The older I get, the more I realize what a smart man my father is. While I may not have appreciated his wisdom as teenager, as an individual who is now in the 40-something age group I can definitely understand where he was coming from. One of the things he would tell my younger brothers and me is that āwhatever you do in this world, donāt act like a typical Negro.ā
What is ātypical Negroā behavior, you might ask? Well according to my Dad, a ātypical Negroā is someone who mouths off, without having all the facts. And even when you put all the facts in front of him and offer irrefutable proof of how invalid his position is, he will still try to argue his point as if nothing had changed. The ātypical Negroā is also someone who will not take responsibility for his actions nor the children he and several of his ilk have produced via feral breeding. And when you confront the ātypical Negroā about his behavior he will tell you that youāre āacting white.ā Pardon me, āyou be acting white.ā Unfortunately, the more I look around some segments of the Black community in Indianapolis, the more and more I see ātypical Negroā behavior.
For example, I am amazed at how many people will defend an education system that has done a horrible job of educating their children and oppose reform measures such as charters and vouchers in order to perpetuate a system that is turning a large portion of the Black community into a permanent underclass.
Another example of ātypical Negroā behavior is to make excuses for behavior that is counterproductive to a healthy society, such as out-of-wedlock births and a growing number of single-parent female households where the parent does not have the financial means nor parental skills to properly raise her children so instead we get the pleasure of not only paying for her bad/lack of parenting with social programs but also with a prison cell when the kid grows up.
And before I forget, it is also the ātypical Negroā who yells and screams about a āheavy handedā police presence in downtown Indianapolis during the second Saturday night of Indiana Black Expo when a lot of other ātypical Negroesā let their children run wild in the street making life more difficult for the rest of us who have home training.
And before I forget, the ātypical Negroā and his friends usually vote one political party and then canāt figure out why they canāt make any headway when the other political party is in charge. And the ātypical Negroā thinks having a Black president is going to solve all his problems and he wonāt have to lift a finger for himself.
Now with that said, luckily there are a lot of us who are not ātypical Negroes.ā We are people who work hard, give more than we take and know how to behave ourselves because our parents and grandparents raised us properly. The other bit of good news is that we are still the majority, however we do need to speak up more and call people out when they either engage in ātypical Negroā behavior or try to justify it.
Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is an attorney, political commentator and publisher of IndyPolitics.org. You can email comments to him at abdul@indypolitics.org.