This is so precise and fun to read, and I even thought you might be from my generation. You are my sons' generation and wrote generously, authentically and helpfully to pierce through the obnoxious stereotypes that still pervade the American psyche. My favorite line is that "no racist white person can stop my success". Yes!
Every time I see that condescending/racist infographic, all I can imagine is a group of white supremacists laughing at the success of their plot to have their rhetoric adopted as “progressive” via strategic plants in our “elite” institutions.
As Ayn Rand so eloquently put it, "The smallest minority in the world is the individual". I have always been an individual first - not a 'joiner' and proud of it. It sounds like you are just the same. I stopped worrying about the 'joiners' a long time ago.
Back in 1967 and 1968 I worked in the Upward Bound Program at the Claremont Colleges. The second summer, a group of Blacks tried to take over the program through physical intimidation of the staff and high school participants. Upward Bound was designed to help high school students of all races who needed extra help to succeed in college with a residential program during the summer and follow-up sessions during their senior years. Those who tried to take over the program claimed that homework and studying were a white racist plot to undermine Black is Beautiful. Instead of having homework sessions in the evenings, the Blacks claimed that they were entitled to have dances -- every night -- and to use peyote to open their awareness to white oppression.
The solution as simple. The leaders of the "uprising" were fired and their "muscle" from the probation camps were send back to their camps. The program ended up being the most academic west of the Mississippi. The biggest losers were the minorities students from the probation camps since they had been mislead by the "coup's" leaders, all who came from wealthy Black families, e.g. surgeons, entrepreneurs, etc. Because the probationees had been abused into criminal behavior, they lost their best opportunity to break the poverty cycle, while the leaders suffered no actual consequences as is the general situation with the wealthy.
It is clear that race was a bogus division. Instead, certain power groups used race to divide people because there's money to be made in division. It seems that the same dynamic is at work today.
“[The charge of “trying to act white] stems from a narrow view of “blackness” that is highly reliant on the idea that to be “black” is to be a supposed outsider to the broader American culture. Of course, this never made sense, as black (read: Negro) culture has always been central to American culture in some way and it certainly was when I grew up.”
First, black culture is, and has always been, an essential strand of, and inseparable from, American culture, with outsized influence and significance in comparison with the proportion of black folks in the American population. In fact, the black cultural strand is often the strand by which members of other cultures most readily recognize aspects of this culture as American.
Second, black folks rightfully object to being perceived in stereotypical terms, but isn’t the accusation of “trying to act white” at bottom a charge that one is not conforming to a “black-enough” stereotype?
Finally, the expectation that being “black enough” requires that one maintain a semi-oppositional “outsider” status, seems at odds with the perfectly valid desire of black Americans to fully share in the benefits of being Americans. Isn’t it an obvious mistake to view the choices as exclusively “outsider” or “Carlton”? Just more stereotypes.
Regarding American culture as “uncool” works for comedic purposes. But insofar as “acting white” makes one a “race traitor” due to the implication of insufficient oppositional separation from whites, that is a troubling position: how does maintaining the “black-enough” outsider pose lead to greater cultural and political participation and rewards for non-celebrity black Americans?
How is a majority culture likely to regard a minority that continually asserts its separate “outsider” status? Doesn’t the freedom of black folks also depend on the willingness of black folks to grant all black folks the freedom to find their own personal relationships with American culture?
I wish I could shake your hand. This is so brilliant. “If me being me is a problem when I do nothing to you then it’s your issue, not mine” is exactly how I was raised, and what I’m trying to teach my kids.
The real privilege is to live in a time when we can be individuals and live our best lives. Shame on those who squander that privilege on hatred and resentment.
Wonderful! I wish more people could allow themselves to be themselves instead of living down to limiting preconceived notions. I always advices my children to simply answer with their given names whenever someone inquired “what are you?”
I'd love to include you on my YouTube, if your are interested. I focus on neurodivergence and intersectionality, which includes perspectives on life in general, like racelessness. You might enjoy the conversations I've had with Angel Eduardo, Adam Coleman, and others.
Some race-activists have commented on how Carlton was mocked, while Will was the hero. In the first Hidden Colors documentary, British activist Toyin Agbetu says of the sitcom, "There are two black boys. One is street smart, he can dance, and he doesn't get good grades. The other is not street, he can't dance and he gets good grades. Which one are we expected to admire?"
Thanks be to God this piece is indeed Black thought! And yea, it was “fun” as one responded stated. Yet, this is a serious debate that involves pain & search. I think it has to be “fun” & “witty” because we (Black folk) been focused on the wrong point to be considered regarding one we think might be a “House Negro.” (Because that’s the underlying debate...is it not?)
