QUIT PLAYIN’: `Crystal Ain’t White!

Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor!

“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes

My transparent admission of being tired of being Black rubbed some of you the wrong way a few weeks ago. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the ones who were most upset were also the ones who read my conclusion without reading my hypothesis.

Somedays, y’all make it harder to be Black than them Mississippi Farmers who want to “Make America Great Again!”

But make no mistake about it. I’m way too scared to be White. White folks are going through some real “ish right now, and they don’t need any new members. Somebody should tell Senator Tim Scott and our former Democrat Mayor. The Civil War between Whites right now is too volatile for tokens and pretenders.

Hell. Even my good White friends must guard themselves against being seen with me. The only thing Republicans and these rabid White folks hate worse than a Negro is a traitorous Negro Lover! (Chew-Spit-Chew!) They are at war over everything.

Liberal (minority tolerating) Whites want social change and technological advances. Republicans and Trumplicans want to enhance voter restrictions and get “tough”(er) on crime 2.0. They wish to re-fire the coal plants and stoke the embers on climate instability by killing any messenger who speaks ill of oil, gas, and emissions.

One unspoken issue is the rise in the number and status of the oppressed and the relative recession of the oppressor. This is the same crowd that assails DEI to protect their lead in every positive statistic.

Meanwhile, they never consider the gerrymandering and redistricting injustices they force upon all people of color. These mongrels do not regard the Constitution, its amendments, or the policies that became law to create a more “perfect union.”

According to a June 21, Texas Tribune article, Whites comprise less of Texas’ population than Hispanics.

“The point at which Latinos would outnumber white residents to make up the biggest share of the Texas population has been on the state’s demographic horizon for years.

But confirmation did not come until this week, when the U.S. Census Bureau updated its official population estimates. In new figures released Thursday, the bureau confirmed Latinos have made up the largest share of the state’s population since at least July 2022. The new population figures show Hispanic Texans made up 40.2% of the state’s population last summer, barely edging out non-Hispanic white Texans, who made up 39.8%.”

So if Texas is primarily Hispanic and the state is majority-minority, why should Whites continue to get 90% of the governmental contracts, local, regional, and statewide? DEI denial is the second iteration of mass denial. In 1862, it was holding the formerly enslaved people. In 2023, it’s keeping minorities from their share of a pot of taxes that we all contribute to.

Don’t get caught up in all that “WOKE” and school choice bullcaca. This war is a farce to promote White pride and privilege without verbalizing it outright.

Since 2015, Trump has been able to subtly and quietly suggest that Democrats are bringing aliens into this country so that they can restore their ranks. “Messicans” and “Spanish people in the South and West. Trump points to Africans and other “shithole country” aliens in the North and East.

If you can credit Trump with nothing else, he married the southern and northern racists in a bonding relationship. Racism was critical in his ability to bifurcate by age, education, demographics, and social grievance.

Being White today encompasses the battle of the fatalist vs. the futurist and the Neanderthal vs. the “New Age.” White folks are forced to choose between the “Howdy Doody” cast at Fox News versus the Harvard Class on MSNBC.

Being White today is somewhere between Cowboy hats and Concorde jets. T. Boone Pickens or Elon Musk?

Some days, I grow weary of dealing with my Blackness. It gets heavy and always dangerous. But being White in America today ain’t no crystal stair. It has tacks, splinters, and many torn-up spots.