I never wanted to Not be black. To be clear, that is distinct from ever having thought about not being Black.
But I have noticed how uniquely black people are bound to the prejudice around them. White people can simply change their stories and avoid prejudice. Jews, Serbs and others have changed their names and records of origin to avoid persecution. The difference is they could fit in after effectively making these changes. I have yet to succeed at not being seen as the “Black” person amidst a group of whites. Any Black person who has accomplished this please, please, PLEASE write a book or produce a class on it so I can get that down.
I find the predominance of white privilege that underlies mainstream society simply awesome. I have yet to find any place in society where the application of unfair practices and a majority of detrimental outcomes for Black people are not found.
In my blog "Being Black" I question the effectiveness of our predominant choices. Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Malcom X, Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. (to name a few) all chose to oppose ”the values of the mainstream society around us”. And they all share a common creed - they chose to take daily incessant civil action in support of the choices they made, they chose to act out of love and with compassion, and their lives were filled with challenges and persecution for their actions in support of those choices.
Are we questioning ”the values of the mainstream society around us”? If so, what choices are we making? Are we doing the same things and expecting different results? Does bitterness fill our hearts and underlie our actions? Do we act with unceasing commitment in support of the changes we wish to see, or do we act out of anger and in opposition to present conditions and circumstances? In my humble experience these are relevant questions for all to ponder.