[img]583|left|||no_popup[/img]During this deep recession, and true to 400 years of black history, we have a group of black, black haters and poverty pimps running all over the country selling their books, promoting their television and radio shows, elevating their speaking fees, and playing crabs-in-a-barrel by blaming President Obama for the high unemployment in the black community.
Never mind that we’re in the deepest recession since the Great Depression. In spite of that, President Obama has managed to created over five million jobs with a Republican Congress kicking, screaming, and hanging on to his ankles every step. Never mind that under President Bush the nation was hemorrhaging 800,000 jobs a month without these same poverty pimps saying a word.
Never mind that in the process of saving the nation from another Great Depression, President Obama also managed to take out Osama Bin Laden in the process, a feat that eluded George W. Bush for nearly eight years. Bush's failed effort in that respect contributed mightily to the present economic situation. It might have been a pretext to purposely bring us to this point to attack Social Security, Medicare, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The poverty pimps and haters won't tell us that because they have their own agenda. A huge part of the agenda is to only tell the people what they want to hear. At the risk of sending these pimps into shock, I will address one issue: The image that we’re projecting to the world, and the impact it is having on our ability to obtain employment.
Answering the Why Question
Question: Why are black people always portrayed like this, as either grinnin' like cheshire cats, or too cool to be trusted. Do we ever see Asians portrayed this way? I am not saying it is a conspiracy. It is a , reality we need to change.
In a commercial picture I saw recently, it seemed on the surface that a sister was dancing. But if every time we see a black person it is like this, we look as if we don't have a brain in our head. No wonder nobody takes us seriously. The picture may have seemed may seem harmless. But every time a black person applies for a job, the interviewer has this, or a similar image, in the back of his or her mind. We need to start thinking about this. Image is everything, and this image is killing us.
The problem with the picture is not the sister herself. She is just a sister dancing. The message is even positive, dancing because Western Union made it easier to send money to her child in college. But the BBQ or watermelon is in the image being projected. I guarantee you that if they had an Asian in this commercial, the image would have been much different.
Subtle but Mighty Effective
After repeatedly showing black people in this light, it sends a subliminal message that creates a caricature of who we actually are. It suggests we are mindless, frivolous people or court jesters. At a glance it just looks like a sister dancing. But if a human resources person had just seen that commercial followed by a commercial of an Asian woman sitting at a desk looking professional, or being portrayed as a doctor or scientist, then later, interviewed a black woman and an Asian woman equally qualified, which one would be hired?
The most unique aspect of our culture is not our rhythm. It is our creativity. That is important to remember because when a cognitive scientist looks for intelligence in an animal, including man, he first looks for creativity. The reason is: The same creativity that goes into the making of an Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles or John Coltrane, easily can be redirected toward becoming a Barack Obama or finding a cure for cancer.
Having rhythm is not who we are, just who many people want us to think we are. Having rhythm, “soul,” even being cool – those are outward manifestations of our creativity and intellectual potential trying to break out of its shackles to express itself.
Music to My Ears
For example, the only thing I love more than writing is playing the saxophone. My ability to think and express myself on paper springs directly from the same imaginative source that allows me to play “Round Midnight” on my horn. Even as I write this piece, I feel like I'm playing a solo. It is tickling the very same part of my soul.
All individuals are a large bundle of past experiences. Same is true of cultures. All Jews are not just innately good businessmen. All Asians are not innately good at math and science. All black people don't just naturally have soul. We learn these things as we grow up. Every culture tends to assume a niche in society. The culture becomes known for those things that it specializes in.
Black culture has become known for music, sports and art because those were the only areas of society in which we were able to freely participate. Since that has changed, it is time for us to break out of the artificial boundaries placed upon us and find out who we really are. Maybe Johnny Cochran, Colin Powell, and Barack Obama are not the exceptions but the rule.
The way this sister in being portrayed in the Western Union commercial constitutes nothing short of allowing ourselves to be profiled, and not in the most flattering way. It not only amounts to an updated version of Steppin’ Fetchit-ism, it also stifles our young people's ability to see themselves in any other way.
As black people, if only for our children, we must never allow ourselves, our children or the world to forget that black people have much more to offer than jokes, jump shots and rhythm.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.”
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