And we get stuck on arguing if one is or if one ain’t a House Negro, rather than distinguishing if one is or if one ain’t a GOOD House Negro? And then, *whose* good?
We don’t even allow for the idea of a “good” House Negro. Because the image of a Good House Negro is Stephen (from Django). But that Negro was “good” as good was defined from the perspective of white supremacy & white power.
Yet not all House Negroes were Stephen. Some of them snuck food out to those being starved. Some House Negroes (rarely yet on rare occasion) unlocked the door to the ammunition house. Some House Negroes aided the Underground Railroad & guided others in the “runaway process.” And even if you have never read the narratives, close your eyes & sit in the Spirit with the spirits of our ancestors & know it to be true...
So...who is the “Good” House Negro? From whose perspective are we allowing the House Negro to exist?
We only allow the House Negro to exist within the framework of whiteness. So the “good” House Negro was someone we despise, & the “bad” House Negro was someone who got his/her ass whopped all the time...and we ain’t want to be that.
We confined the House Negro to someone who served Massa’s purposes. And so the House Negro was to be shamed. Is to be shamed. Carlton. (sic)
But, what if the question accepted the reality of the House Negro? The House Negro exists. He and she were bred into existence by the ideology of white supremacy & the force of white power.
Whose “goodness” does this House Negro serve? Whose “goodness” does this Field Negro serve, for that matter?
The real debate is it or if not Carlton use the definition of “good” supplied to him by white power and/or rooted in white supremacy? Or is this Carlton a Free Negro who uses his access to whiteness for the liberation of his people?
My take on this requires a little background. I started reading science fiction in 4th grade. Not a Black thing. My Catholic grammar school did not teach science. Not a Catholic thing. I learned science and decided that I was an agnostic because of science fiction which my mother called "something crazy". To this day I don't know what she really meant by that or how she came to that conclusion. I have just decided that she intended for me to have a negative emotional reaction to it which seemed rather bizarre when I was 10 because I learned more in a week as a result of reading one sci-fi book than in a month from the nitwit nuns that she was paying to educate me. I was on the road to hell with Clarke and Asimov.
But life changed at the Catholic high school. They determined class category on the basis of mathematics and I ended up in the "Top Class" of the college preparatory track. That is what they called it, I didn't make up that name. School was no big deal, after all these years I think it probably wasn't good for me that it was so easy. I never worshipped grades though. I got straight D's in religion my freshman year, being an agnostic since 7th grade. Spend hours doing mindless busywork for a grade. No way Jose! But I think part of the "white" definition of intelligence is obeying and believing in AUTHORITY. But maybe I am just a racist.
By the time Fresh Prince of Bel-Air came on I was not interested in that kind of show. I don't think I ever watched an entire episode. There was a Black kid at my high school who fit the "Carlton" role though. I think his name was Julian. We didn't cross paths much since he was never in The Class, and the term "acting white" hadn't come into vogue, but other Black boys talked about him in those kinds of terms. Of course I have no idea what they said about me behind my back but one kid made a point of calling me "a gentleman and a scholar " on multiple occasions in my hearing and being quite sarcastic about it.
We now have what is referred to as The Stockholm Syndrome. I don't recall anyone ever suggesting that many Black Americans might be suffering from it but I think it fits to some degree. Among all human beings there are conformists and reactionaries. In my more cheerfully cynical moments I suspect that when the White people are doing something dumb the Black conformists go along with it, and when they are doing something smart the Black reactionaries refuse because it is a "White thing". My sister who was 5 years older started smoking when she was 11. White women in the movies were so glamorous with their languid motion while smoking and getting White Men to light their cigarettes. She has been dead for 14 years. But we can't lynch the cigarette executives for selling "Torches of Freedom" now, can we?
But back to high school. I used to swap SF books with some of the White boys. Probably a White thing. The two Straight A's in Everything White boys did not get involved. Neither one of them impressed me with their intellects they just did the nose to the grindstone thing. That is "Acting White" but it was OK since they were. I never really saw the other White boys giving them a hard time about it. But what shocked me was when one of them got a B. He cried in class. Fortunately that shock delayed me from laughing because that was almost what I did. Then I thought of all of the hours he must have spent doing that stupid religious drivel homework that drove me crazy. So he became the Salutatorian. I used to beat the Valedictorian at chess but number 2 refused to play me.
So what does school and grades and this "acting white" crap really mean? Then there was college. I ended up in a White fraternity sorta by accident. When they didn't have enough rooms reserved in the dormitories at the beginning of the school year they had some deal arranged with the frats to handle the "overflow". So I ended up staying in one for a couple of weeks. Also during this time the fraternities were looking for people that they wanted to pledge. Prior to this I had never even thought about it. Of course science fiction came into it, AGAIN!
