Aaron McGruder - "White America has been watching us act like fools..."

[Piff Perkins]

How is this any different from the poundcake speech, which the vast majority of us found to be ignorant/disrespectful/stupid. The black people who got lynched were wearing suits and church clothes. This isn't about respectability. They don't respect black people regardless.

That being said he did touch on something I do find compelling. Specifically that white people don't give a fukk because they're broke too. They're struggling to find jobs too. They can't buy houses either. I think the decline of the middle class and rising costs make people far more hyper focused on their own financial security, and far more suspicious of perceived unfair advantages going to others. That's partially why the DEI nonsense is such an easy winner for republicans (despite the fact that white people, specifically white women, are the dominant benefactors of DEI). I think we need to get a lot smarter about how we talk about things publicly and how we design programs for black people.

 

[Wargames]

Somehow this is trending again


I remember this old white professor in class full of black students told us this. Not the behavior stuff Aaron was talking about, but how just in general white people aren't going care or think about issues in the black community.


I'm not here to agree or disagree. Just saying I remember him genuinely saying this to us to be prepared for that when we exit college.

These racist crackers want to make it a thing but it’s not the same. It’s racist Twitter bullshyt

 

[Black Panther]

We will never be able to "pull ya pants up" out of our situation in this country. Respectability politics is assimilationist bullshyt.

I can agree to conform on some basic things--code-switching is a necessary evil--but the majority of White people will NEVER see us as equals.

 

[Wargames]

We will never be able to "pull ya pants up" out of our situation in this country. Respectability politics is assimilationist bullshyt.

I can agree to conform on some basic things--code-switching is a necessary evil--but the majority of White people will NEVER see us as equals.

And whenever they do they are usually threatened by it on a subconscious level because it goes against their preconceived idea of who we are and who they are.

 

[Ray D’Angelo Harris]

I’m just here to celebrate @RickyDiBiase being bushed

 

[Pull Up the Roots]

Somehow this is trending again

I'm only commenting on the tweet and the video. Not on your post.

This is just internalized anti-Blackness dressed up as respectability politics. I always had a feeling that he was like this.

He's basically telling Black people to shut up and behave better so that white people might care about us again, as if the issue is our behavior and not their indifference or racism. That's not tough love, that's approval-seeking. He's more focused on how we look to white folks than on the conditions we're actually living under.

He completely ignores the role of biased media and how it's been weaponized against us for decades. Black dysfunction is magnified and sensationalized while our humanity and complexity are erased. So when he says white America sees us "acting like fools," he's not talking about reality, he's parroting the same distorted image they created and pushed.

He also plays into this idea that when one Black person messes up, it reflects on all of us, but that's not something we control. That's how a racist society views us. And instead of challenging that mindset, he accepts it as fact and turns around to blame the community for it. What's worse is how he skips over the root causes of the very behavior he's criticizing to make it sound like we're just sabotaging ourselves for no reason, like all of this exists in a vacuum. He's only reinforcing the system with that kind of shallow analysis.

I hate the idea that if we behave "better," maybe white people will treat us better. But history has shown that's not how this works. Being respectable didn't protect us from hoses, dogs, bullets, or prisons. And white supremacy doesn't care how polite, successful, or clean-cut we are, it still finds ways to dehumanize and control.

The certain amount of "moral currency" line completely exposes his mindset, too.

When he talks about "moral currency," he's talking about the moral high ground that Black people supposedly had during the Civil Rights era, the image of disciplined, dignified *victims.* He acts like we were once allowed to matter because we behaved well enough to earn sympathy. That kind of thinking turns justice into a transaction, where our humanity depends on how we're perceived, which is historically inaccurate.

He's acting like the point of the Civil Rights Movement was to win pity, not demand justice. And he is WRONG.

We don't need to beg for moral credibility. We already have it. What we need is to stop internalizing the gaze of people who were never looking at us with fairness in the first place.

And before anyone starts, critiquing respectability ≠ endorsing dysfunction.

The guy talking that "Black fatigue" bullshyt in this tweet is a right-winger following a bunch of MAGA and red-pill accounts. The only thing people like that seek is white validation.

