“I’m light skinned but I’m still a dark nigga” -Drake

A. I love that lyric … it’s deeper than rap though.

B. It’s how I feel in my heart, not dark in terms of skin color, but I’m real Black.

C. I’m Black Panther Black, Black Lives Matter Black, Five Percenter in front of Queensbridge reciting today’s mathematics Black, James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni “A Dialogue” Black, Good Times Black Jesus Black…but don’t lie to me.

D. I’m not a good negro. I’m not so thankful for some grace of the White man to allow me education, a home, sound mind and body, a paycheck, a nice car, freedom from slavery, to be a good negro. I’m a good HUMAN but I’m still Nat Turner if need be… I will revolt.

Oh, I don’t really like good negroes.

….

So let’s get some basic definitions out of the way…

A bad negro is… confident, collective minded, and proud of Blackness. The stereotypes of a look… hoodie, sagging jeans, Timbs, scowl, braids, angry demeanor, large body, poor, is just that, a stereotype. But in Trump’s America, one doesn’t have to look a way anymore, one just needs to be a way. A black man in a suit and luxury car is just as much a thug as your White neighbor whose wife brought you muffins and who offers your hubby a beer is a hood wearing KKK Grand Wizard. A bad negro has dreams and aspirations that don’t aspire to Whiteness.

Whiteness is the state of being unfairly privileged because of ethnically/racially centered nationalism and capitalism that favors the individual over the collective.

Now… a good negro.

1. A good negro is interested in securing and ensuring all his/her privileges remain intact. First, we got the educated, well spoken, non threatening, hard working Black privilege (the they aren’t all thugs privilege). Then we have the light skin privilege (the other drops matter privilege). Finally we have the attractive privilege (the “he/she could get it” privilege) . Good negroes try real hard to maintain those bc it feeds their families, buys them big houses, funds their Maldives trips, and gets them a good job which helps maintain a good credit score so they can push a clean whip.

2. A good negro adopts the do you want more attitude instead of the I’m gonna inspire you to see you need more. They buy into the crabs in the bucket mentality, and the fallacy of the American Dream. It’s an individualistic way of looking at growth, inspired by capitalism and democracy, that many of us took on after integration to stay in the White part of town. Our culture and ancestry is collectivist. We do better culturally when we move in groups and pick up and collect members along the way.

3. A good negro cares incessantly about how they are viewed by White people AS a Black person. It’s one thing to be a humanist, care about people, and want to connect with people,m. Yet, when you have to stifle parts of yourself to be accepted, that’s diminishing. That’s it, good negroes diminish parts of who they are… often the urban, Black Southern, extended family, and coded parts of themselves. Most of them eventually forget the code to switch to.

Why is a good negro a problem?

Well, traditionally he is mostly financially successful. But he is simultaneously culturally poor and has become ancestrally ignorant. You can only shed so much of yourself until you lose it all together. For the Black people and youth seeking financial success, they will look to the good negro for schemes of professional, social, and personal validation in a world where gentrification, redistricting, school district financing, colorism, and racism constantly tell them they are unworthy. They will learn from a good negro that we are lacking, instead of seeing oppression for what it is.

Whiteness in America is the hottest commodity going. It’s the central source of money and power. Any system that powerful is always clear that they are powerful only as long as there are powerless. So they push us apart from one another in strategic ways, so we cannot realize our collective power. Gentrification… breaks up urban centers with wealth possibility to keep us poor and separate. Redistricting… breaks us away from each other politically to drown our votes in Whiteness. Colorism… puts one in-group against the other and looks like internal fighting, that is really just a spawn of racism. Racism… the biggest system of racial oppression that forces Black people to fight for crumbs so we starve each other. No one with so much power would do so much work to keep another powerless, unless they knew how much power we actually yield!

We must stop sacrificing ourselves to whatever privileges we are given and attempting to appease White people by being quiet and acting dependent upon their decision to give us something… anyone that giveth can taketh away. You must be aware of where and how you diminish your Blackness and at what cost, so you know when to jump out of the privilege infested waters, take a class in shuckin and jivin, or just allow yourself to drown.

Bad negroes choose to swim, and catch some fish along the way… it’s why we are confident!

Good negroes don’t harness that power… they wait for a life preserver and have to depend on their best behavior to get a treat.

Fuck your treat, I’m going for the meal… and mine has yams.

“The yam is the power that be, you can smell it when I’m walking down the street!” -Kendrick Lamar “King Kunta”