There is a now classic and well known book, among SF aficionados, Tau Zero by Poul Anderson. It was fairly new back then. It involves Einsteinian physics with extreme time dilation and the Big Crunch Theory of the universe. So I got into a discussion with a senior physics major about it. He says to me, "You don't try to understand Einsteinian physics. You memorize the equations and how to apply the equations." That shocked the hell out of my 18 year old brain. The scientist and engineering characters in my SF books always understood what they were dealing with. ROFLMBAO
You're not supposed to disillusion people like that! It's just not White!
So two Black kids ended up pledging with the fraternity, Al from California and me from The Projects but very unghetto. They were shocked when I didn't even know what marijuana smelled like. The cops never busted the fraternities for drugs that I ever heard. An engineering school campus was practically sacrosanct. Watch the movie Real Genius to get an idea what it was like though of course not that far over the top but similar atmosphere.
Another peculiar thing was the Black kids in the dorms. Any Black kids in the fraternities had to be Oreo cookies. LOL
What has the world come to after decades of this crap though? I did FORTRAN programming on keypunch machines back then. Now I am typing on a Samsung smartphone. The technology DOES NOT CARE. But are we still paying The Man to live on the planet.
You can get labeled a Carlton for just being smart and finding school easy. Two Black kids who were not friends paid me $100 each to take their SATs. That probably would not be so easy today. Photo IDs weren't standard then. LOL
There are Black people playing at the Carton role but many of the people making anything of it are those trapped in the underclass. I don't have the slightest interest in psychoanalysing every quasi-Carlton I meet. Who cares?
What kind of future we try to make using this technology for education could matter. Read some science fiction.
This is so precise and fun to read, and I even thought you might be from my generation. You are my sons' generation and wrote generously, authentically and helpfully to pierce through the obnoxious stereotypes that still pervade the American psyche. My favorite line is that "no racist white person can stop my success". Yes!
Every time I see that condescending/racist infographic, all I can imagine is a group of white supremacists laughing at the success of their plot to have their rhetoric adopted as “progressive” via strategic plants in our “elite” institutions.
Spot on! I just became an annual subscriber. Looking forward to meeting you one day. Hopefully soon. God bless you!
Spot on & such a fun read!
As Ayn Rand so eloquently put it, "The smallest minority in the world is the individual". I have always been an individual first - not a 'joiner' and proud of it. It sounds like you are just the same. I stopped worrying about the 'joiners' a long time ago.
Back in 1967 and 1968 I worked in the Upward Bound Program at the Claremont Colleges. The second summer, a group of Blacks tried to take over the program through physical intimidation of the staff and high school participants. Upward Bound was designed to help high school students of all races who needed extra help to succeed in college with a residential program during the summer and follow-up sessions during their senior years. Those who tried to take over the program claimed that homework and studying were a white racist plot to undermine Black is Beautiful. Instead of having homework sessions in the evenings, the Blacks claimed that they were entitled to have dances -- every night -- and to use peyote to open their awareness to white oppression.
The solution as simple. The leaders of the "uprising" were fired and their "muscle" from the probation camps were send back to their camps. The program ended up being the most academic west of the Mississippi. The biggest losers were the minorities students from the probation camps since they had been mislead by the "coup's" leaders, all who came from wealthy Black families, e.g. surgeons, entrepreneurs, etc. Because the probationees had been abused into criminal behavior, they lost their best opportunity to break the poverty cycle, while the leaders suffered no actual consequences as is the general situation with the wealthy.
It is clear that race was a bogus division. Instead, certain power groups used race to divide people because there's money to be made in division. It seems that the same dynamic is at work today.
https://bit.ly/3fUBy1z April 8, 2021, CityWatch, Hate Money Stalks America
Good article!
A key point:
“[The charge of “trying to act white] stems from a narrow view of “blackness” that is highly reliant on the idea that to be “black” is to be a supposed outsider to the broader American culture. Of course, this never made sense, as black (read: Negro) culture has always been central to American culture in some way and it certainly was when I grew up.”
First, black culture is, and has always been, an essential strand of, and inseparable from, American culture, with outsized influence and significance in comparison with the proportion of black folks in the American population. In fact, the black cultural strand is often the strand by which members of other cultures most readily recognize aspects of this culture as American.
Second, black folks rightfully object to being perceived in stereotypical terms, but isn’t the accusation of “trying to act white” at bottom a charge that one is not conforming to a “black-enough” stereotype?
