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Am I Being a Part of the Problem?
As I come to complete week four of the quarter, I’ve constantly been coming back to one thing. It’s been a barometer for me as I frame my perspective going to the school I attend.
During our first Black Convocation, I heard our second year student government president talk about black exceptionalism. It’s the idea that just by being in a given space, we believe automatically we’re uplifting others who aren’t in our position. Often times, this ideology manifests into us thinking we’re better than those who didn’t make it here, or at its most fundamental form, leaves us not thinking about how we can help those who aren’t here with us. Her speech is far more eloquent explaining this intersectionality where we as black people are navigating spaces that are often times not as willing, if not flat out denying us the opportunity to be there.
It really initially goes right in explaining why the ideas surrounding Du Bois’s talented tenth plan was egregiously anti-black (thus why he abandoned it). Black exceptionalism has been used as a justification for upholding racial hierarchies since the inception of this nation, going all the way back to 1619. Those from Du Bois to MLK to Baldwin to Obama have been put on pedestals in ways with which they are treated as the rare case of us doing well, and thus, allowing for a perpetual justification in racist beliefs. If you can…
