Vanjones.net

I'm 45, black and just saw the article about the "First Time I Realized I Was Black" but can't seem to understand why that's so important when what really is at the forefront is immigration vs slavery. My mother moved me out of the projects and into a predominately white county and I had to learn to talk properly in order to be taken seriously. I mean to the point that I would do great on paper and on phone but then got a double take action when I met anyone that I wrote or spoke with on the phone. I even had white friends of mine tell me I did not sound black and my black friends thinking I was a punk. That is when I realized I was black and it was not all that bad. It meant that others realized they were not black or that blacks acted/talked a certain way. Van, be real my man! Talk about the economic challenges blacks face going back to the 1980's and how the immigration act has somehow included blacks in it. Black people become submissive in today's economy because of the history we have in this country. Lift up black people to think and act on getting that 40 Acres And A Mule.....not reason with this immigration thing by pivoting to subjects like this current one. We did not have a choice like an immigrant does. My white friends feel like the minority today, my black friends are still pointing the finger and my immigrant friends just don't understand what it means to be black, but they try harder than my white friends do to rationalize with it. Maybe now my white friends will try harder because the last thing they want is to be labeled racist considering how our new regime has been assembled. Hope you read this and feel free to respond to me in the most candid fashion, it's between you and me my man. You are a smooth brutha on the grind making your way in society and I admire you for that. All The Best, Brian