Blackness
Self-Definition & Identity in America
“…once we got here, we were robbed of our names, our language. We lost our culture, our God…” (Public Enemy)
The sports commentator Doug Gottlieb once told the late Kobe Bryant that the only way you are black is if you are from “the hood.”
Gottlieb was reacting to Kobe wearing an “I can’t breathe” T-shirt in tribute to the late Eric Garner, choked to death by New York Police some months prior to Gottlieb’s comment. There was no indictment. You know the story.
Gottlieb did dial it back to his credit and said he joked about the wrong thing. It was one of those moments.
What is Blackness anyway?
As the gospel funk group, The Sounds of Blackness on their song “Optimistic” sings: “the Blackness…”
Blackness is real in America. It has also been controversial.
James Brown’s “Black and I’m Proud.” RUN-DMC’s “I’m Proud to be Black y’all.” Lorraine Hansberry’s “Young, Gifted, and Black.” “Black Power” by the writer Richard Wright. And Audre Lorde’s famous fragment from the poem, “Coal,” “…is total black.”
It should not invoke fear really or controversy or cause heads to turn. It is like any other…
