PJ Media

Blotto,

I have an IQ of 120. I graduated from high school with a 3.5 GPA. The average student who went to my college got about a 3.5. I decided to go to community college first where I got a 3.91 gpa and graduated with highest honors. While doing that I ran varsity track, wrote for the school newspaper, sang in my church choir and completed 150 community service hours while working 30 hours a week. I went to the same college that accepted me out of high school, earned a master’s degree and went on to become a teacher. On my teacher licensing exam, I scored in the 97th percentile and went on to become a successful teacher of English. When state mandadted exams came along, my students passed at well above the AYP mandate and for four years in a row, my students passed at 92% compared the the white teachers who were 15 to 20 percentage points behind me and for three of those years I taught more special Ed students and fewer “GT” students.

I could tell you about the doors that have been closed to me, all of the promotions I did not get, all of the times I was pulled over for driving while black, but in the end that has not held me back. I don’t pretend to understand what it is like to be white in America, but I know that there are priviledges you enjoy by virtue of your white skin. for example, did you know that a black man with no criminal record and a high school diploma stands about the same chance of getting a job as a white man who is a convicted felon? (check out the CNN special “Black in America”) Should you be less proud of what you have accomplished? No. We all take advantage of the opportunities we are given.

You ask how can I be proud of what I have done? Let me tell you. I am dislexic and hyper active and I did not have the priviledge of an IEP to help me suceed. My great grandfather, the son of a slave, could not even sign his own name, my grandparents each have a 6th grade educations because they had to leave school to work, and my parents did not go to college because they could not afford to go to college. My maternal grandfather was beaten with in a inch of his life by KKK members and forced to drink a poisonous subastance ate him from the inside out for the next year. Now here I am, a college graduate with a career. My life is the American Dream. My family has come a long way. That is how I can be proud.

Being Black in America is a double edged sword. There are very few Blacks in my positions over the age of thirty who to some degree has not benefitted from affirmative action. But in my experience, when the rubber meets the road, I have had to step up and show that I belong. I have pulled myself up by my boot straps and I agree with the Republican position on many issues, but this Republican party has too many people who are too willing to assume that I am an idiot who got where he is only because some white guilt ridden flaming liberal gave me a handout.

One last note, thank you for doubting me because it fires me up. I love shattering sterotypes made about me. The fighter in me say no one will define me. I define myself. That is not being a slave, that is being a man, that is being an AMERICAN.