Let me start out this post with an introduction:

Hello. I’m David Simon. I’m 17 years old, and I’m black, or more specifically, biracial. Now that you know me and some of my background, I’m going to start my stream of consciousness.

The events that have happened in the past three days have caused me to look introspectively into what it means to be black in America, and what it means to be black myself. Am I black when my white “friends” throw my race under the bus with the same five jokes about black people eating certain foods (newsflash: I don’t care about watermelon, I don’t go to KFC, and I don’t drink Kool-Aid), committing crimes (I’m pretty sure I’m one of the few people in my 382-student grade that hasn’t smoked or drank anything illicit or illegal), not having a dad (my black father has raised me for every single day of my soon-to-be 18 year lifespan alongside my mother), being dumb (last I checked I was ranked 24th out of 382 juniors in terms of unweighted GPA), or counting as three-fifths (or in my case three-tenths as some of you have hilariously pointed out) of a person (which, if you say this: it’s not funny anymore, try different jokes)? Apparently to them, I’m not. But I’m damn sure they consider themselves black when they bitch at me for saying nigga when they’re saying it off-the-cuff every now and then. They’re only saying nigga just to get a rise out of me being black, and that’s incredibly racist.

This is the problem with white culture (see, I’m only saying “white culture” is because y’all bitch every now-and-then that black culture is the detriment to society; “white culture” is really separate branches cultures, such as Irish culture, Italian culture, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture, etc. (actually, now that I think about it, all three of those cultures were treated as minorities at one point in history. Huh.)): it just loves to simultaneously look down upon minority cultures, appropriate certain aspects that seem appealing to them (which I’m going to talk about later), and then act innocent when the cultures criticize this appropriation. It has increasingly annoyed me over time ever since I was fourteen that people were absorbing aspects of black culture (which actually exists because it’s a minority amount of people; something as broad as “white culture” cannot exist simply because of its size and lack of unity) such as hip-hop (now, I love Gucci Mane and Young Thug, but this weird worship of them in suburban communities feels like a fetish at points and is borderline condescending; that isn’t to say suburbanites can’t fully appreciate these artists, they can and many do, it’s just that many of these people will turn around and shit on the genre and subculture for their own egotistic/social/financial game, a high-profile example being Lil’ Dicky, who I will fully address later on), hair styles (looking at you, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus), food (everybody loves Popeye’s and KFC but suburbanites just love turning liking this food into a negative beyond health), etc. only to turn around and abandon the rest of black society when they need assistance to fight off systematic oppression from crooked politicians and business leaders, horrid treatment from police officers, and systematic racism from job owners, to name just a few of the many aspects holding back black excellence. Let me begin the breakdown of what I mean by “turning around on black culture”:

Now, I want to talk about the police. I wish the best for the families of the cops shot in Dallas, and I pray that the deceased rest in peace. That being said, I want to point out a hard fact: being a police officer is not the most dangerous job in the United States, in fact it’s not even in the top ten, despite what some news media and dumb Twitter accounts will tell you. Police supposedly “Protect and Serve” the communities they work for, but I feel that that’s been turned into an “Us vs. Them” mentality where nobody speaks out against crimes committed by their peers. I expect the police to be held to a higher standard than regular citizens, but time and time again I’m proven wrong. That’s not to say that there aren’t good cops, but you are not a good cop if you do not publicly outcry against these killings and other offenses done by your fellow officer. It’s one thing for a community not to frown upon malicious behavior within their community by a random person, but you all are held to a higher standard than us.

Also, let’s talk about all of the people that want to say “All Lives Matter”, but only when cops are shot at, never when a black man is choked to death by the police (Eric Garner), or when a black woman dies in police custody (Sandra Bland), or when a black child is gunned down by the police for having a toy gun (Tamir Rice), or when a black man is shot for doing what an officer says (Philando Castile). Why do y’all complain about cops getting shot when they knowingly take on a dangerous job (yes, I understand it’s a dangerous job, it’s just overstated how dangerous it really is) but suddenly I won’t hear a peep from your Twitter account/Facebook/whatfuckingever social media account when black communities are hurt by the rampant corruption within police force? Why do you feel the need to talk down to the black community as if we’re responsible for the actions of an individual yet you never criticize the police when they are accountable for the actions and handling of a corrupt officer? Those weren’t rhetorical questions, I want answers. And another thing, you never say “All Lives Matter” when it’s a white person being gunned down either (see: Dylan Noble). Why do y’all deify the police so much where anybody that criticizes them is an awful person from your perspective? Again, not rhetorical. America has a problem when it comes to deifying people who shouldn’t be worshiped for doing their job, whether that be cops (my grandfather was a cop, remember that), military (a few of my aunts and uncles are veterans from the Gulf War and my grandfather served in World War II, remember that), or otherwise. Never put anybody on a pedestal.

Just to make my stance 100% clear on the police: fuck the police, but not the police officers that speak out against this bullshit. Fuck the system, and I say this as a law-abiding citizen.

Back on culture: why must white society feel the need to take what you want and attempt burn down the rest? It’s happened with rock, with hip-hop, with slang, with hair, etc. Please, we have no problem with white people entering the culture as long as y’all treat it with respect. Eminem is a notable example of somebody who has entered the culture and treated it with respect. He has never bitched about hip-hop being bad for the youth or about black culture or whatever, he’s just there to create art. Do I think he is overrated? Yes. Do I think he should be respected? Also yes. Do I think many people in his fanbase only praise him so highly because he’s white, and that his subject matter is no different from many rappers outside of a few songs, whether it be horrorcore or your standard mainstream rapper? Yes. Do I think he is one of the most technically gifted rappers to exist? Also yes. I’m getting sidetracked, so let me rebound: don’t try to take aspects of our culture to make you seem trendy when you also paint the entire black community with one large paintbrush about how we’re all criminals, how we’re all savages, so on and so forth.

I have never been somebody who’s good at ending thoughts so I’m not sure how to finish this, but I just want to be treated as an equal, not as somebody different. I am black, and that’s all right. You are whatever you are, and that’s all right. Don’t throw me or my culture under the bus, and don’t hero worship. I don’t want to be afraid of the police when I go into Boston or other urban communities, but that’s where I am right now.

TL;DR: If you skipped all the way to the bottom, fuck you. But here’s a TL;DR anyway: I don’t mind white people consuming black culture, in fact I embrace diversity of all kinds. Just don’t screw black communities over and don’t patronize us. Here’s a song to end out on to describe how I feel: