Basically a black rant

Why do Black people hate each other so much? That is a question that would raise many eyebrows because most Blacks wouldn't agree that it true, but it is. For the past couple of weeks in my African American History class we've been having group presentations about different topics during class time. One of the topics had to do with crime rates and the group that presented showed that even though Blacks are always shown in negative media, the statistics didn't reflect that there are more blacks committing the crimes that we are associated with. It was very interesting to hear some of the discussions going on in class about why Blacks are portrayed as blood hungry monsters from a person of another race's standpoint. All of the things that were said made me think about my opinion on why blacks are portrayed this way and why some people are quite frankly afraid of blacks. As I was pondering over this in my mind I kept wondering, If black people are so mad at the world and want to blame whites for all of their problems, why do they continuously kill or harm each other?

Black on black crime and black on black racism are phrases that most Black people are familiar with. I know I sure am because I have experienced and witnessed them happening many times on many different occasions. I've never been able to understand why black people would rather hurt each other rather than help each other. It's like we're all jealous of the things that someone has and we must knock them down in order to feel better about ourselves. Why can't we be happy for our brothers and sisters? It's crazy to me the things that go on in this world pertaining to ignorant black people that have no sense whatsoever. I think black on black crime is ridiculous and should never happen regardless; not to say that if a black person is going to hurt someone they should be white, because I don't agree with violence period. We shouldn't go around hurting each other because we're setting a bad example for our children and in the end we're just hurting ourselves.

Another thing I still to this day do not understand is why blacks have a history of racism…towards each other! That's just crazy to me. Why on earth would a black person look down on or hold at a higher standard another black person just because of the shade of their skin, after all our race has been through! Back in the day light skinned blacks were looked at as "high yellow" because some of them thought they were better than other blacks because they were closer to being white than other darker skinned blacks. These "yellow" people had a bad rep of being snooty and stuck up and many would say they looked down on their fellow African Americans. While darker skinned blacks were looked at as being bitter and as I've heard some older people say "mad at the world because they're so black". These stereotypes have most definitely carried over today and I can attest for that. I personally have been hurt by these stereotypes and try to steer people away from them because although I'm light skinned, I don't think I'm any better than any other black person I know. I feel like these stereotypes have taught my darker skinned black sisters to either feel bad about themselves and develop low self-esteem and grow to hate me and other light skinned black people because they think we are stuck up. I know for sure I'm not stuck up and have never come off as such. I have been called high yellow and referred to as stuck up many times, but it was always solely because of my skin shade.

Another thing that has always bothered me is other black people saying I'm not black, either because of how light I am or because of the way I speak or conduct myself. I honestly don't think I'm that light, and whenever I say that my friends have a field day laughing at me and making fun of me. When I was younger I was much paler and never tanned and I also spoke very properly, quite the opposite of most black kids I came into contact with. Many of the people that knew me when I was younger are the ones that today would definitely say that because of those things, I'm not black. Since when is my heritage or culture defined by the shade of my skin or the way I act? Is a white person who uses slang more than me or who has a tan that may be darker than my skin black before I am? Why am I told that I'm not allowed to use "the n-word" because I'm not black? It's hilarious to me the things that I've hear people say to justify why I'm not black and many other kids I know that are either too light or "act to white" to be considered African American. So the question I am raising here is, if I'm not black…then what exactly am I? And if the answer is yellow, as I have heard many times before, then can I make up a whole society of yellow people so that I can finally have a race that will claim me? And when I fill out applications that ask for my race…can I check other and write in yellow? The answer to these questions is NO!

Why can't we all just get along, accept the fact the black people come in different shades and all go through the same struggles, and move on. Black people are a very amusing group of people.