Actors Open Letter To Zimmerman Lesson in Black Male Victimization

"Dear George Zimmerman, for the rest of your life you are now going to feel what it’s like to be a black man in America. You will feel people stare at you. Judging you for what you think are unfair reasons. You will lose out on getting jobs for something you feel is outside your control. You will believe yourself to be an upstanding citizen and wonder why people choose not to see that”.

“People will cross the street when they see you coming. They will call you hurtful names. It will drive you so insane that you’ll want to scream at the top of your lungs. But you will have to wake up the next day put on firm look and push through life”.

“I bet you never thought that by shooting a black man you’d end up inheriting his struggles. Enjoy your “freedom.” Sincerely, a black male who could have been Trayvon Martin”.

As a black man in my 40's I have seen and heard my share of the black victim mentality. However I must  say that a letter to George Zimmerman penned by an obscure actor has taken it to a new level. Actor Lance Gross' open letter-which decries the struggles of being a black man in America- has been quite a sensation on the Internet. The fact that so many have applauded it is most disturbing to me.  Mr. Gross who grew up in Oakland  California complains about people who "stare at him" and "cross the street when they see you coming". What is most interesting is this lament is in stark contrast to what one would here from an African Immigrant for instance. The foreign born black has had the advantage of not growing up listening to the 'nobody knows the trouble I've seen" narrative of Jesse Jackson. The black male victim fails to understand that the solution to his problem lies between his ears. If one sees him or herself as a victim then that is what he or she will be. This letter is wrought with Irony: a black man from Oakland-one of the most violent crime ridden cities in America bellowing about racism from the larger white society that. This overly dramatic self defeating thoughts that plague black men and women alike often leads to the very negative results we see.

I would even go as far to say that much of what Mr. Gross writes is nothing more than his own racial delusions. Does racism exist? of course, however the content of Mr. Gross' letter does not in my view address it.  How could it be that a 32 year old black man born in the 1980's has the sensibilities of someone who lived through the Jim Crow south in the 1950's? Mr. Gross and his generation were programmed to feel this way by the civil rights industry and to that I say to them: Job well done.