Hypervisibility and Anti-Blackness
By Shanice Brim
One of the major stumbling blocks in PoC solidarity has got to be the ways in which non-Black people of color react to Black hyper-visibility. A lot of non-Black people feel that Black issues take up too much space in the racism discussion. I’m sure you’ve experienced it: You’re having a conversation about anti-Blackness and a non-Black person pipes in, “I’m tired of Black people and White people acting like they’re the only two races.” or “If this situation had happened to a non-Black PoC nothing would’ve been done about it.” A recent example is this exchange from Aziz Ansari’s new series Master of None:
I’m here to explain why that’s anti-Black.
- It ignores the agency of Black people.
In order to wash our hands of the atrocities Black people have faced in this country, America likes to pretend that Black people overcame by the grace of the changed hearts of White Americans. That progress is something has been handed over to us. This, however, is not true. Every right Black people have earned, we’ve had to take for ourselves. Black people were major players in the Civil War. Many Black people fled plantations and journeyed up North to fight with the Union army. Harriet Tubman became the first American woman to lead a troop in battle in what would become one of the largest successful military strategies in American history during the Civil War. Prior to the Civil War, freed Black people had been fighting for the abolition of slavery and recruiting white allies. Years later, during the Civil Rights Movement, it was Black people who organized themselves. We organized those protests and boycotts that America is so proud to display the images of every Black History Month. We refused to give up our seats or withhold our money from discriminatory businesses. And today, we are the ones tweeting at, calling, and standing in front of major news networks with picket signs to have stories picked up. We are the ones going out into the streets, shutting down highways, getting arrested, and tear gassed in the face in the name of freedom. There’s no mystical group of people coming out in droves to decry American anti-Blackness. It’s us. And nothing is stopping non-Black people from organizing themselves and taking up their causes en masse let alone Black people.
- It places the responsibility of white supremacy at the feet of Black people.
When you buy into the idea that you can not be free because Black people are receiving “special treatment.” Not only are you sorely mistaken, but you’re not looking at the bigger picture. Black people do not run most major corporations, we do not even have proper representation within most governments, in short we aren’t the ones running the world. Black people aren’t responsible for colonization. The same boot that’s on your neck is on ours too and blaming Black people for working hard to remove that boot is intellectually/historically dishonest and doing a disservice to everyone.
- It ignores the fact that anti-Blackness is global and that non-Black PoC perpetuate and benefit from it.
- You’re ignoring the difference between visibility and hyper-visibility.
- You’re ignoring the fact, historically speaking, when Black people progress. . . so do other people of color.
Black America is under a lot of stress. All over the globe we are battling anti-Blackness and fighting for our right to live. Do not put it on us to ignite and run your movements for you. Trying to draw attention to your issues is one thing but using Blackness as a litmus test for your suffering is an entirely different beast. We can not truly have solidarity until communities of non-Black PoC address this and other forms of anti-Blackness in their communities. And in a time like this, getting real about anti-Blackness and the resentment non-Black PoC feel about Black progress is crucial.
3 comments
First, I appreciate the passion that this post exudes.
Aziz is making a TV show, he’s not making a serious commentary on society in every scene. Aziz touches on lots of different issues throughout his show and they all carry a grain of truth within them. People relate and find humor within the context of the show. The truth is, there may be more people that feel this way, which makes it funny, aka satire. If we’re looking towards the entertainment industry on this topic, people of color (all of us cause I don’t like to segregate us even further) do much more harm to their own cultures by using words we no longer want to identify with or by glamorizing stereotypes. Being a person of color, I find this post is damn near offensive. All humans have challenges that they will face in their lifetime. The past may be dark at times, but it is an individuals choice to focus on the past or the present moment. It is not up to individuals to fix world problems, it is up to individuals to become the best version of themselves so that we may all experience a better reality together. Everyone’s conscious effort to be a better person will create a world full of awesome people. The news will cover what it wants to cover, I’m sure there are tons of great things that happen in the world every day that don’t hit the mainstream media.
In closing, I find the way you have further segregated humans to be counter-intuitive. When we take a step back and see the human race as a whole, these issues will be history. We’re all taking that step back at different times relative to our perspectives. When enough of us take that step back, we’ll look around and notice that we are united.
Thanks for sharing.
With Love,
Another human on Earth
Big nope to all this.
Aziz Ansari, does it offend you that occasionally the reactions to types of racism is proportional? I’m sure it sucks being restricted to the best friend or computer nerd roles in Hollywood, but maybe, just maybe, black folks are justified being more pissed that their innocent friends are being murdered in the streets by cops. And I’m not trying to trivialize the type of racism that affects Asians & Indians, but your statement seems to ignore the fact that there are a ton of black folks who would love to be ignored or to be the nerd stereotype for a while. Why don’t you ask a room full of black people if they’d like to trade places with you for a few days and see how many hands go up?
The level of privilege displayed by this scene ignores the fact that, despite certain anti-black racism getting a lot of attention, black protests get the least amount of action and change from those in power. Maybe black folks are justified in their frustration in knowing that gay people only had to bust heads one time. All gay people had to do was get Ellen and Librerace to be super-friendly for 20 or 30 years and suddenly they’re leaps and bounds ahead of black people in human rights.
As far as intersectionalism goes, all the other intersections get paved over every once and awhile so that they’re easier to navigate. The black intersection is the one that never seems to get paved over.