By now we are all quite familiar with the remarks made by LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and recently Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has made a few "racist" remarks of his own. I've tried my best to hold my tongue about both situations and keep my opinions to myself, but it seems every where I turn I am bombarded with memes, radio broadcasts, and news shows pertaining to these two powerful men. I personally have grown quite irritated with the whole thing. I'm not irritated at the fact the these men made the comments; what irritates me is the number of African Americans who are outraged by the opinions and ideals possessed by these men. It's as if Black people have forgotten that racism still exists. Does racism have to be as blatant as a white hood and a burning cross for young African Americans to realize that there is still a vast number of white Americans (and other ethnic groups) who are bigots? The fact that we have a Black President does not magically erase the 250 years of slavery nor 90 plus years of Jim Crow. It's called "conditioning" and many White Americans have been conditioned to feel a sense of entitlement and superiority towards other races, especially those of African descent. I'm sure these are not the only people of power who feel the way they do about their employees and consumers. I personally wish that more of the elite 1% would come clean about their racism. I'm curious to see what we (as African Americans) would do as the nation's number one consumer. From what I've seen we will do nothing. Sure we will rant and rave, and post to social networks, but what difference does that really make? If you really want to make these men (and others like them) know that the African American public will not stand to be viewed as a commodity, stop supporting their brands and buying their products.
Here is a cold hard fact. Racism will never disappear as long as we keep feeding into the idiosyncrasies of what it is to be Black. So many of our people are feeding into racial stereotypes in a effort to "keep it real". Enough is enough already! We are more than a nation of saggy pant wearing, rapping, booty clapping, jiggaboos. So I say particularly to my young African Americans, stop buying into these ideals of what it means to be Black, and furthermore African Americans have got to let go of the "house nigger" mentality. Massah takes us in his house, feeds us his scraps, let us sleep at the foot of his bed, and he will even plant his seed in the wombs of African American women. And from these actions the house nigger thinks, "Why Massah must love me, cause he treats me just as good as his dog." And it is because of this exact mentality that all our people will do is get mad and take to our social networks, instead of hitting these racist tycoons in their pockets, where it really hurts.
Gil-Scott Heron wrote that "The revolution will not be televised." maybe that is because the revolution will never exist.
