Why Can’t I Just Be Black On Or Offline Without You Getting Offended?

For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you know that 95% of the content that I post on my personal profile is pictures of my kids & me or some silly randomness.  You’ll also notice that I never post any content from the Onyx Truth on my own personal Facebook profile.  Not because I’m ashamed or trying to hide who I am, but because I prefer to keep my profile a place of “happiness & harmony” I guess you could say.  If I start posting these blog posts on my profile, my notifications would stay lit up for all eternity.

So why am I bringing this up?  Great question.

Every now & then I’ll create a rant about something related to the news, pop culture, or race relations.  Every time I make a thread about race relations I get flooded with so-called white “friends” waiting to spill their white tears onto my threads.  Seriously it’s like they purposely fill up water bottles of white tears just to have them on standby for when I create a thread about race relations.  Like usual, the white tears overflow & I get labeled a racist.  It doesn’t even matter what the topic is…I’m racist, I hate white people.  I guess in their mind I’m supposed to post only race related topics that don’t talk about white people.  Even crazier is how most of these white people claim to NOT be the type of white people I’m referring to, yet they get angry as shit the moment the words “white people” are found anywhere on my threads.

Here’s the problem…

White people, if my online Blackness offends you, you would be absolutely terrified of me in real life.  You won’t be terrified because I’m a thug or some other stereotypical bullshit you believe most Black people to be.  Oh no.  You’ll be terrified because I’m actually quite articulate in real life, smart, good looking, & about this Black life all day err day.  I’m not some docile knee grow running around buck dancing my way through life.  I’m also not some so-called angry militant knee grow.  I’m simply a Black man who isn’t about that bullshit white people may hurl my way from time to time.  I will check you & put in your place.  I’ll beat you down mentally before I have to physically fuck you up, if it reached that level…which I’m hoping it doesn’t have to go there.

I just want the old Gil back…

Not too long ago a white guy told me, “Gil, you’re racist!  Just admit it!”  I asked how so.  His response, “B-b-because all you post about is racist stuff!”  I then asked him to go back through my timeline in just the last 5 days to tell me how much racist stuff have I posted.  I’m still waiting for him to give me an answer to that.  Anyways, one thing this white guy said to me that stuck with me was, “I just want the old Gil back.”

This white guy & I met about 4 years ago while we were both working on a TV production project.  He was cool, I was cool, we were cool and that was pretty much that.  Due to our working relationship, every time I saw him I was just there to handle business related to project.  Apparently that one side he saw of me in a professional work setting was what he was expecting me to be 24/7 I suppose.  He befriends me on Facebook & discovers another side of me when it comes to speaking out on issues related to Black society.  Now keep in mind, on my personal profile most of the stuff I post is family stuff, but I guess the onsie & twosie threads he saw was enough for him to label me a racist who hates white people.  If you read this site, then you already know how I feel about Black people being “racist”.  I guess in his world I was supposed to be this happy-go-lucky Black dude who was blind to the ways our society can be.  I guess because he thought that since he was cool with Black people that ALL WHITE PEOPLE must be like him and I’m just the crazy knee grow making up shit when I talk about race relations.  I guess he’s stuck in denial.

But the bigger issue here is the expectation that I’m supposed to stop being “Black” and pretend like I don’t see the world for how it really is when it comes to Black society in order to make him feel better about his lily white perspectives on life.  I’m willing to bet it’s a bunch of white people who get online and discover that the friendly Black person at the job is probably too Black for comfort.  Meaning, we can code switch & keep it purely professional at the job to get things done, but when you read our status updates to discover that we are Blacker than what you thought, it’s probably a ton of white people who can’t handle or comprehend it.  It’s like they’ve been sucker punched in the face to discover that the nice Black person actually has a problem with racism & can articulate their stance in an intelligent manner.  It’s like…..wow…..this knee grow is actually……Black.  How did this happen?

Well, that so-called “old Gil” was always the same Gil.  It’s just that you allowed yourself to enter into my online world & know that you see how I get down, you’re offended.  But the reality is, I’ve been the same Gil for years offline.  Just because you didn’t know it, that’s not my problem.  I’m not about to change into this “old Gil” you want me to be in order to appease your white feels.  The fuck you think this is.  Long gone are the days of appeasing white feels, especially for members of Intelligent Black Society.  If you can’t handle the reality we choose to discuss when it comes to racism because you feel like we are talking directly about you, then hey, you might want to take a long look in the mirror to figure out why you are so offended.  Chances are if you are white & you are offended by some of the things we say in regards to race relations, then you actually just might be the problem.  But whether or not this is online or offline, don’t expect me to change my ways to appease your feelings.  If I see a problem & feel like discussing it, be prepared to be hit with reality.  If you cry white tears, I will have dixie cups available in case I get thirsty.

At the end of the day, why can’t I just be Black on or offline without you getting offended?  Seriously?  Why?