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Black Folks and the “I Hope… The Wince”
You see a crime story on the television, newspaper, or via the Internet:
Brutal beating caught on tape; gay teen says assault was a hate crime
And, if you’re black, many times you immediately think, “I hope they aren’t black”. Not the victim but rather the perpetrators of the crime. Then you find out that they are black and then you wince. In countless households, barber shops, churches, parks, etc, many black people deal with “I Hope… The Wince”. It’s almost instinctive and runs deep. Law-abiding black folks hate being lumped into a black criminal stereotype, and rightly so. Sure enough, watching that video of those black teenagers viciously attacking that white teen conjured up every stereotype about black youth (especially males): thugs, brutes, ignorant, uneducated, gangsters, violent. Doing a search of the Internet, you see plenty of comments to this story saying just that and worse about black people in general.
What is even more hurtful to many black folks is that the “I Hope… The Wince” is infinitely more powerful with President Barack Obama, our first black president. The “I Hope…” doesn’t really apply as much as “The Wince” does. My barber is a mid-60s black man whose entire barber shop looks like a museum of civil rights icons with The First Family featured prominently. These days, he looks like a beaten man compared to his euphoria when President Obama was elected. Whenever a pundit or politician criticizes President Obama, my barber winces hard. I remember vividly what he said the last time I was in his shop:
Why did things have to be so bad when the first black president got elected? Probably be the last time white folks support a black person for President.
I can write an entire other piece on those two sentences but that will derail my point here. But those words show the “I Hope… The Wince” in effect except it reads “I hope President Obama does something great in America”. When it doesn’t happen, along with associated criticism, “The Wince” commences. Black folks shouldn’t have to deal with the “I Hope… The Wince”. Many of us are constantly looking to distance ourselves from negative stereotypes and negative criticism based on a single or small group of blacks. No one wants to be negatively stereotyped or unfairly criticized. For many black folks, it becomes a constant (and for some) an obsessive mission (for better or for worse) due to the sad legacy of slavery and discrimination. Not just white-on-black discrimination. But black-on-black discrimination based on eurocentric beauty, stands, economic status, social status, and pop culture trends.
So what is my overall point, you ask? My point is that we have made awesome strides in race relations in our great nation from a macro view, however from a micro view, only time is going to heal all the wounds. Slavery scarred white and black folks deeply. The mental shackles of racism and bigotry can’t just be blown off – they rust away slowly. In these times of economic turbulence, it is imperative that we all try to step back and realize we are all in this together for the long haul. Criminals are criminals no matter what color they are. They don’t represent an entire race. Obama is Obama. While representing and leading our nation, he does not represent an entire race. Even if most of that race voted for him.
4 Responses to “Black Folks and the “I Hope… The Wince””
Thanks, T-Steel, for a very good piece — a brave piece, I think.
Part of privilege is the ability to do something stupid or even something criminal without having your entire group implied in that stupidity or criminality. I remember in engineering school, when I was one of just a handful of women in the room, being deeply embarassed when another woman would ask a silly or obvious question. Or being embarassed that women were talking about “girly” things. Just because I know intellectually that the men asked silly questions and talk about stupid stuff all the time without it reflecting on their entire gender, I still felt it. The internalized sexism was something I had to work very hard to expel from myself, and I still struggle with at times, even if I can now articulate that that is what it is: internalized sexism.
Anyway, a very thought-provoking article.
Great piece. (Disclaimer: White guy here.)
Grew up outside of the DC area (Prince George’s County) and went to undergrad at Maryland state school in a science-based scholarship program that was originally intended for black students only (it was opened up to all races via court-order in ’96 or ’97, I believe). The struggle of smart black youth to be accepted professionally and culturally is one I’m very familiar with (anecdotally through friends), and therefore I can empathize. I currently live in Raleigh, NC where sadly it is much more racially segregated on socio-economic lines than I experienced around DC.
This past Sunday, my girlfriend and I were at a BBQ for her fellow graduate student’s going away party. Most races/ethnicities were represented; sorely lacking from the crowd of about 30 people was a single black person. Then two local kids came up asking for food; they were not accompanied by parents who were part of the BBQ. They were black. When leaving to go home, I commented to my girlfriend “Why did they have to be black?” because I was sure at least a few people in that BBQ crowd had a stereotype reinforced by that encounter. Nobody refused them food or really made comment, but my DC-side had the very same “I hope… the wince” moment.
I’m hardly a softy/liberal type and believe that hard work should be the only way to succeed, but it’s often frustrating that in the US an entire race can be written off such that a modicum of success within that community comes as a surprise. Does the left feed into that? Sadly, yes, because I’m not sure they treat the black community like the adult it can be. Does the right exacerbate the problem? Absolutely, the subtext of nationalistic/populist statements often presents an overly-simplistic us (white people) versus them (non-white people) reason for a lot of problems we face. Economic crisis? Because we tried to subsidize home-ownership in the black community. Health care crisis? Because Mexicans are going to the emergency room for care.
“Why did things have to be so bad when the first black president got elected?” – the barber
Agree that it was unfortunate, but of course the answer is because he took office after 8 miserable and wasted years of George W. Bush. I realize that wasn’t the thrust of the article however, and I empathize with the hope/wince reaction. T, your last paragraph nails it.
Thanks T, good piece. Got it. We Latinos dont say I hope… We say Please dont let him/her/them be… Latino. When they are, we cringe. In my work with refugees and any immigrant group/ any minormity that is alled out for being degraded (there seems not to be one that isnt), I find that each group has the “please dont let it be… Hmong, Hawai’an, Italian, German, Korean, Chinese, long list of heritages.
I’d just note too, that many people identify President Obama, and with respect, as a man who is biracial. He is seen as a man who is Black and also Caucasian. Many of us who are biracial relate to him that way.
Also, all this is just my .02 worth, most of the people of the USA are just and good people, regardless of heritage or/and color, religion or gender, and all other artificial measurements of what is a man, what is a woman. I am certain people will vote for who they find best suited. It is true that some vote party lines, some vote pop candidate, local hero, and some vote color line, and some vote obscure 10th party and some dont vote at all. And more. I find no overwhelming argument, even reading the neo-Nazi sites for some of the articles I’ve written here at TMV, that majority of “white” (which is a misnomer in terms of naming a group who carry many strong heritages from identifiable groups and tribes and clans from all over the world, though many of their ancestors were so slaughtered they may not remember their exact clan and tribal groups they come from) people would not vote for a man or woman of black bloodline.
I think most people will vote for whomever, according to their own consciousness level and what they want for themselves and their immediate world. Some will always vote ‘to punish’ or to deprive or to continue cronyism, or to seek remedy for past grievances.
Are we there yet? As the grands say in the car on the way to wherever. No. Will we be? Yes. I see the evidences. Yet, you are right T, in many pockets, the hope was great and the issues huge. I still have faith in our Prez. I could go on about why, but your article is about Hope-cringe. I think, despite hope-cringe, we go on. Together as much as possible.
Just .02 T. You and I have talked about some of these matters over the years, and i am glad to see you post about it.
kind regards,
dr.e