The Black Awards

I just learned about a new awards show called the Black Movie Awards. Before I get started on this rant let me make it known that to all that I don’t really care what ethnicity wants to do what for its own, just as long as every ethnicity gets the same privilege.

This is the latest in the ongoing rounds of ethnocentric organizations, awards, and clubs. Now, while I fully understand that people want to recognize the achievements of those in their own community, and am fine with that, I don’t like the way it is being imposed in such an overtly racist manner.

How you say?

Answer me this; where are the White Movie Awards? What about the National Association for the Advancement of Non-Colored People? How about the United Cracker College Fund? They don’t exist, and they will not exist because they are “racist”.

Is it just me, or does the term “racist” only seem to apply to white people, and white men in particular? Years ago I was called a racist because I said I didn’t think I could marry a black woman (Boy did I ever miff THAT one up. Guess what color my wife is.) Exclusively white clubs were all branded as racist and either diversified or disbanded. (I’ll get to the REAL racist groups later.) All male clubs and organizations were sued into including women. Eventually we wound up with almost nothing but a healthily diversified mix nearly everywhere.

So now what happens? All black organizations, awards shows, clubs, and funds are everywhere, but if white people try to do the same thing we would instantly get branded as racists. By this definition every one of these all-black groups is racist. Something doesn’t add up here.

Here are a few genuinely racist groups: The KKK, the Black Panthers, all Neo-Nazi groups everywhere, the Nation of Islam, and every street gang in America of any ethnicity. How do ethnic awards and clubs equate to these foul groups?

In short; they don’t.

There is nothing inherently racist is people forming ethnic clubs and whatnot, it only becomes racists when the IDEOLOGY of exclusion and hate pops up and starts to shape the direction of the group. Let people celebrate themselves. Let them have pride in their ancestors and their community. But also let them have this same pride in the greater community and our diverse history as a nation. It is good for people to have heroes they can identify with. I greatly admire Harriet Tubbman, but my ancestors worked with her, they weren’t freed by her, so what she means to me is by nature going to be something less than what she means to a black person. The same goes for all of the great civil rights leaders of the past. Rosa Parks, to me, is a woman who simply asserted her right as a human being. What she did, and the revolution she sparked did not do for me what it did for the Black community. The jerk who insisted on taking her seat is, to me, not just a racist, but a man who lacks chivalry since he had the GALL to insist that a woman get up so he could take her seat and not the other way around. To the black community he is a symbol of hundreds of years of white oppression that has finally been set right, or mostly right. It’s just differences. I see no reason why we can’t celebrate these differences from all sides while also celebrating our similarities. We’re all the same inside after all.