 

[Kiyoshi-Dono]

Aaron talking that coli breh sucka shyt
White people never have and never will give one single fukk about black people
You can be the most well dressed, well spoken nikka on the face of the planet
And still get
nikkas will say anything in the name of “problack” while sounding like a cracker segregationist

 

[Splakavellie504]

Somehow this is trending again


I remember this old white professor in class full of black students told us this. Not the behavior stuff Aaron was talking about, but how just in general white people aren't going care or think about issues in the black community.

When have they ever cared??? They always "pretended" to care so they can steal our shyt, water it down, and sell it. Black fatigue my ass. I aint never seen a thief get tired of hitting easy licks....unless the lick gets harder

Black folks got woke, started gatekeeping, and now certain mfers talking about black fatigue

 

[Da King]

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

Sighs...

We could pull up our pants, do for self, and build up the black community and cacs will just fukk it all up.

This "black fatigue" shyt is social media Cosby show babble trying to shape a solution that was Never a problem resolver.

Nevermind asking for funding for schools so the youngins can adapt to the changing climates of society, the cutting of every program in existence to put black folks in back of the bus, and focus on the economy that bridges the gap between the unemployed and disadvantaged.

What's the use of following protocol from a couple of nosehoop shea butter jawns, anime hairline nerds, and cosplaying as a black man cacs, when you still get looked at as inferior to the "superior" race?

At this point, why bother with this nonsense since gen z are a product of every fukked up thing from broken policies, corrupted politicians, deadbeat parents that iPad nanny them, and the ogs that never molded them.

 

[Thurgood Thurston III]

I've said this before: A lot of black people are simply looking for an excuse to not have to fight against racism.

Most are scared and don't feel they could win, so they try and justify it in some way.

It's the same principle behind black people excusing non-blacks saying the n-word with that "we say it too" bullshyt.

They just don't wanna have to check everyone who says it.

Now the excuse is "black fatigue".

It's somehow our fault white people hate us. Apparently, they always loved us and tolerated us until 2025....

 

[Double Burger With Cheese]

That nikka is docile

 

[Tookalossfellbackcameback]

He should've left out the "White America is watching us" and just said "we act like fools".



I said this in another thread...our community has lost it's way because the class, dignity and accountability that we held ourselves to is gone. Our moral compass is gone. Our spirituality is gone. We've decided to join white folks in a lifestyle of hedonism and debauchery.



The sad part about it all the 30, 40 and 50 year olds posting on this board that have completely turned their backs and embraced a life bereft of any class, structure or accountability.



If I started a revolution you'd be the first niccas I'd kill. Dead weight and liabilities all throughout our community.

 

[TEH]

c00n shyt with minor truth, racist will be racist regardless of how polite I am or how tailored my suit is. The minstrel show we put at the forefront of entertainment doesn’t help us at all.

The crazy thing is they hate us more when we wear suits and speak “properly.”

Damned if you do - Damned if you don’t

 

[Mission249]

I'm only commenting on the tweet and the video. Not on your post.

This is just internalized anti-Blackness dressed up as respectability politics. I always had a feeling that he was like this.

I dapped you even tho I don't fully agree with you. But you make good points.

First, I hate how often things like "pulling up our pants" get immediately framed as respectability politics. As if our every move must be the result of the white gaze and not some personal standards. As if pant sagging is in our genes.

Moreover, this whole debate is the same old idealism vs. pragmatism debate everyone has. Except with an added cudgel of immediately labeling someone a c00n if they lean even a little bit towards pragmatism. You see this same debate amongst feminists: "I should be able to walk naked and high in a drunken frat house and not be sexually assaulted." Yes, ideally you're right. But pragmatically, I'd advise against that. Yes, the rapists are gonna rape regardless. But there are degrees to how human beings will act.

Taking it back to us: The Civil Rights movement knew this. That's why they put up photogenic Rosa Parks instead of the earlier woman who did the same thing.

I don't like it. I don't always agree with it. But I know how people work. If they don't interact with a group of people much; and all they see in the media is Glorilla and the like; then they're gonna feel a certain type of way. Some of them would have always felt that way. Some get pushed. They're not perfect. Most aren't even average.

Now it's up to us to decide whether we care or not. And if it's beneficial for us, as a minority, to care then we need to police our image just as much as some other minorities do; throw our trash away; and not let big media companies and politicians so easily exploit it.