Navigating the tricky world of being The Black Person has been my life. I'm a biracial woman who was raised half her life in an almost all-white town and who spent most of her life in majority-white towns. What I have learned over the years is that many white people are perfectly OK with me, as long as I seem to think like them. In other words, I should be what I like to call a nonthreatening black person.
My first interaction with this was in junior high when I and the few other black students started questioning why black history wasn't being taught during black history month. Two of us were student council members. It was amazing how quickly perceptions of us changed. One minute we were good students; the next, we were troublemakers to many ("You know how 'those people' can be," was the message). Of course, everyone said the disagreement had nothing to do with race—it was about policy. They couldn't just rearrange curriculum for every special-interest group in the school. Plus, we only had about seven black students, so why did it matter anyway?
I was OK—unless, of course, I came home as a date with someone's son.
As an adult, I have served on committees and boards only to be looked at with disdain, glared at and called a racist for raising concerns specific to the African American or immigrant community. People don't like it when you shine a light on oppression and inequality that they long ago became used to and may even benefit from.
As the daughter of a white mother and raised by a white family, I think I understand some of this fear. I don't condone the way people react, but I understand fear of the unknown, fear people are saying that you are wrong and fear of the "other." As Americans, we have been taught to place high value on euro-centric ways and traditions, and fear all things African or native.
Right now, I'm seeing this dynamic play out in our city, and it makes me fear we will destroy ourselves instead of uniting. We should not walk in fear; instead, we could be secure in the belief that the city is stronger than the outcome of one election. Our presumptive mayor elect has committed to working with all of Jackson. I have heard him say exactly that time and again. What I have not heard—from those who are afraid of this change—is that they are willing to work with him.
In the end, we are one, Jackson. We rise and fall together—the good and the bad—and even the scary.
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