I’m An American; I Just Happen To Be Black

September 1st, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

Check out the Smokey Robinson Spoken Word On My Side Bar: Then Come Back.

I listen to this Every Day. Just to Know that I’m Not Alone. Now being the 5’9 120lbs. Light Skinned Girl, I’m never Black Enough. See I think For Myself. I’m Not Voting For Obama; So I get hate mail telling me to bleach my skin. I got a Stomach Disorder. I’m skinny; So they tell me I need to Eat So I Can Get An Ass. I’m self-aware. I Preach Personal Responsiblity; So I obviously ignore that there is Real Racism in This Country.

See I decided a long time ago to stop trying to be black. I used to think that there was really something wrong with me because I didn’t think like the people around me. Where they looked for excuses; I looked for Opportunity. When they looked For Someone To Blame; I looked for the Lessons to be learned. When they question my devotion to Education; I stood my ground.

But As Life Inevitably does, you get hit with a dose of Reality. Yes I was looking for Opportunities but I was looking for Black Opportunities. Finding me a Drug Dealer with Money to Spend. Having my choice of Which Car I wanted to Drive by talking to the right Dude in a Crew. Always being in right place at the right time to Pull off A Little Hustle.

Yes I was looking For Lessons To Be Learned. But I was Looking For Black Lessons. How to get in and out of someones’ else’s hood unnoticed. How to talk the Police Out Of Arresting You. How to get away with Bad Shit without anyone knowing. How to make a Dollar out of 15 cents with no real effort.

I was looking for that Black Education. You know, just make it out of High School and You’re Good. As long as You Get Your High School Diploma, You’re doing better than alot of them out here. You Finished School, why would you go to College?

It wasn’t until I had my daughter that I realized; I needed to stop chasing those Black Dreams and Start Making Some American Dreams. But that brings Internal Conflict. Were they right all along? Am I Just Not Black Enough?

My Answer to That! Fuck You. I’m An American; I Just Happen To Be Black!

See my blackness doesn’t lie in your opinion or perception of me. Nor do I care if I Live up to What You Think A Real Black Person Should Be. I’m going to do the Real Black Thing, I’m Going To Do Me. I’m going back to school; but my IPOd will still play Tupac and Jay-Z. I’m growing my own business; but I’ll still Catch “The Family That Preys” by Tyler Perry the very first day. I’m not voting for Obama; but I hope Condi can stay,for whom ever makes their way into the white house.

Starting to Rhyme a Little. But to get serious. Was Martin Luther King Jr. fighting for our Rights to be An American? Of Course. He wasn’t fighting to have Us All Sent Back To Africa. When will we claim our Place as Americans? Not the Victims of America.

I’m proud to be Black. I Love the Swagger of Our People. I Love the Resilliance of Our People. I Love the Flo, the Groove, the Passion of Our People. The Question is Do You? If you say you do, Then The Time Is Now. Make the Black Dream and the American Dream One in the Same.

It’s not Okay to be just getting by; unless you’re on a path to a goal. It’s not O.K. to accept anything less than your whole slice of the American Pie. Not just the piece The Government Decides To Give You. But all the yummy Crust you have to Work To Get.

We don’t have to change who we are to Acheive this Goal. But we do Have To Do Our Part. We Have To Start Taking Ourselves Seriously. We love to see Grafitti but will you buy a Painting to make the ArtForm Legitimate. We love Breaking and Popping but will you go see a play that features the Dancers. We Run the Music Charts but there are few songs that will go down in History. When will we make our Culture Legitimate; Not Commercial?

Let Me Go Before I Say To Much!