I hate chitlins (proper spelling: chitterlings).
For all the people that don't know, they’re pig intestines. They smell like holy hell, and that's after you've cleaned them thoroughly.
I bring this up because when I was a six-year-old kid hanging at my granny's house, one of my uncles talked about the delicacy as if it was a rite of passage to blackness. He talked about it as if not eating it somehow made you not black. When he asked if I liked it, I gave him an affirmative that elicited a smile and a high-five. I felt good that I got the approval of my older and seemingly blacker uncle (hell, he even drove a Lincoln).
I didn't realize what I was getting into until the next family gathering, and the chitlins were served with us in mind.
I bloody hated them. I remember thinking something was wrong with me. It was like a TV show that you hate but feel like you’re not deep enough to get it. I tried to force myself to like chitlins because it somehow made me feel closer to being black, a game in which I really don't know how to keep score — and truthfully if you score the most points, I don't know what you'll win.
So when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was interviewed by fellow South Carolina native Charlamagne tha God last week, and said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black,” the tongue-in-cheek comment was almost too familiar.
By no means am I hoping for a second term from our current president (even though, deep down, I believe we're going to get one, whether we like it or not). But the last thing I want is to have blackness questioned by a 77-year-old white man.
To have the black experience simplified to something like the two pills that Neo has to choose from in The Matrix is something that only happens to us. White Americans have the privilege of consuming complex analyses of how and for whom they vote, while black people live under the assumption that they’re loyal to just one party.
For Biden to feel as if he's somehow clearly the best choice in this, as if he's the savior we all need, is absurdly tone deaf. His comment lands all the worse for following the revelation of the killing of Ahmad Aubrey, and being followed by the exposure of the killing of George Floyd, two more black men who died after documented instances of police brutality.
Not to mention that these past two weeks have also brought us another Karen going viral after calling the cops on a not-at-all threatening black man (this time in New York’s Central Park), or black musician Doja Cat recently defending her blackness to to the court of Black Twitter, which went after lyrics that some see as mocking victims of police violence — she said some stupid s#!t, but like so many social media battles, it was purposeless and emotionally exhausting.
All of these instances probably deserve their own columns, but it's hard to keep up.
Being black is like playing the violin. It’s a beautiful instrument, but it requires a delicate touch, and the smallest miscue could break the finely crafted strings. It's been years since Kaepernick kneels in protest of police killing black folks, and yet we’re still dealing with it. A Biden victory ain't gonna solve it.
I've personally struggled with my blackness, or perceived blackness. I did a one-man show two years ago aptly called Black AF, and I had a segment called “#BeigeBrilliance.” I talked about being a light-skinned black man, and how it somehow makes me more aware of my blackness, or lack thereof. More aware of times that I'm the only black guy in the room (which is hella often), of the times I’m worried about my columns making my black Columbia community proud.
And, of course, it makes me more self-conscious about my disdain for chitlins.
Biden may be accurate about black votes swaying toward him rather than the incumbent. But to treat us as if we'll just come along for free, like Cheddar Bay Biscuits at Red Lobster, is frustrating no matter which party it comes from.
When asked about the Biden interview by MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Charlamagne summed up the problem with the comment: “It has to come to a point where we stop putting the burden on black voters to show up for Democrats, and start putting the burden on Democrats to show up for black voters.”
Mr. Biden, doing that might not make you black, but it could make you worthy of becoming our president. When this is over, we'll probably still invite you to the cookout — but you don't have to eat the chitlins.
Preach Jacobs is a musician, artist and activist and founder of Cola-Con and indie label Sounds Familiar Records. You can hear his podcasts and read more work at FightThePower.co.
