Why Are People So Afraid of Black Excellence?

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I have posed this question to myself so many times over in my head it has become redundant at this point. But, here I am again with the same thought and still, no answer. Why is it that whenever a black person is succeeding in any area of pop culture, the business world, academia, etc. there are always people there to dim their light a little?
 I’m going to take a simple situation from a very recent personal experience, a scenario concerning a boy named Jimmy (white) in my General Chemistry class. This is the second time that me and this boy have interacted in any context nonetheless, an educational one. Currently, our class is focused on dimensional analysis and significant figures , and a few other students along with myself were in the class were in a group together to solve a problem containing both of those concepts. Our time is up and we still haven’t agreed on an answer but he goes up to the board because he feels that his answer is right. While Jimmy is writing, our teaching assistant and I both notice that he has not taken a few things into account with his answer, so I raise my hand and politely tell him "I see you made a mistake in your conversion from pounds to grams." He promptly grabs his things and storms out of the room. The entire class is confused along with myself and this thought comes back into my head. “Is he embarrassed about being wrong in front of the whole class or is he upset that a black kid knew more than him and corrected him in front of a predominantly white class?” I then think to earlier in the class period when one of my group members, an Asian girl named Jenna, was trying to correct him about some of his calculations and he was being very dismissive and most certainly insulting her intelligence by asking questions like "Do you understand?" or "Why would you do that?" and again being wrong. I may be overthinking this and the situation may have nothing to do with my race but then the question is posed “Why should I ever have to think about my race being a factor?”  

Why is that when I walk into my lecture hall of 225+ students, and myself being one of a dozen black students, is it assumed that I don’t know what I’m talking about? Why doesn’t anyone who doesn’t look like me, ever ask me for help? The answer to this question poses an even bigger question and delves into a much larger topic but I digress. Simply put, why is it that when Barack Obama was elected his competency and his US citizenship was questioned? Why is it that whenever I hear jokes about BeyoncĂ© not being able to read or speak, I cringe a little? Why is that when I get a problem right in chemistry it upsets someone? When will black people be able to shine without others worrying about it dimming their own lights?


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