A few weeks back NFL player, Antonio Brown, did not like the conversation he had with his coach on the sidelines of the Tampa Buccaneers football game. If you are not a sports fan, meaning you have no idea who the Tampa Bay buccaneers are, much less a clue of who Antonio Brown is, this incident is all over the internet, but it manages not to break that same internet. More importantly, a friend of friend, a female of color, said that she was ashamed of the behavior of Antonio Brown when he reacted to the coach by taking off the top half of football gear, handing it to the crown and made a spectacle of his quitting the team in the middle of the game. My hope is that I reported this with some level of objectivity.
The important thing is not the action of Antonio Brown. People of all background colors and races have moments where their behavior is not optimal. The issue is that Black individuals (and maybe other minorities) carry the burden of behavior from individuals they have no relation to accept that their skin color is the same. What type of historical programming has been imprinted on those of us who survived the American slave experience makes us believe that isn some way I carry burden or worse a responsibility for the actions of some dude I am likely to never interact with on even the most superficatal level? And not having this guilt is not the same as disowning my race nor not consciously unifying with other individual Blacks when it is called for. Calling for means when the action of the other , interferes with individual Blacks living in America in a sovereign state. Honestly it even means when the rights of Black individuals may have committed a crime are violated. The point here is that no individual should carry the burden for the action of another individual without those parties unifying in some direct and consensual manner.
Over time this is an issue that will probably repeat itself over the course of this blog. As a person, I simply cannot carry a beast of burden that claims the negative action of one simply has a similar paint job or drops of so-called black blood engenders the idea that I should be embarrassed by that person’s negative actions. In short, it is enough for me to carry my own negative actions or miss the mark mistakes, I can only truly be responsible for my behavior and possibly the behaviors of minor kids I have responsibility to raise in forthright manner. Shame for Antonion Brown is more that I should be bearing.
Black Individualism 