Archive -> February 26, 2005

Showy black folks

I was having the same (wrong) racism with Islam that I was having in America. But, the difference is America offers me more opportunities. So I repeat, stop wrestling with America on behalf of a bunch of people who don’t care anything about you, yet call you their Muslim brother and they come to America to live the American dream. I don’t need it, keep it. And, the same thing applies to the Africa movement organizations and to Egyptology.

The Italians have their Italian parades and they bring out their dress and they do their little thing and it’s cute. The Chinese people dress up for their parades and events. The only difference is everyone else has enough sense to take the costume off, because the word costume really means custom. Take off the custom and go to work. But no, not blacks. You all have to over do it. You walk around with an oversized ankh, and oversized crescent, etc. All of this for what? Just to say you belong to something. All of this just to make a statement to people, “I am a whatever.” As big as the symbol is, you’re supposed to see what I am. Nubians are the only ones who have to learn the hard way.

. . . There isn’t anything wrong with putting on your traditional garbs. But on a daily basis, when you are dealing with people, what sense does it make to walk down the street for a person to say, “what’s that?” Why should I set myself up for that? And, if it’s for attention, then you can best believe that it will be negative attention because no one wants you to come into their store if you look like you are straight out of the jungle. If you are honest, you as a black person feel the same way. When you see another black person walking down the street who is dressed ridiculously, you are afraid.

Excerpted from Does Religion Breed Ignorance? by Dr. Malachi Z. York