I Support Black Mediocrity

[Music]

[Applause]

hi

i’m andre williams and i support black

mediocrity

some of you may be confused so i’ll say

it again

my name is andre williams and i support

black mediocrity

i want you to take a moment to digest

what that means

typically as i state my support for

black mediocrity i met with confused

stares of people trying to figure out

what i mean

that confusion is usually then followed

by backlash

why would you say something like that

why black mediocrity

you just want to be lazy alongside these

retaliations come numerous other

assumptions criticisms and unfounded

proclamations about my work ethic and

character

but i mean exactly what i’ve said i

support

black mediocrity i want to share with

you a short story about

how my support for black mediocrity

evolved

i’ve always supported the idea but it

was actually earlier last year that i

was scrolling through twitter

and i came across a viral tweet that

helped encapsulate my thoughts into a

few words

the tweet read i support black

mediocrity

we don’t have to be excellent all the

time can we just be damn it

after reading the tweet i immediately

empathized with the frustration and

pressure of excellence as a standard

more so i thought about how excellence

only seems to be an expectation placed

on black people

we’re not allowed to make mistakes we’re

not allowed to explore our interest

we’re not allowed to even just be

because we’re forced to strive for some

arbitrary measure of excellence at all

times

i remember being a kid and being told

that i would have to work twice as hard

to be twice as good only to later than

receive half the recognition

and half the success

this every other black person i know has

had a similar conversation with their

parents

mentors this is something that’s just

been accepted

studies show that even no matter the

education level black people tend to

make less than their white counterparts

in the workplace

a 2019 survey by the u.s census bureau

over mean earnings

showed that while black bachelor’s

degree earners made a

meet income of 60 400

or around 60 000 dollars white

bachelor’s degree

earners earned a mean income of around

eighty thousand dollars

almost a twenty thousand dollar

difference these discrepancies exist at

every educational level

from those without a high school diploma

to those who have earned professional

degrees

and we have to ask ourselves why

then i began to think about how black

people are constantly subjected to

anti-black violence in the form of hyper

criticism

this hyper criticism is seen every day

at work and at school

when we’re forced to walk on eggshells

scared to make mistakes because we know

our every move is being analyzed and

dissected for wrongdoings

this hypercriticism is seen in celebrity

culture

where the dehumanization and

commodification of black celebrities

runs rampant

this hyper criticism is seen in the

media and by police when they do

deep dive background hunts for a reason

to use this justification for why a

black person

was murdered by a trigger-happy racially

bigoted police officer

take george floyd for example he was a

an unarmed black man wrongly accused of

using a counterfeit 20

bill who made pleas for his life while

an officer kneeled on his neck for

more than eight minutes

ultimately resulting in his execution

via strangulation

though on video for the world to see

many people and news networks still

question whether police were justified

in their use of excessive force

because of floyd’s past criminal history

and experience with drug abuse

or what about briana taylor she was a

young black woman

murdered in her home by police officers

serving a no knock warrant

still even in death police efforts to

defame her character persisted

with attempts to tie her back to a case

involving drug dealing

a tatiana jefferson bodum gene

ahmad aubry tamir rice trayvon martin

and so many others share and having

posthumous smear campaigns run against

them

even in death there’s no justice no

peace

no leniency no humanity afforded to

black people

it’s not lost on me how starkly

different the interactions with

white victims or better yet white

perpetrators of violences

and it’s not something that you should

dismiss or ignore either

we have to ask ourselves why

why the life of black man was worth

twenty dollars

we have to ask ourselves how how a black

woman can get killed in her

own home by police and we have to think

about

when police buy dylann roof someone who

had just murdered

nine people a hamburger

and we have to think about when our

former president donald trump said

that there are fine people on both sides

when referring to white nationalists

and we also have to think about when

brock turner a white rapist is handed a

lenient sentence

because he has a promising future

and even more recently we have to think

about when a police officer is seen

gently guiding a woman down steps

who moments ago participated in a

storming of the capital

an attempt to overthrow the u.s

government

and when we think about these instances

and how they show

the most basic level of humanity

extended to not only the most mediocre

white people

but arguably some who represent the

worst the world has to offer

then we truly see that the only

prerequisite is whiteness

if you have that you get access to

humanity

and when you don’t

well we know so when i say and emphasize

that i support

