13 Ways of Looking at a Black Man

Hey all:
So my last blog was about the recent word vomit that was Bernard Hopkins against Donovan McNabb and how he was raised. I spoke about the ills of the Black community. One minute we are supportive of the steps one of us takes, but then the next we are spitting hate and calling the upbringing of someone else as a reason to claim them as less authentic to the race. The sad thing is many of us strive for the betterment of the community and we see the rise of the McNabbs or the Hills (Grant Hill) or the Cory Bookers of the world as the place that our community can go. Not in an attempt to be "white" but to be better for ourselves. I am tired of seeing our young Black men being locked up, I am tired of seeing our young Black women continuously being left alone to raise their children, I am tired of having to walk around and second guess whether or not I deserve to be where I am, not for fear of what the "others" will say, but what the Black community will say of my success. There used to be a time when we celebrated the success of "one of our own" and now it seems that we are the first one to stab the knife deep into the back of the "brother or sister" who made it.
I just finished reading Henry Louis Gates " 13 Ways of Looking at a Black Man." This book is a collection of interviews and anecdotes and stories about Black Men:
1. James Baldwin
2. Albert Murray
3. Bill T. Jones
4. Colin Powell
5. Louis Farrakhan
6. Harry Belafonte
7. Anatole Broyard
Gates also talks about how the OJ Simpson trial shaped a new race dynamic in this country. When reading these stories, all I can think about is the pride I feel for the different layers of our community. It also shows the complexity of our identity and the struggle we ALL go through. Anatole Broyard, was probably the most complex of the stories. He passed for most if not all of his life, not really able to embrace his Blackness, or in my opinion truly be comfortable in his own skin. I think for a long time we were taught that Black wasn't beautiful, that we weren't worthy of just being happy with who we are-- some how we have to stop the cycle of self-hatred.
If anything that I take away from this book, is that our Blackness comes in many flavors, in many forms. Each one another brilliant piece to who we are. Yes there are ugly sides of our identity, there are ugly sides of every one's identity, but we can't run from them, we have to do better to improve upon them. We can't continue to kill each other, to get locked up, to remain ignorant, to cut each other down when we make it. And in my opinion whether we think we owe anybody or not, until we are truly equal, it is our responsibility to help the next person and continue to support our community for the better.
So here's my beef. Recently Cornel West (an amazing mind) called out Barack Obama on many different points.

It's not that I expect everyone to be fully supportive of everything that every Black man or woman does, but I don't think we do each other any justice by calling out our authenticity. West said in an interview that "Obama is a white man in Black skin." What does that do for the young Black man who looks up to President Obama to hear him called out not only for his policies but for his authenticity within the Black community? White America doesn't risk being charged with being inauthentic, so why do we do it to ourselves. Why can't we value all the different layers and characteristics of the overall Black identity? Is it not okay to embrace all of who we are? Shouldn't we be proud of our Civil Rights Heritage AND our modern progress. Because it seems that while there are many external factors that hold us back, we are our own worst enemy.
I encourage you all to read "13 Ways of Looking at a Black Man," let me know if you see it as more of an analysis of who the Black male truly is, or is it that each of these men represent many men and not the different aspects of one man?
---that's all she wrote.