Orville Davis: Why I Hate Being a Black Man (November 2013)

[YoungDemCA]

This article honestly breaks my heart. It is a horrible tragedy that so many black men and women, and people of color in general, are taught to hate themselves simply for the fact that the color of their skin is harshly judged and demonized by white society. No one should have such a negative self-concept and self-image, but I completely understand why so many people of color feel this way about themselves. As a white person myself, I can only offer my compassion toward and my solidarity with people of color in this racist, white supremacist society and world in which we all live.

The issue of black self-hatred is something I am supposed to pretend does not exist. However, the great French psychiatrist Frantz Fanon wrote about this issue in his groundbreaking book Black Skin, White Masks in a chapter called “The Lived Experience of the Black Man.” According to Fanon, the black man is viewed in the third person, and he isn’t seen as a three-dimensional human being. The black man internalizes the perspectives of white society and its negative thoughts about blackness affect his psyche. In the chapter, Fanon discusses a white child calling him the n-word and how he becomes cognizant of how he is different and viewed as someone people should fear.

I can honestly say I hate being a black male. Although black people like to wax poetic about loving their label, I hate “being black.” I just don’t fit into a neat category of the stereotypical views people have of black men. In popular culture black men are recognized in three areas: sports, crime and entertainment. I hate rap music, I hate most sports and I like listening to rock music such as PJ Harvey, Morrissey and Tracy Chapman. I have nothing in common with the archetypes about the black male.

Honestly, who would want to be black? Who would want people to be terrified of you and not want to sit next to you on public transportation?

Who would want to have this dark skin, broad nose, large thick lips and wake up in the morning being despised by the rest of the world?

A lot of the time I feel like my skin color is like my personal prison, something that I have no control over, for I am judged just because of the way I look.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2013/11/_why_i_hate_being_a_black_man/