Sage Steele Is Not Black Enough For Black America. So Who Is?
Black people seem to put everything under a microscope: examining the history of every logo in the pancake mix aisle, analyzing every word that comes out of Donald Trump and Kayleigh McEnany’s mouth, bringing up yet another factoid about slavery, annotating every bar from a Drake song. Yet, so many things remained unnoticed by us. One thing, in particular, is how other races treat each other. Every other ethnicity in America has its subgroups: liberal whites and conservative whites, pro-choice Hispanics and pro-life Hispanics, homosexual Jews and heterosexual Jews. When the feces hits the fan, those communities put aside their differences and unite. How often do you hear a Jewish person question how Jewish another person is? Woefully, it has become a staple in the black community.
Sage Steele, a proud biracial American who grew up with a military background and works for anti-American ESPN, claims to have been kept off of an ESPN primetime special The Undefeated Presents Time for Change: We Won’t Be Defeated that aired on June 24th. According to the Wall Street Journal report, Steele was supposed to be featured on the special but was later removed after a couple of other ESPN personalities, Elle Duncan and Michael Eaves, expressed concern that “Ms. Steele wouldn’t be accepted by what they considered the black community”.
In other words, Sage Steele wasn’t black enough to be on the show.
So who is black enough to be considered black? Elle Duncan, who is biracial just like Sage Steele, and Michael Eaves are obedient soldiers of Queen Wokeness herself Jemele Hill, so they must be black enough, right? Biracial Colin Kaepernick has become a symbol of black excellence, while black and Native American Russell Wilson gets hit with the “not black enough” treatment. Drake, who is part black part Jewish, is widely accepted by blacks, yet, part black part white rapper Logic remains the redheaded stepchild of the Hip-Hop community.
There is a gross double standard as to what being Black means. It seems as if it matters more about ideology than about ethnicity itself. Passing Victimhood 101 in college has become a prerequisite of blackness. African-Americans who pander and race-bait to their community are exempt from criticism, despite actions that may undercut their words. BLEXIT founders Candace Owens and Brandon Tatum consistently curate dialogue that attempts to open the minds of the Black community, but are “not Black enough” because they married outside the race (and because they are Republican). Meanwhile, Shannon Sharpe, despite all of his cartoonish buffoonery, is “Black enough” while also marrying outside the race.
Blackness seems to have such a narrow spectrum of acceptable behaviors. In a previous article, I stated that I have been labeled “not Black enough” for being “too smart”. An African-American that does not cave to the stereotypical depictions of Blacks is considered a “sellout” or, even worse, a “house nigger”.
Once again, racism rears its ugly head. Many blacks still remained traumatized by it. Every aspect of some black people’s lives, and consequently their children’s lives, becomes a struggle against whites. Every action of prominent blacks is analyzed by the community and compared to prominent whites. If there are any similarities, said black person is “acting white”. As a result of this inferior mindset, white people are able to dictate how black someone is. This is the subservient mindset that keeps many blacks far below their white counterparts.
The shackles of slavery are no longer on our ankles and wrists but on our minds. Only when we free ourselves from victimhood can more blacks achieve greatness. Until then, white people will continue to determine how black we are.
