The English Black Man

With The death of Nipsey Hussle still weighing heavily on my mind, I look at what his values were and what challenges he faced in trying to achieve all he had achieved. He was an independent artist who had been around roughly for just over 10 years and sadly its only due to his death that the world is finally being able to appreciate what a special mind he had and what a talent he was. One of the things I truly admired about him was his passion on maintaining who he was as a man while progressing in the many industries he was a part of. He always stayed true to himself, being of half Eritrean and African American descent he looked into and displayed his cultural backgrounds by wearing specific attire that Eritreans would wear, or by sharing cultural information in interviews about where he was from. I know that in the U.S being a black man comes with its struggles, as I spent 5 years living in NY and played my card of being British when it came down to certain situations. What I like about black culture in America is that they are allowed to be themselves, they have a way of living a way that makes them very much true to themselves, they have their history, growth and place in the Western Hemisphere. They have their mannerisms, whether good or bad and they are always unapologetically black. My ethnic background is Dominican and Grenadian, my race (as defined in western society) is black and my nationality British. I'm very aware of my genetic make up, my cultural heritage and my geographical place of birth. While I may not be 'Caribbean' enough for my cousins and the people that grew up there, I'm also not 'British' enough either. I like many others just class myself as a Londoner as the cultural mix, due to different demographics of ethnicities, make my city very unique in terms of culture. Recently I started a new job and I'm the type of person who tries not to get into too much work conversation, but if spoken to I will entertain and engage in topics of discussion. There's an older gentleman I speak to on a regular basis on general topics from boxing to music to chess. He's of Jamaican descent but very much classes himself as British. We had a conversation once about Anthony Joshua's fight against 'Big Baby Miller' thats coming up and he asked me my take on it. I Basically just said its gonna be a good fight, I think AJ's gonna win I just personally don't like AJ's press conferences. Now I have nothing against AJ, I'm a huge fan of his and really respect what he does and who he is. I know that he has a brand and he's the world champion so he has to have a certain way he presents himself but then I always sit and question, is this really how he is? Like I said my only criticism of him is his press conferences, I don't necessarily feel like he is being as authentic as he would like to be and when I gave my opinion to my work colleague his response was "yeah, but he has to be like that to maintain his image and brand, he has a lot of endorsements and he can't mess that up". But what image is that and how would him being himself mess that up? Big Baby Miller is your typical African American trash talking boxer and AJ is your composed, calm, British boxer. The money he can generate for a fight now is ridiculous and he has the heavyweight division at ransom (Well Eddie Hearn does but that's another post). I told my colleague as much as I like AJ as a fan I prefer Dillian Whyte for his 'no nonsense' attitude to the sport, he doesn't care how you feel about him and he will say what he likes and you take it how you want. While a lot of people respect Dillain, their criticism of him is he's too raw and he needs to tone it down to get better chances at bigger fights and better endorsements. My statement and question is this, There are fighters that get paid to beat the opposition to a pulp,

so why do black fighters need to be tamed in order to progress

and why does this only applies to British ones ?! Deontay Wilder is another trash talking African American, Dominic Breazeale another African American who can talk however we want, yet when Britain gets a black confident aggressive fighter who isn't afraid to be him, he has to "tone it down". There's a hidden understanding in Britain that for a black man to be successful he has to do it the British way or he won't make it, yet the British way for black boxers means you have to be timid while a white man is allowed to be however he wants in this nation. Conor McGregor a confident, harsh talking, Irish UFC fighter who is allowed to do and say and act however he likes gets no backlash for his personality. The media have nothing negative to say about his attitude or how he conducts himself, he's allowed to be him. Raheem Sterling the best football player England has to offer is in the papers every week for the most ridiculous of things, simply because he chooses not to conform to how typical black British footballers usually would; White wife or girlfriend, diplomatic in interviews, non-opinionated, quiet and not necessarily able to be themselves. He's been the subject of racism a lot in recent weeks and his response and attitude towards it has been absolutely professional, whilst showing his strength. He in my opinion has set a standard of how to be a black man in this British society which is, 'we are gonna be us whether you like it or not, so get over it'. I just want to end it like this, we need to stop being afraid to be us, it's not an us problem, it's a them problem, and I say them cause it has nothing to do with a specific race, it's to do with insecurities of groups of organisations that dictate how social classes in Britain are run. You don't value our strengths and qualities, you still think we are vulgar and less beings than you are, and so you need us more than any other race of Brits to almost emasculate ourselves to not pose as a threat to your insecurities. You can F and blind during a regular conversation yet if we do the same thing in our tone, we come across as threatening, but do it in your tone because you feel comfortable with how it's being said. You don't mind it while we are being something we're not ! I am on a journey to be me and value and love every single trait and attribute that makes me a powerful black man. If you don't like me loving and uplifting myself my way, then as Raheem Sterling said "All you can do is laugh" cause I ain't gonna stop".