On the “Summoning” of Black Voices to debate on Social Media
When you summon your black friends to debate your white friends online, you’re only making yourself look foolish.
It might be me; this might be a solipsistic impression of thought-that the experience of receiving summons to debate opposite white talking points on the grounds of my ‘being black’ has grown old, stale and moldy. There’s a word for when your-probably well meaning-white friend tags your name (and usually nothing but your name, signaling “This is for you, because it’s black related and you should speak out on it”) to a news item on Facebook covering black current-events, or asks you to weigh in and wax articulate in front of a bunch of other white people that probably aren’t “getting it” on the implied premise that you’ll set them right and help them change their ways. Maybe it’s an un(der)-explored element of the increasingly ‘woke’ boulevard of the phenomenon of black; I’ve never liked it and I’ve always felt regret for obliging.
It’s not quite “magical negro” as I was first attempt to describe it, but it comes from the same place, I think.
I’ve dubbed it “summoning” for now, and it’d be nice to know it’s not just me, in reality it probably isn’t just me and in practice it isn’t so nice.
There’s a twinge of thought that begs for humility when the ‘black perspective’ is given a platform in the same realm of digital community that can get you hours of white-shade for even the mildest critique of police misconduct. So why not enjoy the moment and put a bunch of white people on blast because they still don’t get why hearing “All lives matter” coming from a nearby dinner table causes every woke brother and sister within earshot to cringe and grip their forks a little tighter? Why doesn’t being summoned to a newsfeed comment chain discussing the latest Black Lives Matter protest with my friend Jim’s Aunt Enda from Waxahachie fill me, the opinionated Homie of Color with the opportunity for righteous glee?
Chris Darden is why.
Part of the whole ordeal, when “summoned” is that it feels like minstrel. It feels like being put on display because black and it makes me think of a moment in Episode 9 of The People vs. OJ Simpson when Los Angeles Prosecutor Chris Darden (brilliantly played by Sterling K Brown) chastises his superior for “wanting a black face but not a black voice”, specifically following the failed handling of testimony from LAPD Detective Mark Furhman.
I’m not sure if those words ever actually left the real Chris Darden’s mouth during the trial of Orenthal James Simpson; it’s probable that in the cinematic tradition, Darden’s words were abbreviated to the utterance we got from People for dramatic effect. Whether or not they were, they stuck with me and I think there’s an immense power in this brevity that speaks to the of “summoning” your black friends into online debates. A black voice summoned because there’s an implication that it ostensibly needs to be heard coming from a black person itself cheapens the value of whatever black perspective is to be shared-ironically enough.
Maria Clark’s insistence on deploying Chris Darden versus Furhman not only back-fired against the prosecution, it made gave OJ Simpson’s defense the wedge they needed to pull apart the entire People’s case in lyrical style (Rest in Peace, Johnny).
The presence of a black opinion isn’t a nuclear-option you unlock after level 10, and it isn’t a benefit ‘having a black friend’ on retainer; that isn’t what your black friends are there for. It might even work against you.
And there’s a good chance that if your Aunt Edna can’t grasp why “All lives matter” misses the mark by a country mile…
…there’s probably nothing my black ass can say to her anyway.
