The official kick off to summer is the perfect time to talk about internalized anti-Blackness. Yeah. Internalized. We all spend a lot of time talking about anti-Blackness in other communities, but we don’t often talk about the work we must do to decolonize our own anti-Black thoughts, actions, and beliefs.
You may be thinking, “I’m Black, how can I be anti-Black?”
We’re born into a colonial imperialist society that depends on white supremacy to mold the world into what it deems fit. There’s nowhere on this planet to escape anti-Blackness.
Perhaps you’ve done a lot of work learning about how white supremacy operates in the world and its effects on you, but have you turned your sights on yourself?
One way to find how you really feel and think about Black people is to listen and examine how you talk about Black people with other Black people.
Maybe you only use the term “baby mama” when referring to Black, single women with kids.
Perhaps you use the term “ghetto” when referring to Black people with clever solutions to problems but call them “life hacks” when white people do the same things.
Do you find yourself preoccupied with the shade of a Black child’s skin color?
Perhaps you still think only Black men can be attractive if darker than a paper bag.
Is one type of hair actually better than another to you?
What about your opinions on a neighborhood or city when there are too many Black people present?
Are you hesitant to patronize Black businesses? Do you criticize their every little mistake?
Yep. Those are all ways internalized anti-Blackness and white supremacy can maintain a foothold in your Black mind.
Join us this month while we think, write, and talk about how to identify and uproot anti-Blackness in the Black community.
It’s 2023. It’s past time to do better.