black mediocrity it’s because white

people get to be mediocre

all the time they’re allowed to exist

to just be

black people are always told that we’re

not good enough

no matter what we do we’re always asked

to do more

and be more we’re not allowed to fail

we’re not allowed to have bad days we’re

not allowed to be average

when interacting in a system that fails

to recognize your basic humanity

unless seen as an extraordinary

exception to blackness

your very survival is contingent on

being without flaw

and we must call it what it is

white supremacy because who defines

mediocrity anyway

due to how whiteness is centered in our

culture

black people are forced to conform to

white standards in order not to be seen

as mediocre

your blackness is praised only when it

does not pose a threat to

or disrupt whiteness

in other words your value based on your

ability to emulate whiteness

as such when one’s ambitions defy the

norm you’re seen as less than

less human when whiteness is placed on a

pedestal

as something beyond reproach making the

bare minimum

minimum acceptable as long as it’s white

we get what we discussed earlier

unequal and unattainable standards for

black people

black people are expected to do it all

perfectly and without help

this is an idea that’s further

emphasized in the college admissions

process

i want you to think about the difference

in how people discuss

legacy admissions versus affirmative

action

legacy emissions are largely white

simply because of the racist

exclusionary past of the education

system

different sources have different numbers

but

um generally they say that between 80

and 90

of legacy admissions are white students

research by david card an economist at

the university of california berkeley

states that in 2014 80 percent of legacy

admits were white students

in 2019 this number is said to have

dropped to 61 percent

in either case the data shows that

those who benefit from legacy admissions

are outstandingly white

and though it’s known that legacy

admissions benefit white students over

black students

no one sees this as a problem people

don’t randomly say

to white students that they only got

into a university because of legacy

admissions

however when we think about the

discussion surrounding affirmative

action

they always seem to suggest that what

black students are under qualified or

only gotten to a university or college

because of their blackness

even though we know that’s not true

because research shows that those who

benefit from affirmative action

are majority white women

or we can talk about the college

admission scandal

white upper class parents paying to get

their children into esteemed

universities was met with limited

criticism

and little consequence the headlines we

saw surrounding the scandal

showed empathy like forbes article

why parents and the college admissions

scandal shouldn’t get prison time

or new york times article felicity

huffman

desperate housewife devoted parent and

now defendant

but when we look at the instances of

black parents

lying about their addresses to allow

their children to get a better education

outside of the

approved boundaries we don’t see that

same empathy

when looking at the headlines

surrounding kelly william bowler’s case

a black woman jailed for doing just that

they asked why she didn’t explore her

other options

like sending her child to charter school

or

sending her child to a different school

within the boundaries

so what do i want you to take away from

this talk this is a question that i

thought about

for a long time and honestly

i wish it was something as easy as

saying stop being racist

but it’s not because racism is quite

literally embedded

in every institution and system that we

interact with

just today i’ve talked about wages the

entertainment industry

criminal justice the education system

when we think about violence and white

supremacy we have to broaden our scope

because when we only think about

violence as a physical act we don’t

allow accountability for

the violence caused by our thoughts and

interactions

i believe that one of the first steps

everyone should take in combating

anti-blackness is supporting black

mediocrity

stop making black people think they have

to be extraordinary to matter

being black is hard enough

when you support black mediocrity you’re

supporting black liberation

and autonomy to just be rather than

existing in a system designed by white

people and for whiteness

this goes for those who consume music

white artists don’t have to be the best

vocalist or dancers

so why should black artists this goes

for those working in hr

why is a white person receiving a higher

offer than a black person with the same

credentials

this goes for those working in the

education system

what’s the difference between legacy

admissions and affirmative action

and why do you support one and not the

other

this goes for those in the judicial

system and working in newsrooms

why are you more critical of black

victims than white perpetrators of

violence

we have to be critical of ourselves and

the institutions we uphold

but we can’t stop there we have to call

out these inconsistencies

and we have to work to build a world

where black people can be just as

mediocre as white people

a world where blackness is allowed to

exist

and just be

i’m andre williams i support black

mediocrity

and you should too thank you

you