Darryl James - The Black Gender Gap Black Los Angeles

The Bridge: How The White Man Got Us

By Darryl James

I asked myself the other day: "Is the white man out to get Blacks?"

My people, the white man is no longer out to get us. He already has us.

He got us when he convinced us to leave our communities to flee to theirs while they fled back to ours. He got us when he convinced us that SOME of us getting over should make ALL us feel good, he got us when he showed MOST of us looking either foolish or dangerous on television and he got us when he convinced some of our sisters that they had arrived because they were smarter than their brothers, and that most Black men would never arrive, because we were simply too lazy to get there. Yes, he got us, by getting us to get us.

He used his media outlets to convince us that we were the biggest perpetrators of violent crime and that we were bringing all of the drugs into the nation to sell in the inner city and that Affirmative Action was actually “hurting” us. Carrying the most impact, he used his media outlets to convince some of us that there really is no racism at all.

The white man got us by setting us up as the ultimate all-time “Have-nots.” Yes, some of us have, but many of those “Haves” are notorious for hating on the Have-nots.

Blacks are so entrenched in being Have-nots that even people from other nations can come into the country and before long, they are Haves above us. Just take a look at the Koreans who migrate to America and come right into the ghetto, where they set up shop and quickly have.

Now, the Haves of all races, including some of the Black Haves, chastise the Black denizens of the ghetto for not having and for allowing others to come in and capitalize off of their inability to create commerce. But they leave out the fact that Have-nots are often so far up to their ears in surviving that many of them also have not the skills or the FICO score to acquire those things necessary to become Haves. And for the silly House Niggers who will think I am race-baiting, the same condition affects poor whites who are entrenched in being Have-nots. The difference is that they are still white and when they make the effort to move upward, more arms will open to greet them, particularly the arms at the local bank.

Another fact is that Have-nots often have not the public services that Haves often take for granted when they move up. We can blame the poor kids or their poor parents for the condition of the schools, but our tax dollars are supposed to provide an equal education for the entire city. Why is it that the books in the ghetto schools are fewer and in bad shape? Why is it that the teachers are paid less and are either less experienced or less concerned? The few good teachers are the ones who stick in there, even when they hear liars talk about the kids as though the school system is run by them.

I have a big, fat, wet slap for the face of the next self-hating ignoramus who talks about “boot strapping” his or her way out of the ghetto. It is nearly impossible to raise yourself up by your bootstraps when you don’t have any d**ned boots.

Yes, the white man has many of us walking around looking and acting like d**ned fools, bucking our eyes out for entertainment, calling each other Nigger and pointing fingers of blame from each side of the gender divide. He placed this on automatic pilot and left the building.

Michael Jackson dared to make a record to express his thoughts, which are shared by throngs of other House Niggers: “It don’t matter if you’re Black or white.” This former handsome symbol of African manhood, now standing before the world as a white-skinned, thin-nosed, thin-lipped monstrosity, claims that his current troubles come from being a Black man owning substantial portions of the most beloved white musician in history. Now, contrary to his silly whimsical song, race suddenly matters again.

Racism has been The American Way for centuries, crushing entire groups of people, including Native Americans and Blacks, but over the past few decades, many of us have decided that the most powerless group of people has begun to oppress themselves.

In some ways, they are correct.

We have begun to oppress ourselves not by actually taking jobs away or preventing ourselves from progressing. And our self-oppression has not come from bringing drugs into our communities, arresting and jailing ourselves without merit or even from infecting our women with HIV.

Our self-oppression has come from taking the bait of self-blame and self-hatred, efficiently propagating the racism and racist programs laid down so many years ago.

The racist white man doesn’t have much work to do to get us. We’re doing a great job of getting us for him.