The human spectrum

As a programmer, I could not imagine being asleep last night at 3AM regardless of whether or not there was an election at all. I was in my room, typing away at this post, with too many tabs open. But then I noticed a theme. This is a blog about politics.

Popular media will chop you up and selectively label the pieces. Let’s be honest, the outcome associated with the current state of the High Office would have sucked either way. Not to mention we are all either crooks or bigots, smart or uneducated and apparently black or white. Unfortunately this narrative is preferred. Never mind the complexities that come with entire cultures as we are, make no mistake, all the same race. But culturally, ethnically and in most cases, vastly different people.

Have you ever felt like you were different? As a black male, I know it is easy to be misunderstood on the grounds of how I look. I also know it is easy to blame other people for my own problems. This is something I was taught not to do.

I grew up attending an almost all black school and black churches in the deep south. I have also seen the spectrum of blackness and how we tend to treat those who don’t quite fit the bill, so to speak. From those same churches to bored afternoons in grandmas den cracking jokes with my light-skin cousins. The schoolyard cussing and jabs at Africans for being “too black”.

Differences are differences.

It is easy to blame our insecurities on those who bear no resemblance, who can’t associate with your experiences. This makes sense in some cases. No one person, group or culture can be demonized for the misdeeds and misunderstandings of a few and no single person knows the whole story.

That is why we need each other.

To combat our differences you need to be able to voice them and the other side needs to be willing to listen. Until then we are all just talking over one another, trying to see who can say the worst things enough times to make the other side shut up or do something about it. As an American, right now, that is my reality.

This country was named by immigrants, built by slaves and exploited by the same standard. If there are a group of people you want out, it means they already live here.