Finally, the expectation that being “black enough” requires that one maintain a semi-oppositional “outsider” status, seems at odds with the perfectly valid desire of black Americans to fully share in the benefits of being Americans. Isn’t it an obvious mistake to view the choices as exclusively “outsider” or “Carlton”? Just more stereotypes.
Regarding American culture as “uncool” works for comedic purposes. But insofar as “acting white” makes one a “race traitor” due to the implication of insufficient oppositional separation from whites, that is a troubling position: how does maintaining the “black-enough” outsider pose lead to greater cultural and political participation and rewards for non-celebrity black Americans?
How is a majority culture likely to regard a minority that continually asserts its separate “outsider” status? Doesn’t the freedom of black folks also depend on the willingness of black folks to grant all black folks the freedom to find their own personal relationships with American culture?
I wish I could shake your hand. This is so brilliant. “If me being me is a problem when I do nothing to you then it’s your issue, not mine” is exactly how I was raised, and what I’m trying to teach my kids.
The real privilege is to live in a time when we can be individuals and live our best lives. Shame on those who squander that privilege on hatred and resentment.
May we all be Carltons!
Wonderful! I wish more people could allow themselves to be themselves instead of living down to limiting preconceived notions. I always advices my children to simply answer with their given names whenever someone inquired “what are you?”
The comments above said it way better than I ever could. But in short, beautifully thoughtful and personally honest! Love it!
I'd love to include you on my YouTube, if your are interested. I focus on neurodivergence and intersectionality, which includes perspectives on life in general, like racelessness. You might enjoy the conversations I've had with Angel Eduardo, Adam Coleman, and others.
EQSolutionsU2.com
NeuroawesomeLife.com
https://www.youtube.com/@neuroawesomelife241
Some race-activists have commented on how Carlton was mocked, while Will was the hero. In the first Hidden Colors documentary, British activist Toyin Agbetu says of the sitcom, "There are two black boys. One is street smart, he can dance, and he doesn't get good grades. The other is not street, he can't dance and he gets good grades. Which one are we expected to admire?"
Beautiful, thoughtful, humorous!
Thanks be to God this piece is indeed Black thought! And yea, it was “fun” as one responded stated. Yet, this is a serious debate that involves pain & search. I think it has to be “fun” & “witty” because we (Black folk) been focused on the wrong point to be considered regarding one we think might be a “House Negro.” (Because that’s the underlying debate...is it not?)
And we get stuck on arguing if one is or if one ain’t a House Negro, rather than distinguishing if one is or if one ain’t a GOOD House Negro? And then, *whose* good?
We don’t even allow for the idea of a “good” House Negro. Because the image of a Good House Negro is Stephen (from Django). But that Negro was “good” as good was defined from the perspective of white supremacy & white power.
Yet not all House Negroes were Stephen. Some of them snuck food out to those being starved. Some House Negroes (rarely yet on rare occasion) unlocked the door to the ammunition house. Some House Negroes aided the Underground Railroad & guided others in the “runaway process.” And even if you have never read the narratives, close your eyes & sit in the Spirit with the spirits of our ancestors & know it to be true...
So...who is the “Good” House Negro? From whose perspective are we allowing the House Negro to exist?
We only allow the House Negro to exist within the framework of whiteness. So the “good” House Negro was someone we despise, & the “bad” House Negro was someone who got his/her ass whopped all the time...and we ain’t want to be that.
We confined the House Negro to someone who served Massa’s purposes. And so the House Negro was to be shamed. Is to be shamed. Carlton. (sic)
But, what if the question accepted the reality of the House Negro? The House Negro exists. He and she were bred into existence by the ideology of white supremacy & the force of white power.
Whose “goodness” does this House Negro serve? Whose “goodness” does this Field Negro serve, for that matter?
The real debate is it or if not Carlton use the definition of “good” supplied to him by white power and/or rooted in white supremacy? Or is this Carlton a Free Negro who uses his access to whiteness for the liberation of his people?
Right on! I feel this.
I encountered this months ago:
White on the Inside - Black Booktuber https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FFqjSrxV8Ig
My take on this requires a little background. I started reading science fiction in 4th grade. Not a Black thing. My Catholic grammar school did not teach science. Not a Catholic thing. I learned science and decided that I was an agnostic because of science fiction which my mother called "something crazy". To this day I don't know what she really meant by that or how she came to that conclusion. I have just decided that she intended for me to have a negative emotional reaction to it which seemed rather bizarre when I was 10 because I learned more in a week as a result of reading one sci-fi book than in a month from the nitwit nuns that she was paying to educate me. I was on the road to hell with Clarke and Asimov.
