words.
"...Confident black men are constantly held under by society, frequently told to not say much and accept what society (i.e. the whims of white men in power) gives us. This is a tactic to hold us "in place," to make sure we don’t "overstep our boundaries" (i.e. gain a level of influence as to overthrow the people in power, which, again, are a bunch of white dudes). We as black men are treated as secondary, even though our efforts have created some of the greatest art forms our society has been given. And when we hold onto our dignity by believing in ourselves, we are conditioned to hold it at a distance so as not to upset those nebulous powers that be.
Because if we black people actually did show the full confidence of a generation of trendsetters (jazz, rock'n'roll, hip-hop, fashion, visual art, and a plethora of other mediums of art), it would disrupt the status of white men as the gatekeepers of American culture. They would prefer we didn’t believe in ourselves so they could give us little slivers of praise and award the real accolades to white artists who have half the talent and cultural cachet in order to bring them up. We as black men are always under the white man’s thumb, but Kanye West created a body of work to where he could escape.
...What will it take for people to stop conflating confidence with arrogance when it comes to black men? We’ve spent our lives with a strike against us for intimidating society’s hierarchy simply by having darker skin; we just want to believe in ourselves and not catch flak for it."
THE PITCH: Op-Ed: On Kanye West and Black Humility
