Not Black Enough?

Shortly after arriving in the United States with my family, I had the opportunity to attend a national conference for black evangelicals in Detroit. I was eager to learn about what distinguished black from white evangelicals. The conference was well represented with black leaders from various communities across the United States.

During the evaluation session at the end of the three day event, participants were invited to be candid in their appraisals. I publicly expressed my delight to be in attendance and took the opportunity to suggest that if sessions were more punctual and presenters had used more contemporary tools for communicating their presentations, the conference could have been much more effective.

In response to my observations, one of the organizers thanked me for participating. He went on to inform me that the organizers did not define effectiveness in the same way as their white brethren did. I guess he was saying that punctuality and utilization of effective tools to communicate were not appropriate indicators for assessing success among blacks.        

When that experience was put side by side with opinions shared by white evangelicals, I sensed that my Afro-Caribbean family was sandwiched between two cultures. For instance, it was not unusual to hear white evangelicals say to us, “we do not see you guys as being black.” Initially this was very confusing to us, but slowly we began to realize that in America, black is more than a color – it is also a culture.

It is a culture in that there are some experiences some blacks accept as being distinctly black. For instance, some would refer to the use of proper diction by blacks as pretending to be white. Such blacks would consider the occasional use of Ebonics to be culturally sensitive. However, that sensitivity may provide cultural acceptance, but it is totally inappropriate in the marketplace of ideas.

The Cosby Show provided a good illustration of this point. The show was well received by both white and black audiences. Earlier commentators felt that one of the show’s assets was its help in improving race relations by projecting universal values with which both whites and blacks could identify.   

However, a few more recent commentators suggest that the Cosby Show’s popularity has set back race relations. These more recent commentators believe the Show failed to take into account the context outside of the walls of the home in which the main characters lived. The fact that the Show failed to confront race relations in America is often viewed as a sell-out to white audiences and advertisers. However, I concur with the view that the positive role of the black Huxtable family served to reduce the negative stereotypes of blacks in the wider society. Interestingly, since the final episode more than 20 years ago, reruns of the Cosby Show still bring healthy laughter across races and generations.   

The same healthy laughter cannot be used to describe much of what is called black entertainment today. Bill O’Reilly has been ridiculed by many black leaders because he dared challenge the negative impact of some black entertainment.

According to O’Reilly, the black entertainment industry needs to stop peddling garbage. “Hey listen up you greed heads, if a kid can't speak proper English, uses the "f" word in every sentence, it's disgraceful, it's disrespectful -- it's disrespectful in his or her manner. That child will never, never be able to compete in the marketplace of America... never. And it has nothing to do with slavery. It has everything to do with you Hollywood people and you derelict parents. You're the ones hurting these vulnerable children.”

CNN host Don Lemon felt O’Reilly did not go far enough in analyzing the situation among blacks in America. As a black public figure, Lemon went on to list five critical areas that must be addressed in black communities today. Like O’Reilly he felt the most critical was the more than 72% of black children being born out of wedlock, often resulting in fatherless children.

One would think that Lemon’s opinions would earn the applause of the black community. Rather, it has inspired just as much hatred from the black community as O’Reilly’s comments did. MSNBC’s Goldie Taylor calls Lemon a “turncoat mofo,” while Toure also took to twitter to revile the common sense points Lemon made. Many others in the black community took to social media to excoriate Lemon’s remarks.

We need to take time to applaud Don Lemon, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Cosby, Ben Carson and every leader who risks ridicule and calls garbage trash and not treasure. As a Christian black man, I refuse to be defined by art forms that dehumanize others. My creative expressions are honed only by my Christian worldview. A proper understanding of that worldview enriches others, embraces healthy cultural expression and celebrates ethnic differences.