The Black Box

Nigga

Walk like this. Wear that. Why do you talk like white person? Look tough. You don’t wear heels to the club?

Cheat on your girl. All niggas cheat. Ooo she light skinned? Eww she dark skinned. Hate cops. Love this celebrity. Hate that celebrity. Get designer products. Be mad about this. Shop here.

Don’t snitch.

These words and ideals are examples of of what I consider to be the consciousness of black people in America. The Black Box

Ofcourse, there are many of us who do not subscribe to this. To think outside of The Box requires a strong will or a lot of sheltering by our parents. Even shelter will not necessarily prevent the force of The Box from pulling in our youth.

Television and music, as well as our own personal experience, teaches us how to be black in America. Differences in economic status changes the experience we all have in America, but only slightly.

The Black Box was not created by black people. I’m not going to give a speech about slavery, we should all be aware of what black slavery was by now. I will say that slavery kept black folks in a box that we were not legally permitted to step out of. We were killed for such acts. Branded. Raped.

We eventually decided to embrace the conditions we were in and adapt to make it as comfortable as possible. We took nigger and made it a word for ourselves rather than feel like crap every time we heard it. That’s what black people do. We adjust. We survive. And we still have that mentality today.

It doesn’t matter where we are. We want to be a part of the box. We are comfortable there in a world that still hates us. I have some questions though…

What happens when that box is opened and ideals are placed in it with the purpose of having us self destruct? What if there are black or white people who are maliciously, subconsciously, or otherwise corrupting The Box? What if The Box is already corrupted?

I think many of us would agree that we need to change the way we think, in some ways. There are celebrities who are basically the administrators of The Box, who we all respect…but look at what is being preached in today’s hip hop music. We should be careful who we choose to follow.

It may be time for all of us to change The Box or step out of it.