Cultural Sensitivity
As I was perusing through YouTube a few days ago, I came across a video that piqued my interest. Youtuber Joseph Solomon made a video called, "The Double Consciousness of Black Folks", where he explained how black people in america have had to learn to navigate between two types of cultures- white and black. The "double consciousness" he refereed to was the genuine adaptation we undergo when entering into a different kind of environment, primarily one where white people are the abundance. For example, an african-american may speak much more freely around other african-americans, but around white people their speech is either "cleaned up" or "toned down". That is just one example of this interesting adaptation and black people are not the only group of people who do this. The focus of the video, however, is on a black person's perspective of this dual sensitivity.
He also goes on to say that even though it is possible that white people can be in different environments where they have to adapt their cultural sensitivity, they often do not have to simply because they are the majority. Many of them are surrounded by their own culture for most of their lives and rarely are in contact with other cultures. They simply never get the chance or have a need to develop this adaptation. Therefore, when speaking on issues involving other races, primarily the black race, these kinds of white-americans can come off as cold, harsh, and judgmental.
Here is the video if you would like to watch.
This point is something I agree with as well. Some of the most non-insightful and insulting comments I have heard about the black struggle came from white people like this. It was clear in their speech that they neither had spent much time around black people and black culture, or they lacked much understanding about the sources of the issues affecting the black community. Those comments of us just being lazy, or too savage to be thought of as human beings are usually fueled by this kind of ignorance.
Now, I am not saying that white people are the only ones guilty of this. Yes, other groups of people, even other minorities who have experienced similar discrimination as african-americans, can feel this way towards us. Even black people who grew up with more opportunity show disdain towards the less fortunate of their own kind. I am also not saying that all white people do this. Some do understand how unfair laws, prejudice, and inequality effects the people of the black community. For the ones who do not, Joseph suggests that they either learn more about the people they are criticizing and learn the truth behind their story, or cease their condemning of the black community.
Once again, this is a point that I agree with. A person with no knowledge of another group's struggle cannot tell them how to relieve that struggle. Moreover, it is unlikely that a person will have sympathy towards a group of people if they view their plight as self-inflicted or insignificant. Side note: Those who are unconcerned about the issues of police brutality, discrimination, and poor education (to name a few) in the black community because they deem these things to be our own fault should re-examine the kind of person that they are. Anyway, I think it is often times forgotten that african-american people are just that- people. We are human beings with lives, loves, and ambitions. The anger we exhibit and the passion we have for justice is not without cause. Our outrage comes from the tragedies that we have not only suffered but are forced to hurriedly recover from which we only endured in the first place because of skin color.
The black struggle is real. It is not imaginary. Instead of blindly defending a system that is indeed unbalanced, it is better to listen to the people who are affected by this biased system, and learn to fix it so that no one is unequally treated. Those who are not willing to aid in this kind of progress have no right in judging how others should feel about their own plight.