Dear First Lady Dr. Jill Biden:
To begin, do know that during my school days, I participated in baseball, basketball, football, band, and academic competitions starting in first grade (and ending) in college. During that time, I or my teams won championships, and I/we lost championships. Individually, I earned “superior” ratings at band solo/ensemble festivals and first place ribbons at Latin Fora, and I earned “good” ratings at band festivals—or came in second place or below at Latin Fora.
During my junior and senior years at Morehouse College (1993-94), my quiz bowl teammates and I went 31-2, with the two very narrow losses to Tuskegee University coming in the National Championship games aired on BET (see photo). When victorious, we proudly stood in the winner’s circle; when we lost, we proudly applauded the team that won it all—and never felt entitled to the same praise for coming in second place.
The above reasons are why I find your request that the second place Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball Team come to the White House bizarre, unprecedented, and totally undeserved. Iowa was damn good this year, but LSU was much better and shouldn’t have to share a stage with the team they dragged all across the court.
I know that you and your husband have deemed yourselves allies to Black people for most of your lives, and I write “most” mostly in regards to your husband who, by his own admission, was on the wrong side of history as he stood with anti-busing Southern racists in the Senate early in his career—and still stumbles occasionally, like his tone deafness on D.C. home rule with regards to criminal justice reforms just last month.
But as self-styled allies, I need you and your husband to know that generally standing in unison with Black people against systemic racial bigotry, from public policy to police brutality, is great! But also know that racism is so much more—and your Black friends have a lifetime’s worth of macro and micro-aggressions and assumptions that may seem trivial to you and your ilk, but are infuriatingly problematic to most Black folks, like:
A. Did you REALLY read all of those books for the read-a-thon?
B. Wow, you are ‘surprisingly’ more articulate than I expected…
C. You don’t ‘sound’ Black…
D. I don’t really see you as a Black person…
E. Did you grow up knowing your father?
F. Affirmative Action is the only reason that you and “The Blacks” made it into this prestigious (insert Ivy League or Top 20 PWI undergrad, grad, professional school)
G. Well, since we have several graduating students who earned high grade point averages (read—racially diverse but with two of the top three being Black), this year we won’t have one valedictory address, we will allow everyone in the Top 10 to speak for 2 minutes…
H. Your hairstyle looks totally ghetto…
I. Your tattoos look totally ghetto…
J. Your dance styles look soooo totally ghetto–can you teach them to me?
K. You talk so ghetto/thugged out…
L. How ’bout we invite the overwhelmingly white Iowa Hawkeyes team that got smashed by the overwhelmingly Black LSU team for a joint ceremony at the White House?
These are but a few, Dr. Biden, but do know that the days of Black folks quietly allowing passive aggressive and actively aggressive racism to go unchecked are DEAD—even when they come in the form of a friend or “ally.”
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Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
"Real Politics in Real Time"
Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
