By Justin Michael Carter

When we talk about Black maybe we talk about situations of people of color. And because you are that color you endure obstacles and opposition. And not all the time from other nationalities, sometimes it comes from your own kind or maybe even your own mind. You get judged, you get laughed at, you get looked at wrong, you get cited for not being strong. The struggle of just being you. The struggle of just being us. Black maybe.

-Common, “Black Maybe”

Black has never been easily defined. When mixing paint on a canvass you can create Black by simply dipping your brush into whatever colors you have on hand and mixing vigorously. In many ways Black is today what it always has been; an amalgam of all colors, cultures, and ideologies mixed up and brushed over life’s canvass. Is Black defined today by the One Drop Rule as it once was during the early 20th century? Or are Willie Lynch-style Paper Bag Test sensibilities still being employed to define what Black is? If Hip Hop’s most recent war of words is any indication Black society is still seeking to refine its definition of what Black is. On his diss track “Stay Scheming Remix”,  Common, considered one of Hip Hop’s most conscious rappers, attacked Drake’s mixed heritage and questioned his Blackness with this line,“…You’re so Black and white trying to live a nigga’s life”. Drake is bi-racial, as is President Obama who Common feverishly supported throughout the course of his 2008 campaign and his first term. Mixed vigorously indeed.

So what is Black? Traditionally, Black intellectuals have helped to address these questions but these days it seems even their ideas must be digested with a spoonful of skepticism. Since President Obama took office, Black intellectual Cornel West has rarely failed to take advantage of an opportunity to savage him publicly for such vagaries as “not doing enough” for Black people. West says he is simply holding the President accountable and has nothing against him personally. Never mind those reports that Cornel West felt slighted when he was unable to get the inauguration tickets he requested from the President. It appears even Black intellectuals are susceptible to the crabs in a bucket mentality. This is Black too isn’t it?

The Arts have proven to be helpful in defining what Black is. In the post-Civil Rights Era, Blaxploitation sought to define Black by depicting powerful, sexually charged images of Blacks on the silver screen. During this Academy Awards season Black actresses faced criticism for their roles in “The Help”, one of the most successful, critically acclaimed films of the year. During a time when most Oscar nominated actresses are drafting their acceptance speeches and picking out their gowns, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer found themselves sparring with Tavis Smiley. Rather than applauding the women for their impressive performances, Smiley expressed ambivalence. He told them he took issue with the idea of Black women winning Academy Awards for the same role Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for in 1939. His line of questioning implied their performances were something to be ashamed of rather than celebrated. While both Oscar nominees defended themselves gamely, it’s a shame the ladies failed to ask a rather obvious question of him. If Tavis Smiley is so troubled about the depiction of Blacks in film and television then why hasn’t he ever directed any of his ire toward Tyler Perry? Barring the fact he is in the midst of a silent protest that only he is aware of, Tavis Smiley has never had a bad word to say about Tyler Perry or his works.

On his road to becoming the most successful Black producer/director in history, Tyler Perry built his empire depicting stereotypical Black characters that would be deemed offensive if they sprang from a white person’s mind. Despite this fact, Black commentators never dare to criticize his works. One of the only prominent Black figures to ever have a cross word to say about Mr. Perry is Spike Lee, as pro Black a figure as there is in public life. Spike likened Perry’s work to “Amos and Andy” and questioned why audiences would choose to spend money to see Black images in film and on television that were offensive and degrading. For his part, Tyler responded by telling Spike Lee to kiss his ass. It’s telling that two men who made their fortunes depicting Black culture on screen stand on opposite ends of the spectrum defining exactly what Black is. More than anything this speaks to how difficult it is to settle on a definition. This is largely because the definition of Black depends on whose Black it is. Tyler Perry’s Black features a gun toting cross dressing grandmother with an attitude while Spike Lee’s Black does not. Whose Black is more grounded in reality?

Can the answer be found in Black reality television which at times seems about one hair away from transforming into Spike Lee’s New Millennium Minstrel Show from “Bamboozled”? The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Love and Hip Hop, Basketball Wives, and shows of their ilk have done wonders both for their network ratings and perpetuating a laundry list of damaging Black stereotypes. While Italians and New Jersey residents often voice their displeasure with the Jersey Shore, consider there’s no history of subjugation and 300 plus years of oppression hovering over the adventures of the steroid-fueled sprayed- tanned nymphomaniacs starring in that show. Black reality television on the other hand has offered a wide variety of incidents to disgrace the Black race ranging from a Black woman defecating on the stairs to a Black man placing his penis in a woman’s drink. Black reality television doesn’t define what Black is any more than local news reporters who dart passed articulate eyewitness so they can stick a camera in the faces of as many Anton Dodsons as they can find at the crime scene. Because there are so few Blacks represented on television, the preponderance of Black reality television wildly skews the images of Blacks that are seen. While Black reality shows do not account for all images of Blacks on television, if you see a Black person on TV, odds are you are watching a Black reality show. Maybe this is what Black is.

In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois wrote “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.” Twelve years into the 21st century there isn’t much evidence to suggest this sentiment will not ring true for another 100 years.  Even in the Age of Obama it is difficult to define exactly what Black is. Will his election be something we look back on as the fulfillment of Dr. King’s post racial Dream? Will his second term help plant seeds that will one day grow to usher in a colorblind society? None of this seems likely. If history has made anything painfully clear, it is that although change comes in violent outbursts at times, more often than not it creeps along slowly, like tectonic plates silently shifting beneath the earth as people on the surface never once consider an earthquake might be imminent. Perhaps the ground needs a more vigorous shaking before we can properly define what Black is. Maybe.

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