Are You Black Enough?

The other night The Hubs and I watched Street Fight, a documentary about the 2002 Newark mayoral race between long standing mayor Sharpe James and newbie Cory Booker. The film was immediately intriguing. I was astounded by 1. Cory Booker's willingness eagerness to connect with the folks politicians never want to connect with: the poverty stricken folks of color. This man moved into the projects to be connected with the people of Newark, since (at that time) the percentage of poverty was increasing and more people were becoming devastated by the failing leadership. Anywhooo...back to my list... 2. His focus on running a sound, strong, yet dignified campaign. and 3. His commitment to the people (more on that later...).  Coming from a city of corrupt politics, I was impressed at how dirty Sharpe James was keeping his in order to win the election. Everything from threatening local businesses to using his power to block Cory Booker from running an equal race. Again, coming from a city of shameless corruption, I was only so shocked. But, my jaw hit the floor when Sharpe James busted out a new tactic: accusing Booker of being white and not black enough to understand Newark. This has been a conversation had with many black friends and The Hubs... after watching this documentary I questioned, who claims the right to decide what Black is and what constitutes "Black enough"?


It's not even necessarily restricted to Black folks... people of color throughout the u.s. are constantly questioned about their authenticity because of assimilation into the american social and cultural world. However, I more often hear Black folks questioning another Black person's authenticity based off really alarming standards. In the past, some of my students have taken someone's "Black card" for speaking proper English, not growing up in the hood or simply by the way they dress. Do those things qualify someone's Blackness? Does Blackness somehow translate as underprivileged, undereducated and urban geared? It really messes me up. In communities of traditionally oppressed people it is so dangerous to exile those who stray from standards meant to keep them stagnant and feeling unworthy of greatness. It's a vicious cycle that tells people: if you want to excel personally you better be willing to feel like an outsider from your community.

In Street Fight, James continued to tell people that Booker wasn't Black enough to understand their needs, yet he'd been in office close to 30 years and hadn't made any significant change to uplift the struggling Black communities. AND PEOPLE LISTENED TO HIM!!!! He won an overwhelming amount of the Black vote while Booker won all the "others". The numbers don't lie, so do Black folks really feel like a specific experience dictates whether or not someone's Blackness is acceptable? Folks jump all over President Obama all the time for his racial identity, hell even the white folks got something to say, but I don't recall hearing half as much (and correct me if I'm wrong) about Condoleezza Rice and her Black identity. What's the deal there?

It's a shame to me. Just as much as it is a shame when I hear darker skinned Latino's disqualify "passing-able" Latinos because their identity isn't obvious or because they got an American first name instead of one with accented breaks and thick familiarity. Or when Afro-Latinos (or any biracial people) are forced to identify with one part of their identity because they can't possibly have both.




Can we stop hating on each other and look at what the real issues are? 


There's a powerful scene where one of Booker's campaign workers, Sheria Brown,  hits it right on the head, "this is what has kept up separated and divided amongst ourselves.. they're mad at Cory because his mother was able to give him a good education, because he wasn't raised in the projects. So what? He's still Black. If my mother had the opportunity to raise me in a better environment and give me a good education, I'm sure she would have. But you can't be mad at him because he's making it... Let's make it so all our children can be that way- why playa hate on him because he's doing well?" 

As an educator, youth advocate and future mother of Afro-Latino babies, I refuse to accept these ignorant, rigid ideas about what it means to be ___ in the u.s. I'll be damned if my kids are told by either sides of their communities that they can't aspire to break stereotypes for fear of losing their cultural identity. As the sister said in the documentary, we hold ourselves back with those ideas. We need to celebrate the larger spectrum of what it means to be Black, Indian, Latino, Southeast Asian, whatever. If not for the sake of building unity amongst ourselves, then for the sake of growing and Loving self for whatever that looks like.

.. oh yeah, CORY BOOKER FOR PRESIDENT!