Chapter 2: Blackness is My Super Suit
The evolution of a black man.
When any white man in the world says “give me liberty, or give me death,” the entire white world applauds. When a black man says exactly the same thing, word for word, he is judged a criminal and treated like one and everything possible is done to make an example of this bad nigger so there won’t be any more like him.
James Baldwin
How the hell did I get here? What path did I go down that led me to sitting for hours on end typing angrily away on my computer, debating with dumbasses on Facebook? This isn’t me. Or, at least, it didn’t used to be me.
I am not an “angry black man.” Although, I am angry and I am, well, black. Don’t think the irony of the nuanced distinction isn’t lost on me. But I am somewhat of an anomaly-at once both one of the “whitest” black men you’ll meet, but also a proud, “woke,” black-fist-emoji-sharing black man with a mission to stomp out racial prejudice and help white America recognize their privilege.
In a lot of ways, I feel like The Greatest American Hero of blackness. That was a 1980s TV show about a mild-mannered, curly-haired teacher who is visited by an alien race and gifted a suit with superpowers, but he loses the instructions. What ensues was 2.5 seasons of kitschy humor and bad writing. An…
