White Privilege, This Is America
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Through African-American Eyes
By Conney D. Williams
I didn’t sit down to write all of this, but here I am. The election seems like a dream, but I’m not one of those caught off guard. I don’t see it as such a surprise. As an African American, this is the normal America I’ve seen my entire life. Although the mindset the election reflects had been underground, more covert, this segment of society no longer wants to hold it all in or swallow the medicine of “change” or “inclusiveness.”
I don’t see the country any differently now than I have for the sixty years I’ve been alive. Those of us who have been fighting this fight can’t be caught unaware, can’t be blindsided by a national election.
Donald Trump has tapped into the colonial spirit of America, the Manifest Destiny that decimated complete tribes of Native Americans. Recently celebrated Thanksgiving is the epitome of America’s character and heart. When the Native Americans were trying to find ways to assist struggling colonists, the colonists were planning how they could take their land and crops. As the Native Americans were offering food and thanks, the colonists were offering infected blankets.
Donald Trump’s promises are the same.
Tell me when America was ever great. America loves the idea of looking great, but this is only done through smoke and mirrors, through imposing its will upon others who have less might. When has America kept her promise to be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all? When have the marginalized segments of society not known a life of marginalization or murder or systematic policies designed to keep individuals at bay and real liberty out of reach? How about a time when those who have been marginalized have been able to walk up to Washington and cash the check called Freedom?
I am not surprised Donald Trump is the president-elect of this country. Didn’t the births of Black Lives Matter and other significant groups of historically disenfranchised peoples happen during Barack Obama’s presidency? Didn’t we see the repeated revelation that Black people are still the target of state-sponsored lynchings and incarceration/slavery during the Obama presidency? What really changed because there was an African-American family occupying the White House?
All I’ve known my entire life has been to fight vehemently for my inalienable rights as a citizen of the United States, yet everywhere in America, I have been denied access to what is mine from birth. What has been promised to all remains reserved for those whose skin color is fairer than mine, for those who feel their rights have been diminished by those whose skin color is closer to mine. How fucking ridiculous is that? How has white privilege been diminished in America? When has white privilege not assumed all the resources of this country as its own?
Whenever the disenfranchised want more than crumbs that fall from the table of white privilege, it’s called “reverse discrimination” or we must “make America great again”—and we all know what that entails.
The “core values” of the America I know don’t serve those who have been disenfranchised their entire human existence; they serve white privilege.
And white privilege doesn’t want to be uncomfortable in any way. But inclusiveness and change require that white privilege be discomforted. And, We the Disenfranchised, know that that is not something white privilege is ready to embrace.
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Conney D. Williams is a poet, actor and performance artist, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, where he worked as a radio personality. Conney’s first collection of poetry, Leaves of Spilled Spirit from an Untamed Poet, was published in 2002. His poetry has also been published in various journals and anthologies including Voices from Leimert Park; America: At the End of the Day; and The Drumming Between Us. His collection Blues Red Soul Falsetto was published in December 2012, and he has released two new poetry CDs, Unsettled Water and River&Moan, available on his website.
Reading recommendation: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora N. Hurston.
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