What Does ‘You’re Not Black Enough’ Mean?

by John Hawkins | August 21, 2002 7:30 pm

What Does ‘You’re Not Black Enough’ Mean?: I’m not a big Anthony Williams fan but this sort of thing annoys me to no end,

“D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams yesterday dismissed criticism that he is not “black enough” to be the District’s mayor, saying he should be seen as an example of black success.”

So Anthony Williams isn’t “black enough[1]” to be mayor huh? Well setting aside the blatantly racist idea that one’s race should qualify or disqualify someone for public office in the first place, what does ‘you’re not black enough’ actually mean?

If for example someone read something I wrote and said “you’re not white enough” I’d think they were either a moron at best or a white supremacist at worst. But if you’re black, there is a cookie-cutter mold that you have to conform to or else you’re told you’re an “uncle tom”, a “want to be white”, “aren’t black enough”, etc.

Does anyone else find this sort of thing ironic? I mean we have left-wingers who will insist that Conservatives are all mind-numbed robots who don’t think for themselves. Yet, they see no issue with a black man being held up to public ridicule as some sort of race traitor just because he doesn’t march in lockstep with the race profiteers who pass for leaders of the civil rights movement these days. Personally, I think it’s tragic to see so many people being cowed into taking the ‘safe postion’ on important issues rather than risk taking criticism. Whatever anyone says, your ‘blackness’, ‘whiteness’, ‘redness’, or any other racial ‘ess’ you can come up with has nothing to do with your politics, your education, who your socialize with, or anything else.