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