Now on to the Anti Black

This post is part II of my Glen Beck and the Anti Black posted on Friday. And I will try hard not to turn this into a rant. Seriously, if I find myself going in that direction I will reel myself back in, promise.

A couple of people had the same response as I did when they read my post, "What does that mean? He's the Anti Black?" This much I know, it sent my finely tuned antenna thrumming like a narcotics trained dog catching the scent of grade A prime "stuff." After all, when someone is called the Anti Christ you know there isn't anything good about that. (I have been known to call Dick Cheney the spawn of Satan but never the Anti Christ.) In fact the Encyclopedia Britannica says that the, "Antichrist and precursor of Antichrist have been, and remain, terms of the most intense opprobrium." Intense opprobrium, bottom of the barrel soul sucking, nail to you the wall bad. (Try a search and see what comes up under Antichrist Obama. Boy we'd need an hour just to begin to decipher and unravel all the symbolism, under currents, twisted logic, and sheer craziness he evokes in some folks.)

Even Antiheroes who are bad guys, or gals, who become the protagonist, the central character in a movie or book, (think Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men) are failed, highly flawed characters. One source I checked said this about antiheroes, "antihero - Protagonist who has pronounced personality or character defects or eccentricities which are not usually associated with the hero archetype."

Words have meaning, and I love language. I was destined to be caught up in this almost Gordian Knot of symbolism and signs in the simple well meant statement, "You're the Anti Black."

At the heart of the matter, bottom line, there isn't anything good about being told you're the antithesis of blackness; not when it was meant as a high compliment! As I write that it makes my head hurt. Following this logic then, Blacks who achieve through hard work, education, dedication, perseverance, determination, by dint of their will and willingness to succeed; Blacks who are polite, mannerly, well spoken, thoughtful, we are the anti-Black, the antithesis of blackness.

And Black Americans who don't succeed, (and I will not go down the rabbit hole of all the things, reasons why, issues and crap that could cause one to fail as a Black person in this culture, just won't go there) all things that are dysfunctional, and sad, and tragic are therefore the "pro-Black."

Chew on that one for a moment. Because the person who made that comment to my nephew is one of the coolest white men he's met in the South. The guy thought he was paying a compliment, he was saying to this young man not quite thirty who owns his home, is married, not a hard partying person, resourceful, responsible, smart, grounded, terrifically hard worker, you're not like the average black man. You're the anti-Black. What he illuminates then is his impression, belief, understanding, his perception of Black Americans, that the average Black person, what he perceives of as the standard if you will, are those in jail, on drugs, selling drugs, and the litany of other dysfunctions. It makes me go straight to crazy that for too many people, this is what decades of struggle have come to. And the beat goes on.

But before I go, just one little itty bitty question. So is this guy, and all the well meaning, grounded white Americans who understand issues of race and racism, those millions of white citizens who put aside their fears and voted in one of the most historic elections in our history, does this mean they the anti-white? Just asking.