If only they loved us as much as they loved our culture.

In the past decade, the influence of black culture has shaped the way we, as individuals live. Including the whites. It’s virtually impossible to define what it means to be “cool” without mentioning black culture. We have managed to shape the way fashion, music and lifestyle is consumed daily. Unfortunately, our culture is formed from the struggles placed on us daily. I am unable to envision a time where being black was as cool as the culture it creates. I am unable to provide a positive answer to what is a black experience without white privilege, supremacy or power? In short terms, It’s cool to be black, until you actually have to live our experiences.

If only they loved us as much as they loved our culture.

You would think because black culture has become so mainstream and is consumed regularly in white culture (if they have one) that whites would acknowledge the issues we face regularly. I am not insinuating that they are not aware of the issues we face, but they are more obsessed with the novelty and difference of the lifestyle in comparison to their own.

This dates back to slave culture, where the culture is cool but the people are not. John Leland addresses this in his book Hip: The History as the ‘synthesis in the context of separation’. Let’s take music for reference. African American Slaves were restricted in innumerable ways — literacy education being one of them. Music therefore became their language of communication, it was a solace, a community-builder and a voice for hope. Music was a way for slaves to express their feelings whether it was sorrow, joy, inspiration or hope. As generation repeats itself, we see this through hip-hop, R&B, rap, drill etc. Black music culture has been largely shaped by the struggles we have faced because of racism. The media (white powerhouses) take advantage of the white attraction to this novelty. They treat our struggle culture as entertainment (basically a puppet on strings) without caring about the actual people in the culture. For example, Vice Media released a series called Noisey in 2019 — capturing the lifestyle of the Atlanta trap scene. To the vice; clicks, views and ad dollars are more important than the young black men in the video who are forced to carry weapons for their protection because this video creates insights, I mean entertainment for white audiences.

Now, I’m not sitting here saying do not appreciate our music just because you don’t share our lived experiences. Taste is not bound to such metrics. However, the danger occurs when you begin cherry pick parts of our culture you want to enjoy. You can’t divide our culture from our lived experience. It’s immoral. It’s immoral to consume and relate to our music,lifestyle and fashion without sparing a thought to what we go through as a race, the daily violences and the indecent killings for just being black. And as I’ve mentioned, we are not saying don’t consume our culture. However, speak up for what creates our culture (that you seem to love and feed off so much) as much as you consume in.

Just love us as much as you love black culture.