Pride

My awesome friend Bob Ray Starker describes himself as a singing, songwriting, sax playing, illustrating, graphic designing primate. He’s from Columbus, Ohio and today’s post is by him.

There are things beyond your control that you are born with, like the color of your skin and eyes, or your gender, or your sexual orientation, or the place you were born, or who your parents were.

I think it's pointless to be proud or ashamed of those things, and I think it's stupid to base your opinion of other people based on those things.

The rest of your life, from birth onward, is a series of choices you make. Those choices are what you should be proud or ashamed of. I also think it's okay to base your opinion of other people on the choices they have made, provided you make some attempt to understand why they made them.

For example, I'm proud of being a decent sax player and cartoonist. I'm proud of being a halfway decent husband, son and friend. I'm proud of my parents, not because they made me, but because they're amazing people. I'm proud of being an American because I choose to stay here. Stuff like that.

I form my opinions of other people based on their choices and actions, after making an attempt to understand the context in which those choices were made.

I know I've been way too serious on here (Facebook) lately, and I apologize for not having a punchline here... but the KKK are openly recruiting in my hometown, and I am NOT okay with that.

If all you can be proud of is having white skin, I think you're a pretty sorry son of a bitch, and I will fight you until you change your mind or go away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of Bob’s friends, in response to another who asked why he couldn’t have “White Pride” since there’s "Black Pride,” added:

Malcolm X made a point of reminding 'negroes' (the word in common usage then) not to be ashamed of who they are, to not let people shame them for being black. From this emerged Black Pride.

In a societal context where racial discrimination is still the norm, the concept of black pride is not nonsense, because it is a response to systematic shaming. The keyword here is 'systematic' because the context is the evolution of society as a whole, rather than referring to assorted bigotries of one individual or another.

To borrow the phrase, "road to equality"...

At some point, if that road turns and equality is achieved, then "Black Pride" will become anachronistic.

As the road has gradually turned upward to equality, and it has since the time of Malcolm X, those who perceive the curve to be sufficient, who, citing an end of segregation laws, the election of a black president, etc. maintain that racial equality has finally been reached in the United States. For them the idea of "Black Pride" is absurd.

For those who perceive the road to equality as still only slightly curving, that there is still much to accomplish, the notion of "Black Pride" is relevant.

Which view one holds also reveals much about a person.

It is hoped that some day, the concept of racial pride will be universally accepted as being as completely absurd as pride in eye color, place of birth, or anything else one has no control over.

Until then...