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WHITE FOLKS’ BUSINESS

It is obvious that Barack Obama was not brought up in a proper, African American milieu—regardless of all of those folks out there who refuse to take responsibility for at least half of our new president-elect’s heritage. Obama betrays his lack of a Black background simply by the fact of his running for the presidency at this very dire moment in American history. He probably never heard the term before, for if he had, he certainly would have done anything to avoid running into the worst case of “White folks business” ever warned against by any Black mother or grandmother of yesteryear.

Throughout the centuries of serious marginalization of Black folk from every facet of American life, African Americans were inclined to develop all sorts of devices in order to insulate themselves from the vagaries of the White world in which they could become implicated, if they did not practice skillful avoidance techniques. The idea was, of course, that since Black folk were excluded from the institutions, society and all other aspects of the White world, their intromission into any of those entities could spell only a big mess of unnecessary trouble. Not that Black folk could avoid Whites all together; they were involved in all kinds of employment that brought them in contact with intimate lives of White people. In these jobs, generally they were invisible—until someone from that world inside the margins became distressed or annoyed. In those cases, it was best to be alert and out of the way. Lest one be blamed or suspected unjustly. This evasion method was known as, “Staying out of White folks’ business.”

When Barack was coming up, he never heard that from his mother or grandmother. It never would have occurred to them that the majority population could be so oppressive that those on the margin, such as their chocolate-chip charge, should have to develop defensive postures for the sake of self-preservation. Consequently, young Barry grew up thinking he could conquer the world—never aware that there were a number of pitfalls out there that he should avoid at all costs.

Ergo, here is our young president-elect, having dumped into his lap the worst case of White folks’ business ever witnessed by the majority of today’s populous. Poor Barry—if he had had a Black American mother or grandmother, he might have avoided this mess. His phantom Black ma and grandma keep reminding him every day, “Boy, how many times did we tell you to stay out of White folks’ business?!”