Advancement Project

January 22, 2010

Diminishing Blackness

Ousted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s recent comments in Esquire magazine that he’s “blacker than Barack Obama” demonstrates an utter misconception of what it means to be Black. Although that statement was the opinion of a completely discredited politician, the fact that the “blacker” statement seemed like a reasonable thing to say in a mainstream publication shows evidence of a deeper issue. The statement is symbolic of America’s continuing failure to truly understand Black people’s ongoing struggle for equality.

While it may certainly be true that the former governor’s upbringing; his having grown up in a five-room apartment; the Laundromat that his father owned in a Black community; and having shined shoes; might make him better able to relate to the conditions under which some, but not all, Black people were reared, that upbringing does not, ultimately give him the license to take ownership of “Blackness”. At best, the statement was a poorly articulated attempt to show common ground across racial divides.

Seeing poverty, degradation, and underachievement as synonymous with Blackness is a diminution of what it means to be Black. Furthermore, it overshadows the strides that a people have made toward equality. The lens through which the Black experience is often observed and defined seriously misconstrues the very essence of “Blackness.” In America, understanding race has always have been subjective and a matter of perception. And the perception that the color of one’s skin is somehow an accurate predictor of intelligence, aptitude, and success, is especially troubling.

Blackness and or for that matter, the soul of any race, is only fully understood through experience. And Blackness is most certainly a lived experience–one that has many layers and identities.
Indeed, there is an advantage inherent in Whiteness not afforded to other races in America, but the disadvantages that People of Color face do not define who they are as a people.

What it means to be White in America is often unconscious and subconscious. The characteristics of Whiteness are harder to define and White identity is less constricted. This White identity is more mutable. Whiteness is both prevalent and hardly there. I think that comedian Dave Chappelle described it best, when he said: “You benefit from racism, just by the merit in the color of your skin, there’s opportunities that you have, you’re privileged in ways you may not even realize, cause you haven’t been deprived in certain ways.” That statement offers insight into the privileges inherent in one’s skin. Your race can offer you more or less societal acceptance based on prevailing standards.

Such benefits that come with Whiteness are obstacles for People of Color that organizations like Advancement Project work to overcome. It requires careful thought and honest discussion to face the reality of things, and then work towards dismantling these walls.

We are all shaped to some extent by perceptions others have of one’s race. And because of this reality, Black people are engaged in an ongoing struggle to make Blackness synonymous with education, excellence, and limitless possibility. The concept is that despite the circumstances of your birth and the societal message that you can’t or won’t achieve because you’re Black, the contrasting message is that you are significant, valued, loved and capable of achieving anything.

People who appropriate and hijack Black identity for personal and political gain do a disservice to such goals and damage the potential for Americans to re-envision pre-existing notions of Blackness. Specifically, linking Blackness to a negative or disparaging condition sets race relations in America back.

The idea promoted by some a few years back that President Clinton was our first Black president because he smoked weed, had been a womanizer and played the saxophone were damaging stereotypes to perpetuate. Such stereotypes harm the psyches of Black youth, in particular, who struggle constantly to come up with contrasting narratives.

Perhaps, buried beneath Blagojevich’s initial comments, and even his own apology, that he misspoke and that his words were an expression of frustration, is a belief, which may not necessarily be his own, that President Obama has turned his back on his own race– that he hasn’t done the work needed to be done, to change the futures of Black Americans, and that he has diminished his “Blackness.” Those comments are just as discouraging and reductionist as the idea that Obama’s story is not representative of “authentic” Blackness.

I’m sure that some people will always find cause to attribute President Obama’s perceived failures to his race. But, one cannot reduce the struggles he has endured to reach this plateau by claiming that you’re, ‘blacker’ than him. This blog is intended less as an attack on the former governor, and more as a call for everyone in this nation to think before we speak, and to rethink our ingrained perceptions of Blackness and race as whole. The distinctiveness of a particular race do not exist in slices, but rather as a full lived experience, and we must all understand that this is so, if we are to achieve a more perfect union.

Williams, is a development associate at Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization that advocates for racial justice.