Eboni K. Williams - Bet on Black: The Good News about Being Black in America Today

Copyright 2023 by Eboni K. Williams

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First Edition: January 2023

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022947909

ISBNs: 9780306828645 (hardcover), 9780306828669 (ebook)

E3-20230110-JV-NF-ORI

I dedicate this book to Carey James Williams, Sr., and Gloria J. Williams. My grandfather and mother were the first two people to show me the power of what happens when you Bet on Black.

I also dedicate this book to the Black people in America. We have always bet on ourselves and we always will.

I find, in being black, a thing of beauty, a joy, a strength, a secret cup of gladness.

O SSIE D AVIS

I AM IN A DEEP LOVE AFFAIR with my Blackness.

I carry my Blackness with me everywhere I go, boldly, proudly, audaciously unapologetically. Whether Im on The Real Housewives of New York, on The View, or on my podcast Holding Court, Im Blackity-Black Black, pro-Black, perennially centering Blackness, whatever you want to call it. I can talk about Blackness through any angle or lens, whether as a court-appointed legal adviser or on the couch with my girls in some chic Walker Wear sweats talking shit. I can talk about being Black all day, every day, however way. I carry my Blackness with me into every room I enter, whether serving as a public defender, private defense lawyer, television journalist, executive producer, event host, or reality TV show cast member. My mode of Blackness has been informed by Southern sensibilities, academic achievement, and the oft-intense glare of media. My Blackness has nurtured my spirit, and I wrote Bet on Black to feed yours as well.

Weve long been aware that Blackness has been perceived by some as a threat, as an unacceptable breach of an American social contract that, for centuries, has proclaimed brown skin to be an inferior marker of identity. As seen with slavery and Jim Crow laws, this dehumanizing contract proclaims that our heritage should be downplayed and subcategorized, permanently positioned as an afterthought in the collective consciousness. Some might argue that weve moved past these notions of inferiority and become an egalitarian society, but as Black people we know thats ridiculously naive and dishonest. We know that a racist social contract still exists in the minds of many and continues to shape our societys institutions. Regardless of these realities, I wrote this book to unite us so that we can collectively refuse to have our futures dictated by anti-Black nonsense.

Since the early seventeenth century, when Africans were first brought to American colonial shores, ideas of Blackness have been associated with a subordinate, undesirable experience codified in law for centuries. This is a lie maintained by a white power structure invested in maintaining supremacy at all costs. We now know how utterly arbitrary and mind-numbing this bottom-tier human assignment always was. There have been countless books celebrating the traditional American social order, which requires the dominance of whiteness, heterosexuality, Christianity, and maleness. Whiteness is inherently inflated in this rather tired mix, and if we start to do the work of telling the truth about ourselves as Black people, then we can build an environment for ourselves where we can truly live and thrive. We dont need to depend on anyone else to give us freedom. We never have. We can ensure our full liberation by starting with a basic truththat everything weve been taught, told, and force-fed about white positioning in this nation and beyond is completely arbitrary.

Yes, its made up. And once certain folks have stopped clutching their pearls at this assertion, we can go about the great work of figuring out what this means for Blackness. Whiteness has been inflated, placed high on a pedestal, and positioned as superior, which means that what weve been told all of our lives about the positioning of Blackness as inferior and subordinate is just as arbitrary.

Its why, as we cellularly move through life and handle our day-to-day, we should no longer buy into subordinate positions based on our skin color. Its a very American notion to say that Black people have a place in every space they occupy and that this space is always secondary to that of whiteness. We need to be extremely hostile to that assignment. This subordinate ranking is as false and made up as the tooth fairy, and we have to start treating it as such for the sake of our individual freedoms and collective well-being.

The good news about being Black today is that we can place our history, self-awareness, and understanding of who we are in this world front and center. We can let others contend with their comfort or discomfort with our choices as we refuse to succumb to projections of inferiority or second-class citizenship. These projections have nothing to do with who we are. Lets blow up the bullshit. Lets stop placating others or being silently complicit with racist lies and tell the truth: Blackness is and always has been deserving of a first-class, mainstream, fully liberated experience. Lets spread the good news about being Black in America with a fresh, unfettered celebration of self.

For years the prevailing narrative was that Blackness was something to manage, downplay, quiet, suppress, distract from, even erase. With Bet on Black, Im flipping that paradigm on its head by maintaining that Blackness is a treasure to lead with. Blackness deserves to be centered. Black folks today need to bring their Blackness with them into every space they enter and occupy. Despite the racist fearmongers, a push to create space for Blackness isnt about mass white displacement. Its about allowing Black bodies and brains to occupy spaces with confidence, with an informed, well-thought-out process through which we readily wield power. Its about recognizing that we have every right to access resources, professional opportunities, wealth, and the full emotional spectrum of the human condition in the same way that our white counterparts have done for eons.

I wrote this book because history shows its common for Black folks to contend with manifestations of white insecurity that would have us become caricatures of who we really are or be removed from the playing field altogether. I want us to celebrate the expansiveness of our experiences, to honor this precious thing popularly known as Black excellence, to abjectly refuse subordinate positioning in everything that we do and in whatever way we define Blackness.