Buzzfeed Video uploaded a video called, “27 Questions Black People Have For Other Black People”. It’s not the first. They also have “Questions White People Have For White People” and “Questions Lesbians Have For Straight Girls”. These are just to name a few. I can’t speak on behalf of any of the other communities (they’ve never made a video about pansexual people) but, I can comment on this one.
The video gives us 27 questions asked by a group of black people. The questions are ones that, as a black person, I’ve heard all my life. For example: “Why are more likely to engage in a new dance trend than we are to get involved in politics or opening a business”. I’ve heard this question everywhere and I’ve even heard different variations of it. I’ve heard it in church, from black teachers, aunts, uncles, parents etc. It’s a genuine question. The problem I have isn’t with the questions, it’s with the video. It does nothing to help fix the problems of internalized prejudice in the black community, all it does is bring age old questions to a plethora of non-black viewers who now feel like they have the right to ask me, “Why is it common for black people to not have fathers”. So thanks for that Buzzfeed. In order to shed some light on this group of black people with these self-hating questions, I’ll answer them from my own experience as a black person. I am pansexual, aromantic, below the poverty line, my biological father was never in my life but he WAS in jail, my mother is a single mother, she had five kids out of wedlock, and I live in a neighborhood that’s not “safe”. So here we go.
“Why are we more like to get involved in a new dance trend than we are to get involved in politics or open a new business?”
In my neighborhood, most kids don’t even know they can vote at the age of eighteen. Most adults have never even registered because there are no places to register near us. And for those who are aware, they don’t know where to go and vote. As for starting a business? Since when have we ever been able to just up and find money to create the next Apple. Do you know how hard it is to be black and get a bank loan? And I will continue to whip and hit the quan because finally, I feel like I’m able to just be black AND be somewhat carefree. Don’t take that away from us.
“Why do we call each other the n-word but then get vehemently upset when a white person uses the n-word?”
Well by your logic in the previous question, those of us who are out there whippin’ are too stupid to know what vehemently means.. And let’s be clear: WHITE PEOPLE CANNOT SAY NIGGA. They had their chance when they were cattle herding us into boats and keeping us out of school’s to say it. It’s our turn. Just because it’s 2016 does not mean that all traces of racism and the effects of slavery are gone from our community– so don’t act like it.
“Why do you protest Black Lives Matter and then tear each other down in the next breath?”
You know why. It’s the same reason you thought you had to straighten your hair as a little girl and the same reason you thought you had to change voices when you talked to your white friends and why you felt you had to laugh when somebody said, “Do all black people like chicken?”
“Why is growing up without a father so common in our race?”
Let’s see, maybe it’s the ratio of black men who end up in jail straight out of high school instead of in college. Maybe it’s the fact that we are barely taught basic math skills in the public school system, let alone basic health and sex education. Maybe it’s because we have systematically had the fight or flight mentality when it comes to separation within families. Or maybe it’s because young men actually believe that the fastest way to make money and to keep food on your families table, is to join a gang or sell drugs. Which, you guessed it- leads to jail. Black men make up the majority of males in prison (most for petty drug crimes)
“Why is being educated considered a white thing?”
Maybe because for LITERAL YEARS IT ACTUALLY WAS! But besides that, don’t let yourself forget that black women are some of the most educated people in the country and that they make up a large percentage of the college community.
The questions are not the problem, it’s the way they were asked. There was no background, no diversity in the people asking them. All of these black people now have steady jobs, they made it out of their troubled family homes and neighborhoods. They can afford to ask these questions– but do they really have the answers? Buzzfeed needs to step back and realize that these things are delicate among communities and that airing out our animosities with no explanation as to why they exist is a problem.
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