Choosing Not to Speak

I was recently introduced to a poet named Daniel Beaty, and a piece he performed called "Nigga vs. Nerd". Normally I don't fall for the quasi-racist, Pan-Africanist babble black poets dish out to their predominantly white audience. But this was an exception. Mr. Beaty delivered a performance that was specified towards the black man, that gave white audiences something to relate to. He did not do this directly, but in a way that any person could listen, forget the typical black stereotypes, and match it to the struggle of any person, of any race, trying find them self within their own culture.

It started out humorous; the audience laughed at Beaty's dialogue between his two inner egos named: Nigga and Nerd. As Daniels conversation with himself progressed, he realized that though he was well educated, and spoke "proper" English; he was still a black man. Nigga tried to tell Nerd that he should respect and embrace his black side, not try and repress it by trying to fit in with people who are not like him. Nigga continued by telling Nerd not to let his deliberate immersion into other cultures -to become successful, and avoid his own race- be the values he basis himself upon. Being black does not mean being stereotyped as a drug dealer, or to be viewed by the media condescendingly.

What Mr. Beaty made clear at the end of his poem was, though we even though we as black people have a negative connotation as a race. We are still human, and by being human, we have been blessed with consciousness.What separates us from other races, is our history and our culture. Nothing more. Just because, as Black Americans, we may not have the ability to date our selves back to our cultural roots, does not mean that we should stay ignorant to the fact that we have a history, and a community.

There are children in the slums of our cities that look exactly like us, that don't have the opportunity to break out of the cycle of ignorance and failure. A cycle that has been here for countless years, a cycle that seems to be perpetual.

Some may have been - and are- lucky enough to have broken these chains. Does that mean they are more free than their brothers still in the ghetto? Absolulty not. The people you left behind in YOUR ignorance will always slow you down, because we are one people only as strong as our weakest link. If we don't come together, we die alone; unable to utilize the power of true unity.

As an added note, if you are a black academic, don’t become ashamed of your true nature/culture. You are an educated black person here to change the world in the only way possible.

By being your true self. This is what I feel Daniel Beaty was really trying to say.