This is an excellent guest post by commenter Phil. Although a lot of people are saying that he should not get so wrapped up in this thinking at such a young age, the truth is that a number of young, high-achieving Black men have written me with the exact same concerns as Phil. To put it succinctly, they are having identity problems identifying with a race whose men are seen, often rightly so, as unintelligent, slacking, dropout, poor-performing, amoral if not immoral, chaotic, impulsive, violent, misogynistic and often out and out criminal.
A lot of antiracist types, especially Black antiracists, take a hostile attitude towards these young men because they are airing dirty laundry that the antis don’t want aired and especially because these men are suggesting that the Black race as a group of people are a problem in need of fixing or at least ameliorating. Nothing enrages typical Black antiracists more than the notion that there is some sort of a problem with Black people or that Black people need fixing in any way, shape or form. I do not agree. There is a problem with Black people and Black people are definitely in need of fixing or at least ameliorating, which is a more realistic goal. These Black antis want to bury their heads in the sand and go on blaming all of the problems of Blacks on White people. Not only is that based on a false theory, but it’s also not going to go anywhere. Where has seeing the problem as rooted in this theory gotten us so far? Not very far.
That’s reasonable because in order to deal with a problem, you need to first figure out what it causing it in the first place, and most Black antiracists do not even have the cause of the problem correct. You can’t fix a problem with your until you figure out correctly what it causing the problem. If you don’t have the cause right, you will just fix parts that do not need fixing and you will never find the part that is actually causing the problem.
I do not think we should mock or deride these young men as what they are experiencing seems common in young high-achieving Black men now. If you care about Black people or are Black yourself, I think you might want to listen to the identity dilemmas of these young men.
There are times when I look at my brownish-yellow skin, positive attitude and achievement in education compared to my peers, introverted personality and fidelity towards my superiors and I dare to wonder if I’m even Black. After multiple ancestry tests, I came out 15% European and 2% Amerindian, leaving me below average in European admixture, average in Native American, and overall, below average in non-African admixture for a typical U.S. Black. That’s not to say that by pointing that out that I’m ashamed of myself because I’m not for three reasons.
One, there are many Black populations in Africa with ME and North African admixture that I’m sure still see themselves as Black.
Two, I have no grudge whatsoever towards Caucasians in general, and I actually rather like many.
Three, I made more White friends than Black friends, so I had an idea in my head that I wasn’t really Black in some ways even before I went into HBD.
Funny, since I already believed in racial differences in behavior despite being raised in the era of Cultural Marxism, I guess I always believed in it to an extent, and so did my dad.
Before becoming what he is today, my Dad was generally a punk but a smart one. By that, what I mean he was what he asshole in school. Meaning the kid who always has his hand up in class and makes the others look bad. Anyway, he still did various crap, among them bringing a gun to school in his sock to scare a bully, the typical drugs, booze, and girls stories, etc. Needless to say this stagnated his future.
Over time though, after hearing his friends complaining how the white man can make it but they can’t, he saw Whites and other Blacks making it, and he had in his mind “I’m going to learn what they got that I don’t”. Eventually, he narrowed it down to behavior and aspirations. Included were work ethic of course, maintaining yourself, and trying to understand more of the world than your immediate surroundings.
Of course, another thing he learned was that you can’t help those who can’t help themselves. He doesn’t really believe in handouts, and he doesn’t even believe environment is the sole reason many Blacks make bad decisions.
During a table discussion mere weeks ago, my mother was talking about the challenges in her early home environment in Crooklyn that held her back as far as opportunity and resources go. My mother, in contrast to my father, grew up with better sense than he did, which is typical behavior in Black women that was recorded even by early anthropologists in Africa. When she asked my father what held him back, he explained that the only things that held him back were his own decisions. He was even repulsed by the idea that of crediting to environment what was the fault of his own decisions.
After embarking to improve himself, he associated with the right “crowd” and achieved, but he didn’t abandon his roots like my mother did with hers in New York. He calls himself Upper Lower Class. From cleaning my room to my social habits, driving, and college, my dad has advice on what my mindset has to be for near everything significant in life now and in the future.
However, the one that I remember the best is his philosophy of “bringing one with us.” He said that it’s a belief amongst him and his fraternity that if each bring one with us, we could ameliorate some Black problems. He says we didn’t have to stop at one, but one is the basic requirement. I share this belief with my father, but I aspire to bring more than one with me keeping in mind that I can’t help those who don’t want help.
So I look back at myself and ask, am I Black? Considering I’m very passionate in general, laugh strongly at the slightest joke, and can be ferociously violent when provoked, I would say yes, I am Black. The difference being my comprehension is better than most.
