White Cognitive Dissonance

The disconnect between what we do and how we're treated.

Cognitive Dissonance – “Mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual or culture who holds contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, which can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior.”

White people are puzzling to Black people.

What we don’t understand is too much to unpack, but here’s one of our major points of confusion:

White people love what we do, but don’t love us.

They love our music. They love our gospel, blues, jazz, and hip-hop.

They love our athleticism. They cheer for us when we’re on their favorite team.

They love us when we make them laugh.

They love so much about us.

Except us.

They don’t love us.

When we are inordinately killed by the police, it’s our fault because we didn’t comply.

When we complain about racism, we’re talking too much about race, and told that racism doesn’t exist, or is no longer a problem.

When we talk about the past, we’re told that the past didn’t happen.

Black people are confused because White people seem to love us as long as they are receiving something from us.

We’re acceptable as long as we aren’t making them face uncomfortable truths.

We can be tolerated if we entertain, but when we talk about our difficulties, we’re intolerable.

That’s because our difficulties are tied to how we’re treated by White people.

We are Americans because we were stolen to be slaves.

We were freed, but not fully freed.

We have been segregated, minimized, patronized, and ostracized.

And that’s not counting the lynchings, executions, and extrajudicial police murders.

Killed by the same people that listen to our music.

The same people that dress like us.

The same people that try to talk like us.

The same people that sometimes pretend to be us.

We are convenient to be imitated and replicated.

Until we become inconvenient.