But life changed at the Catholic high school. They determined class category on the basis of mathematics and I ended up in the "Top Class" of the college preparatory track. That is what they called it, I didn't make up that name. School was no big deal, after all these years I think it probably wasn't good for me that it was so easy. I never worshipped grades though. I got straight D's in religion my freshman year, being an agnostic since 7th grade. Spend hours doing mindless busywork for a grade. No way Jose! But I think part of the "white" definition of intelligence is obeying and believing in AUTHORITY. But maybe I am just a racist.
By the time Fresh Prince of Bel-Air came on I was not interested in that kind of show. I don't think I ever watched an entire episode. There was a Black kid at my high school who fit the "Carlton" role though. I think his name was Julian. We didn't cross paths much since he was never in The Class, and the term "acting white" hadn't come into vogue, but other Black boys talked about him in those kinds of terms. Of course I have no idea what they said about me behind my back but one kid made a point of calling me "a gentleman and a scholar " on multiple occasions in my hearing and being quite sarcastic about it.
We now have what is referred to as The Stockholm Syndrome. I don't recall anyone ever suggesting that many Black Americans might be suffering from it but I think it fits to some degree. Among all human beings there are conformists and reactionaries. In my more cheerfully cynical moments I suspect that when the White people are doing something dumb the Black conformists go along with it, and when they are doing something smart the Black reactionaries refuse because it is a "White thing". My sister who was 5 years older started smoking when she was 11. White women in the movies were so glamorous with their languid motion while smoking and getting White Men to light their cigarettes. She has been dead for 14 years. But we can't lynch the cigarette executives for selling "Torches of Freedom" now, can we?
But back to high school. I used to swap SF books with some of the White boys. Probably a White thing. The two Straight A's in Everything White boys did not get involved. Neither one of them impressed me with their intellects they just did the nose to the grindstone thing. That is "Acting White" but it was OK since they were. I never really saw the other White boys giving them a hard time about it. But what shocked me was when one of them got a B. He cried in class. Fortunately that shock delayed me from laughing because that was almost what I did. Then I thought of all of the hours he must have spent doing that stupid religious drivel homework that drove me crazy. So he became the Salutatorian. I used to beat the Valedictorian at chess but number 2 refused to play me.
So what does school and grades and this "acting white" crap really mean? Then there was college. I ended up in a White fraternity sorta by accident. When they didn't have enough rooms reserved in the dormitories at the beginning of the school year they had some deal arranged with the frats to handle the "overflow". So I ended up staying in one for a couple of weeks. Also during this time the fraternities were looking for people that they wanted to pledge. Prior to this I had never even thought about it. Of course science fiction came into it, AGAIN!
There is a now classic and well known book, among SF aficionados, Tau Zero by Poul Anderson. It was fairly new back then. It involves Einsteinian physics with extreme time dilation and the Big Crunch Theory of the universe. So I got into a discussion with a senior physics major about it. He says to me, "You don't try to understand Einsteinian physics. You memorize the equations and how to apply the equations." That shocked the hell out of my 18 year old brain. The scientist and engineering characters in my SF books always understood what they were dealing with. ROFLMBAO
You're not supposed to disillusion people like that! It's just not White!
So two Black kids ended up pledging with the fraternity, Al from California and me from The Projects but very unghetto. They were shocked when I didn't even know what marijuana smelled like. The cops never busted the fraternities for drugs that I ever heard. An engineering school campus was practically sacrosanct. Watch the movie Real Genius to get an idea what it was like though of course not that far over the top but similar atmosphere.
Another peculiar thing was the Black kids in the dorms. Any Black kids in the fraternities had to be Oreo cookies. LOL
What has the world come to after decades of this crap though? I did FORTRAN programming on keypunch machines back then. Now I am typing on a Samsung smartphone. The technology DOES NOT CARE. But are we still paying The Man to live on the planet.
You can get labeled a Carlton for just being smart and finding school easy. Two Black kids who were not friends paid me $100 each to take their SATs. That probably would not be so easy today. Photo IDs weren't standard then. LOL
There are Black people playing at the Carton role but many of the people making anything of it are those trapped in the underclass. I don't have the slightest interest in psychoanalysing every quasi-Carlton I meet. Who cares?
What kind of future we try to make using this technology for education could matter. Read some science fiction.
Black Man's Burden (1961) by Mack Reynolds http://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2008/08/mack-reynolds-on-africa-islam-utopia-and-progress.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32390/32390-h/32390-h.htm
Border, Breed Nor Birth (1963) by Mack Reynolds http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30639/30639-h/30639-h.htm