Keepin' It Real
                   ( Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?)
                                                                                                                 Gal 4:16



It was Socrates that posed the question, "What is the right way for a man to live?" This is a nation laden with aphorisms and edicts that declare what being an American is.  The Declaration of Independence starts with these hallowed words," When in the course of human events it becomes necessary".  But if I parse together a sentence by borrowing excerpts from the remainder of the first paragraph, it would look like this.  "To assume among the powers of the earth the Laws of Nature and Nature's God a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."

Under the cascading shower of diatribes surrounding the now very conflated event of protest in the NFL, I have simply been wondering, what is an acceptable concourse, narrative, discourse, anthropology for a man of color in the broader context of western civilization; but more specifically in America. The bandwidth for grievance has never been broad.  The two-ness that W.E.B Du Bois speaks about is something that almost makes you feel transgenic, a permutation of two cultures. "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity."

My first experience of this peculiar sensation was as early as the fourth grade. The elasticity, the subtle nuance and duplicity of metrics for excellence, acceptance and recognition seemed esoteric.  Being an ambivert, I never really cared or explored this dangling participle of our culture.  I was taught to believe in the benefit of a great work ethic, treating people well and the inherent righteousness of the tenets and decrees of American folklore and history.  Even as I began to ask questions about the canned narratives that were an embedded part of all of the school's literature, textbooks and references I was directed to, the volume of the subtext began to get louder.

The only places where a reflection could be found in the expanse of the history of the U.S was on the plantations and the ghettos.  Between those sullied domiciles a smattering of relevance was mentioned in conflicts: Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, WW I & II et al.  Even the peculiar institution, the nation's Great Sin, as promulgated in history books was bereft of the depravity, savagery and gravitas.  Many of my friends from middle and high school would probably be puzzled after reading up to this point.  Let me be clear, I have never seen the United States through a dystopic lens and declared her an irredeemably racist nation with no redemptive characteristics; pockmarked with incongruity, hypocrisy and the pernicious underpinnings of her colonial progenitor.

But when I had an exchange with a former classmate who asked me why was I posting "so much racial stuff' on my FB page, it reminded me of the veracity of the Du Bois quote.  He took issue with the subject matter I was addressing.  When I cogently explained what my experiences had been in the military,education and financial services, his trite dismissal of the validity of my reality was symptomatic of what under girds the almost radioactive political climate today.  RACISM is this country's dead fly in the apothecary.  The parochial view of far too many Americans is that it is either embellished or the derisive tool of "race baiters,( erbody knows Al and Jesse) malcontents, or those who look for excuses when things don't go their way.  The shutdown, ( in their minds) tangential point is the untenable homicide rate among blacks,( blacks are 8 times more likely to be killed by each other) the peculiar, one-sided reference to black-on-black crime or the fact that 52 percent of all homicides according to FBI statistics are committed by that same people group. "Why aren't you protesting that?  When I take the time to give context (NEVER excuses) by showing the nexus socioeconomically between the past and the present.....again.....deflection or denunciation.

Even when providing statistical abstracts on the disparities in health, housing, incarceration rates, and economics to bolster your case about this yet existent social cancer, there is a collective yawn, side-eye and fade to black. "But Theo, you are a well-educated, successful man who hasn't had any barriers to realizing your potential." Well, you can be truthful but not accurate. The vast majority of successful black folks in this country have probably not had a "Mississippi Burning" experience or the kind of vile overt racist experiences that make your blood boil like a scene from the movie "12 Years a Slave." What will probably surprise you is the sheer volume of what has been termed micro aggressions that most have ignored or subjugated to the category of just an ignorant, uniformed exchange.

In 2017, terms like "Go back to Africa" or "You should be grateful" still drip like the anachronistic meanderings of "good people" from a century ago.  The President of the United States can call the White House a dump and say," the United States has done many bad things in the world" and somehow he is keeping it real. Yet without hesitation had his predecessor said the EXACT same things, many "nice folks" would have unloaded with profanity-laced, racial epithets an order of magnitude we would probably still be counting.  The bad things that America has done to its own citizens and the malignant residue that remains in the form of systemic constructs that still impede, encumber and prohibit is the keepin' it real that no one wants to talk about.  It is still the stain on the flag that seems to be evident only to the people that kneel, stand or sit.