What It Means To Be Black Essay

I have spent my entire life living in predominantly white communities where there were few if any other black families. Throughout my adolescence I have been told that I am “not black” or that I am “white” by many of my peers. These phrases are micro-aggressions because they are everyday verbal insults that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. During my childhood, I would just let these comments slip past me because I didn’t fully understand their meaning and neither did my friends. Looking back on these moments I now pose a question: What does it mean to be black?
Some people in our modern society believe in order to be black, a person must speak with slang, run track, play basketball, or play football. My peers, both black and white, don't understand the negative undertone of these phrases. When they …show more content…
Yes, I wear Brooks Brothers. Yes, most of my friends are white, but none of these facts make me less “black” than my black peers. I am the person I am today not because I consciously choose to act like a “white” person, but because of the way I was brought up as a child. My parents instilled in me the ideas of being a respectable, intelligent young man who treats all people the way I would like to be treated. These people who say that I am “white” don’t understand the power of the words. In reality, what they are saying every time the call me “white” is that my admirable traits are only traits, in which a white person could have, ergo I must be white. These people “accept” me as their friend because I am “white” or far enough removed from their negative image of black people for them to accept me. My generation needs to teach everyone that to be black doesn’t mean to act a certain way or dress a certain way. We need to teach each other that to be black means to be a normal human being that should have the same opportunities as people that are not