D. L. Hughley - How to Survive America

Although this book is called How to Survive America, it is dedicated to all those who didnt! Rest well.

Contents

H ow do we survive America?

The medias gonna think Im being a button-pushing comedian for asking that question so bluntly. But Im dead serious: Black and brown folks are in a battle for survival every damn day in this country, in a way white people cant fully comprehend.

Our life expectancy is a full three years less than white Americans. The very air we breathe is more polluted, our water is more contaminated, our local food options are toxic, and our jobs are underpaid. Folks where I grew up in South Central L.A. arent jogging to the local Whole Foods for a smoothie. Even if they could afford it, odds are theyd have early stage lung cancer by the time they got there. Black people have higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure, and other risk factors, owing in no small part to adverse environmental factors. Despite the obvious need, the quality of our health care is tragically inadequate. According to the American Cancer Society, African Americans have the highest death rate from most cancers and the lowest survival length. Our kidneys fail us at three times the rate of whites. Damn, even our kidneys are profiling us.

Still alive? Well, even the healthiest among us gotta be careful out there. Our communities are statistically less safe than the average, and yet were terrorized by the law-enforcement and criminal-justice systems that are supposed to protect us, sending us to prison at five times the rate of whites. Not least, our means of addressing these injustices voting is perennially under assault.

Its enough to drive you crazy. Well, guess what? According to Cigna, were 20 percent more likely to report psychological distress yet 50 percent less likely to receive counseling or mental health treatment. Its almost like the entire country has been structured to kill us. Hmmm .

So, I ask the question again: How do we survive America?

T hese are perilous times. I began writing this book in 2020. George Floyds execution by a white police officer on May 25, 2020, once again spotlighted the systemic racism and police violence that has plagued Black Americans for more than four hundred years. The uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus has devastated the entire country, claiming half a million lives, but disproportionately killing Black and brown Americans. And our governments reaction was to double down on policies that make the problems worse. Even when the vaccines arrived, we got vaccinated at a lower rate than the rest of America, despite being higher risk.

Right now, in America, Black people are less healthy, earn less money, and have less money saved than white people. And police keep arresting more Black Americans, keep stopping more Black drivers, and keep killing more Black Americans than white Americans.

Whos to blame?

The answer, dear reader, is shocking. I couldnt believe it myself. Its like the twist at the end of an M. Night Shyamalan movie: the killer is us. Its a classic whodunnit. The bad news is: we done it .

In America, Black people are the number one suspects in our own demise. Whatever bad thing happens to us, its because Black people are predisposed to that outcome.

At least thats what white people would have you believe. If you turn on the news, listen to the pundits and the politicians, its the message you hear explicitly and when you read between the lines: you Black people did this to yourselves.

Its the same old story since the beginning of this country: Black people in America are predisposed toward ruin. No matter what happens to us, it was our fault. If Black people are slaves, it must be our fault. If police continue to brutalize us, it must be our fault. If Black Americans die from COVID at higher rates, it must be our fault. From the Founding Fathers until now, were always at fault. Were built for it. Were culpable for it.

Ahmaud Arbery didnt die from being hunted down by gun-toting vigilantes; he died from attacking the gunman. George Floyd didnt die from a police officer kneeling on his neck; he had preexisting conditions. If you lost your job, if you got sick, if you dont have money: its your own damn fault.

And thats because Black Americans are suspect. Were culturally corrupt, socially corrupt, and immoral.

Or we gotta be, right? Otherwise, how can you explain all the continued injustice? How can you explain the way weve been treated? If a Black guy gets killed by the police, he must have been to blame for his own death in some way! Because if he wasnt, that would mean that the whole system is fucked up.

White people bend over backward to not be held accountable for the system that they set up and perpetuate. They elected Donald Trump and then excused his racism at every turn and enabled his lies, because they are comfortable in these lies. For four hundred years, white people have told themselves lies to smooth over uncomfortable truths. Theyve lied to perpetuate white supremacy and preserve their dominance over Black lives. Theyve justified their cruelty and victimization of Black people by painting Black people as immoral, genetically defective, predisposed to be weak of mind and character. To be more fit to live as slaves than to live as free men. And once free, to stay second-class citizens.

But it wasnt until George Floyds death that a lot of white Americans were willing to look at the disease America is afflicted with. Maybe it had something to do with everyone being quarantined during the COVID crisis and having nothing to watch on TV. Oh, theres no more Real Housewives ? Lets see whats on Twitter... Oh shit, what the fuck is this?!

America is sick. That much is clear. Because when a white police officer is willing to put his knee on a guys neck and choke him to death on camera, all the while with people pleading with him to stop, what else can you call it but a disease? If its just a few bad apples, how come we keep seeing all these bad apples all the time? Maybe the whole fucking bushel is bad, right?

But Black people have known this. Weve been saying this for years. The police are the way they are because theyve been built that way. They are predisposed to be violent toward Black people, to humiliate them, to dominate and abuse them. George Floyds death was caught on tape, but so many others have been too. How many of these videos do we have to see to confirm that the rot is core-deep?

I t wasnt too long ago that we were all living in postracial America instead of pro-racist America. I thought Obama changed everything? His election was supposed to be proof that we had entered a future of racial harmony, that the forces of bigotry and racism had been overcome. Remember when John McCain was confronted by a woman who said that Obama was some kind of secret Muslim terrorist and he pushed back on her, insisting that Obama was a decent family man? It was a new era.

And Obamacare got passed! Millions of people finally had access to health care, and Americans could no longer be denied health insurance for having preexisting conditions.

Unfortunately, Obama wasnt the end of racism in America because all the Obamacare in the world couldnt fix Americas main preexisting condition: racism. In fact, even Obama himself says in his new book, A Promised Land, that he thinks his presidency brought up entrenched fears of Black people, exacerbating tensions: It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted.... For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, [Trump] promised an elixir for their racial anxiety. Obamas administration sucker-punched a lot of white people and drove them crazy. Trumps election was the expression of this white anxiety. What Black people are actually suffering from is not a predisposition, but a preexisting condition: racism. Racism is Americas chronic illness and white supremacy, not Black inferiority, is the cause.