“The Black Card!”
So I was watching an episode of Black-ish, and the mother and father, played by Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson, touched on the culturally-known concept of “the black card”. The black card is a defense mechanism used mostly by African-Americans to justify their mistreatment by outside races. Majority of the time, this metaphoric notion is uprooted in the midst of any conversation, preferably during an altercation between a white and black individual. The black individual would suddenly be accused of playing into what is assumed to be a stereotype before he or she decides to guess the nature of the accusation, asking, “Is it because I’m black?”
Now days, some of us ask this question jokingly amongst our friends, colleges, and associates, but is there truth to it? Judging by the media, especially after witnessing the unfortunate events pertaining to Sandra Bland, how can one say that it isn’t? The video footage shows her getting out of her car only to be face down with her wrists gripped with handcuffs. You can hear her proclaiming their lack of concern towards slamming her face into the ground, for they ignore her while sustaining her hands behind her back.
Bland’s death further catapults the harsh understanding of police brutality amongst African-Americans into the forefronts of our minds. This has been going on for years, just like sex-trafficking, illegal drug distribution, and many other cultural cancers that are killing our nation’s’ integrity and sense of worth. The difference is they are frequently being exposed. The real problem is the mistreatment of African-Americans goes beyond law enforcement. We as a culture are doing it to ourselves. Our platforms have ranged from World Star, Instagram videos, and YouTube channels. There are moments we feel great discomfort amongst our own society. It is usually because of pre-exposed ideas of how blacks from a different economic bracket tend to present themselves. We may assume, just like white police officers, that having dreads, baggy jeans, and a Cutlass dressed in bright colors and colossal rims make us suspect. What is the difference between how they treat us and the way we treat our own race?
The black card is accepted pretty much everywhere, like a Visa. We’re quick to swipe it while being watched walking down grocery store isles with our kids, spouses, and friends. We’re eager to pull it out of our back pockets as red and blue lights flash in our rearview mirrors while speeding cars zoom by undetected. One can argue that utilizing this threat can be a bit excessive, but is it really? Maybe it’s a sadistic reminder that despite our dark skin pigments and how we’re portrayed on television, we do not share the same mentalities. Yes, there are many who are robing fellow citizens, killing them, refusing to maximize their potential by manipulating the government for money and systematic pardons. Then again, there are many working hard to better the lives of their children, leaving educational and cooperate legacies behind to be succeeded by future prospects with expandable minds.
Is this acceptable? Yes, in some cases, especially for those who are constantly degraded by a narrow-minded society. I personally wish it was obliterated, but that isn’t the reality in which we live. The truth is that the war has been fought. Laws have been passed. People have died on battlefields colored in deep crimson in order to prevent a red and blue flag from flying. Many have marched miles for equal rights only to be beaten and whipped by officers on horseback and oppressive spectators. One of our great representatives was even shot on a Tennessee, hotel balcony in 1968. A bullet to the neck was enough civil payment to rectify the problem with racial inequality. No longer having the discriminating ratio of four black men to every one white man, but a simple one to one. Yet, we still find the need to reach into the hidden compartments of our wallets and purses to pull out the one card we fought hard not to use.
When will we ever find the need to disregard or get rid of it completely? When will all cops protect and serve the citizens instead of projecting them into a truck and severing their spine? When will we as a culture find value in ourselves and stop fighting one another like young, black boys in a 19th century “Battle Royal”? It is up to us to put an end to this source of currency, buying the moment to gain the upper hand. Then again, it’s up to everyone else to help prevent us from having over a thousand reasons to use them.
-City Rag (2015)
