Dream Deferred, Humanity Denied

Dream Deferred, Humanity Denied

“Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond.  But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear; that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls not by their skins” (Du Bois 140).

Prolific writer and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois died August 27, 1963 on the eve of the historic March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would deliver his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, and I have often contemplated the symbolism of Dr. Dubois dying the day before this pivotal moment in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.  Perhaps, Dr. Dubois knew what many African Americans still do not understand, America will always see Black folks as a “problem”, and that integration served only as a tool to pacify Black people into believing we were finally seen as equals, yet in actuality we are too oft treated like the “kinky haired” step child that no one wants the visitors to see.

 I went to Ghana in 2000, and it was rumored that an older Du Bois with more lived experiences under his belt than several people put together, resolved to believe that in this life there would never be a time when Black people would be judged by their souls or humanity. Many said he felt that integration would ultimately do more harm than good because as a people we would lose sight of what it was that really mattered:  to be seen a fully human. Some have even said he was against Dr. King giving the “I Have A Dream” speech. What did it matter if white America allowed Black folks to eat at their lunch counters if they weren’t paid a decent wage to afford them the ability to eat there?  After all, “to be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships” (Du Bois 5).  Could it really be considered a triumph when people of color were allowed to move into all white neighborhoods, and the neighbors moved or made life so unbearable that usually the Black families moved? Perhaps Du Bois knew that that which Black people hoped for could only be attained in the afterlife where the veil would be lifted or better yet does not exist.

While I do not know if Du Bois actually said any of those things, I do know that the condition of Blacks in America aren’t that different than they were when Dr. Du Bois penned The Souls of Black Folks.  From the emancipation of slaves to the present we are still in bondage, but are lulled into an eerily comfortable complacency by the things we are able to buy and the places we are now allowed to go and live, but we are still seen as the bottom-rung citizens of America because we were sired from the ugly sin of slavery.  We have inherited a shame that has been embedded in our consciousness, a shame that says we will never been seen as full citizens of the nation the sweat and blood of our ancestors erected.

 In recent years we have seen this to be true with the treatment of America’s most beloved talk show hostess, Oprah Winfrey.  In the incident with Winfrey and Hermes of Paris in 2005, the mogul was refused entry to the boutique and rebuffed by the store clerk, an incident that Winfrey referred to as “the most humiliating moment of her life” and while she believed that race played a factor in her being denied access to the store, but never articulated it as such, Oprah was attacked by white media for overreacting and playing “the race card”.  Last month, a white employee in a swank Swedish store rebuffed Oprah when she attempted to buy a $38,000 purse.  Winfrey made a statement to the media regarding the incident stating that it proves that “racism is still an issue”, and a media frenzy began.  Then a strange thing happened, Oprah released a statement apologizing for “overreacting” and stated that it was “just an example of being in a place where people would not expect you to be”.  The question is, as a Black woman, where would people expect Oprah to be?  Would the saleswoman have been more comfortable with her serving in a kitchen or cleaning their house?  More importantly, would the saleswoman have assumed a white woman could not buy a $38,000 handbag simply because she was white?  I have seen this sort of disdain exhibited not only towards myself, but towards other African American women as well. Even in the academy, there are white female students who would be more comfortable with their African American professors (women) if they were pushing a broom, not teaching a class.

What I find so problematic about Oprah Winfrey’s statement is that she (1) apologized for being Black (2) she believed she was in a place where “people” like her would not be expected to be (3) she traded in her dignity in an attempt to return the dignity of the store clerk whose dignity was never compromised.  The Swedish store clerk felt secure in her role of racial superiority and unfortunately Winfrey’s response helped to keep her place of superiority intact. How can one expect other people to see them as equal when they believe themselves subordinate?  In the wake of all that has happened in the few last years with African Americans:  Trayvon Martin murder, the unraveling of the Voter’s Act, the rape of Nafissatou Diallo by French diplomat Strauss-Kahn, and the blatant disrespect of our first African-American president, could Oprah Winfrey have decided to take a stand and say “enough is enough” or has she like so many of us become distracted by the “golden apples” that we trade our self worth for materiality or what appears to be equal access to the American Dream?

Don’t get me wrong I am not judging Winfrey.  Like Oprah, I too am guilty of apologizing for my blackness when it becomes problematic for others.  I too have felt inferior because of my skin and burned with indignation because deep down I knew this was not the natural order of things.  I want to believe that integration is a real thing and not just a word that allows me to access through the same doors as my white peers, but no keys to gain real entry.  I want to believe that when a white student in study group says of my answer, “It’s actually right”, he doesn’t mean any harm and that he didn’t say such a thing because I am Black and a woman, but I know I would be fooling myself. Much like Oprah, I did not take a stand.  I remained silent.  And that is the problem, as a race African Americans have rested on the laurels of the Civil Rights Movement and have stopped fighting and demanding treatment that is rightfully ours? When did a half-hearted apology in regards to injustices done to our children such as Quvenzhane’ Wallis who was referred as a ‘cunt’ become the norm?  When will we actually get mad and say, “enough is enough” give us the respect we deserve? When will we demand it?   Racism did not end in the sixties with the end of the Civil Rights Movement; it is a living, thriving organism that must be fought at all times. Sure we can march and post revolutionary posts on Facebook, but the is still much work to be done, and it is the responsibility of all of us to do it.  So in this race, it is important that we are vigilant and are not misguided by the “fools gold” that is thrown our way, but remain mindful of the old cliché that says, “history always repeats itself”, and if we are not careful the very freedoms that we do possess will be a thing of the past.