How I Immediately Determine 'Blackness' Upon Meeting Individuals

[Redacted], Darrius

6 February 2018

AFA-1010

How I Immediately Determine “Blackness” Upon Meeting Individuals

I do not attempt to. I honestly could not care less whether or not someone is Black, or of African descent. To reference Steve Biko’s brief talk on Black Consciousness in 1971, “The term black is not necessarily all-inclusive.” To reference a similar statement made by Brother Malcolm in his infamous 1964 speech, “The Ballot or The Bullet”:

“Brothers and sisters and friends, and I see some enemies [laughter, applause]. In fact, I think we'd be fooling ourselves if we had an audience this large and didn't realize that there were some enemies present.”

There are any number of people who may, albeit undesirably, identify as being Black, but want nothing to do with uplifting The People in any way, shape, or form. In fact, they would much rather actively work against our community for “30 pieces of silver.” Regrettably, we cannot take their evident hostilities with too much hate; as they, more often than not, “know not what they do.” Even if they claim that they do know they are “kicking [us] out of the little [sinking] boat that we’re all in,” while the “bougie [expletive] ride on a luxury liner,” as per Immortal Technique. They (our misguided brothers and sisters) almost invariably are simply attempting to put food on the table. I sincerely regret that even my brother, recently tanned by the sun in Afghan, stated as much in a microcosm at a family gathering, I believe. “Either you’re the prisoner or the prison guard.” One must wonder if truer words have ever been spoken regarding this point in time.

At any rate, if I must determine someone’s Blackness immediately upon meeting them, it would depend on their answer to a question ironically absent from today’s society: “What is your vocation?” Everyone, especially in the DC, MD, VA region, has a strong desire to know your occupation and/or recreation. They identify with the two wholeheartedly, almost. However, one would be hard-pressed to get an approximately accurate definition of vocation without a cursory Google search; if you can even get them to have a desire remotely enticing as theirs for you to help them gain political, social, and/or actual capital. In short, one with a Vocation that they are actively pursuing, and indubitably aids the cause of our people, is in fact Black. On the other hand, we have “non-whites,” as Biko would call them (as well as actual Whites). “Let me be clear,” Obama was a non-White; a house Negro, as Brother Malcolm would call him. There is hardly a single contribution, if any, that could possibly justify his apparent disdain for his “fellow Americans,” as well as the peoples of the world, impacted by his odiously detrimental policies. On the contrary, he ought to be exposed and derided as the extreme detriment that he is/was. As I type this, I take extreme sadness with the fact that I cannot think of too many opposite Obama; that is to say, whites who are undeniably Black. Two that immediately come to mind, of course, are the author of Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin, and Mike Adams (AKA The Health Ranger). Both unquestionably have risked their lives and, perhaps more important, their livelihoods to “Rage Against the Machine.” The same cannot be said for most Blacks in the halls of power, in the United States government. As a matter of fact, I just recently resolved to address “congressional representatives” as Corruption Liaisons; even to their faces. In conclusion, we are all Black, according to the one drop rule; but, to reference the phenomenal film Detroit, “Every Brother ain’t a Brother.”