I don’t know too many Mexicans who want to be Koreans. I don’t know Russians who want to be Haitians. And I don’t know Dominicans who prefer to be Dutchmen. But African Americans love to be anybody that they are not. Cuban Americans still love Cuban culture. Irish Americans still love Irish coffee and corned beef. And Chinese Americans still like egg rolls and fortune cookies.
How can African Americans hate the blues and love hard rock when there would be no hard rock music if not for blues music? There would be no Elvis Presley or Rolling Stones if there were no Arthur Crudup, Muddy Waters and Elmore James.
During slavery days, slaves were taught and told to hate themselves. Now, hundreds of years after slavery, African Americans don’t have to be told everything black or everything African is bad. In the new age, 21st century slaves hate themselves on their own.
Most people can be told thousands of times they can be shown television commercials and newspaper reports about something but they still might not believe it until they see it with their own eyes.
Even shoppers can walk through the grocery produce section and see the cool mist blowing on the fruit, see how colorful it looks, feel how firm and fresh it is but, in many cases, they will pull a grape off of a bunch of grapes and put one in their mouth to taste it. Sometimes the grapes that look good from afar are far from tasting good.
But, no, African Americans like to imitate the impostors.
Negroes don’t like to eat at the black restaurant, don’t like to read the black newspaper, don’t like to patronize the black business and don’t like to stand up and speak out on black issues or support black causes. But those same Negroes are quick to put on a cowboy hat, some Go-Go boots or a blond wig with purple extensions.
I was shocked to hear one of the reasons some African American newspaper owners were reluctant to support the candidacy of Charles Cherry, publisher of Florida’s only statewide black newspaper The Florida Courier. Some of the media owners said that Cherry always wears dashikis and doesn’t dress like white newspaper owners who wear suits and ties.
No other ethnic group in the world would deny a very good candidate an opportunity to hold office merely on his choice of clothing. It doesn’t bother Cuban Americans one bit to be called Cuban. Jews don’t mind being called Jews. Calling some African Americans “African” might get you cut or even shot.
Black people don’t like to give their children African names, they don’t like to eat African dishes, they don’t like Afrobeat, high life or other kinds of African music.
They don’t like African religions, they don’t like African culture and it is obvious when African Americans don’t like Africa, they don’t like themselves.
Negroes love to imitate the impostors.
Lucius Gantt, a political consultant based in Tallahassee, is author of the book Beast Too: Dead Man Writing which is available at Amazon.com. You can like The Gantt Report page on Facebook and contact Gantt at allworldconsultants.net
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