Who Asked Me? White Folk Want To Know “Why We Are Mad”

by Beverly Gadson-Birch
Beverly Gadson-Birch Beverly Gadson-Birch

Y’all need to pull up a chair for this one. Has anyone, other than me, been asked the question, “why y’all so mad?” I am from the old school and one thing I do know if I don’t know anything else is manners. An apology is followed by some sort of atonement. Basically, here is an acceptable apology:

A friend slams the door on my finger. She immediately apologizes and says, “I am so sorry, I did not notice you weren’t completely out of the car before I closed the door.” She applies cold water to ease the pain and offers to take me to a doctor.
Now, another friend slams the car door on my finger. I yell out in excruciating pain letting her know she slammed my finger in the door. She retorts, “You are so stupid, you knew I was going to close the door and you should not have had your hand on the door.” My friend’s behavior is unacceptable because it lacks an apology and an offer to provide aid. She infuriated me more than atone. Are y’all following me? White folk, instead of apologizing for creating a dual education system and failing to educate me, you call me stupid. Instead of apologizing for rolling the shopping cart into me, you grimace and say, “watch where you are going stupid.” I wait in line to be seated, instead of asking “who’s next,” you signal to the white patron to follow you, as if I was invisible. I finally get the right to vote without counting the bubbles in a bar of soap, and you decide I can’t be handed a bottle of water as I wait in long lines in the blistering heat. I run the race of opportunity fair and square, and as I approach the finish line opportunities move further away. Will I ever cross the finish line?

When I refuse to accept bigotry, white folk act offended as if they are the victim. And, each time the conversation of retribution comes up, there is never any money. Is it because white folk think I am worthless, or they can’t calculate my worth? I get it! It’s difficult placing a value on picking cotton and tobacco in snake infested fields with temperatures reaching over 105 degrees. When I refuse to be treated as a second-class citizen, I am told “just get over it!”

Let’s take this one step further! When qualified blacks applied for jobs they were told, “they weren’t qualified,” or they didn’t have enough work experience. Instead of hiring them, young whites with less experience were hired and your “not so qualified blacks” were ordered to train them. Blacks didn’t have enough experience for the positions but enough experience to train white junior flips?
• When black children excelled in academics, they were not recognized as gifted and talented. In some instances, they were prescribed drugs (Ritalin) because you said, “they acted up in class and couldn’t keep still.” If you aren’t familiar with the side effects of Ritalin, look it up. You used drugs to destroy generations of children’s potentials.

• When black students applied to Ivy League Colleges, although they met the necessary entrance requirements, they were rejected. Out of this exclusion and rejection, black colleges were established (separate but unequal just like public schools). Finally, when you were court ordered to accept black students, they were spat upon, threatened, bullied and had to be accompanied to class by Federal Marshals.

• When blacks sold drugs alongside their white counterparts, they received stiffer sentences for the same crimes.

• When blacks refused to “sign here” on the dotted line, you referred to them as “uppity Negroes.” No, not “uppity,” just educated enough to read before signing legal documents only to find out later they were illegal.

• When black ladies refused to respond to you after being addressed by their first name and after seeing you address a young white girl as “Ms.” you smirked and rolled your eyes at them with no regard for their seniority. This has absolutely nothing to do with race, but everything to do with respect.

• When applying for auto loans, and black borrowers inquired about the interest rate, they are told, “don’t worry about the interest I will have you in a car today.” And, when the loan is finally approved, most assuredly it is always at a higher interest rate.

• When you destroyed black fathers’ and sons’ manhood, you continued to do so through low paying jobs, profiling, and mass incarceration. You wonder why “they can’t get over it?”

• When you couldn’t stop black protests for equal rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution, you went after Black Lives Matter protesters.

And, the list goes on. Promotions that were denied, home mortgages that were denied, land illegally stolen, etc.

Once white folks devise a compensatory plan and act upon it, then and only then will I know their apology is well intended, and they did not mean to “slam my finger in the car door.” White folk, y’all got to stop this madness.