually special and beautiful.
If there are no obstacles, how can we explain the dire straits of Black children in the inner cities of America? Many of those with comfortable backgrounds, like other racists, probably blame them.
The problem is that some time ago, clever racists sold America, including deluded Negroes, the concept of the oppressed as whiners and essentially weak people. Currently, some of those deluded Negroes employ clever rhetoric to indict the oppressed for being oppressed.
The words of those with comfortable backgrounds often sound intelligent, but are without substance and the anger toward oppressed Blacks is palpable.
Perhaps that misplaced anger is intended for their own self-hated skin.
The reality is that either you feel the stings of racism or you don't. Many who don't feel it deny its very existence until they finally encounter it--as in the cases of OJ, Michael Jackson and Clarence Thomas--then they come running back to the community and/or cry racism. It's laughable and pitiable because they are actually shocked that all of their ass-kissing and gratuitous self-hatred ultimately failed when it came to the issue of race.
The delusion happens in other groups as well. While Jews were being walked to the ovens, many denied that such a horrific process could take place until they were tattooed and lined up for cooking.
Many Mexican-Americans deny that California once belonged to their people and that they should stake a claim to it still.
Many self-deluded Africans in the midst of South African Apartheid fiercely denied that racism was in place or that there was oppression, and some of them even railed against the freedom fighters.
Deluded people all have one thing in common-they pretend that there is no racism or oppression because their greedy self-centered silliness and individualism has given them a modicum of comfort.
The original House Niggers have provided a true legacy, indeed. They denied that slavery was horrible and helped to keep a foot on the necks of other slaves, in order to maintain their comfort. They even blamed other slaves for getting beaten, raped and killed. That mentality has never left, and the people who possess it fail to realize it, because many of them see themselves as "down for their people."
These thoughts are not the result of critical thinking and are neither new, reality-based, compassionate, or broad-minded. Every generation of Blacks in this nation has the blind who believe that all has been overcome. When Dr. King was marching, there were confused Negroes dogging him, declaring there were no real problems. Throngs wished for Malcolm X's demise, and the bullets came from evil motherless children with Black skin.
No one is really suggesting that there has been no progress, just that the progress that has come did not come for all, and that there is still a way to go. Not everyone has a comfortable background, and if the foot is not on your neck, and you have not seen the foot, how dare you say that there is no foot?
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with a "comfortable background," but when you begin to believe that it is everyone's birthright and equally potential possession, you are being foolish, selfish, elitist and delusional.
While many oppressed people seek to deny racism's existence, African descendants the world over are the only people who consistently and persistently help to blame themselves for their condition, and there is no more blame than in this silly nation where the assumption is that everyone has the same opportunity without obstruction.
Such situations are powerfully disgusting. They prompt me to near violent regurgitation from the repulsion because I grew up in abject poverty, and I know damned well that I could not have risen without concerned residents of the extended African Village who understood the complex conditions I faced as a part of the Welfare system.
My straight A's, hard work and strong desires for better were not enough. Some of today's deluded Negroes with comfortable backgrounds would not have helped me, but would have blamed me for my condition, because of their inability to understand what I faced.
They may as well be white racists.
The problem here is not laziness, whining, or "victimology," but the blaming of the oppressed by both the oppressor and some of the deluded oppressed who narrowly escaped the overt stings of racism by being born in a better condition.
Finally, God forbid those with comfortable backgrounds should lose their family's support and comfort, and have to begin again in the worst areas of this nation's inner cities, with little to no access to education, health care or other programs given freely even to newly immigrated citizens from Europe and Asia.
They might just have to take the blame for that condition from others with comfortable backgrounds.
- Darryl James is an award-winning author who is now a filmmaker. His first mini-movie, "Crack," was released in March of 2006. He is currently filming a full length documentary. James' latest book, "Bridging The Black Gender Gap," is the basis of his lectures and seminars. Previous installments of this column can now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com. James can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
