Musings: Black Exceptionalism

“Black exceptionalism is used to silence other blacks who try to challenge racism, because if one rich black person can achieve, then so can everyone else. And if people aren’t rich or successful or ‘making it’, it’s because they are lazy and it is their own damn fault. Exceptionalism, black or female, has no critique or analysis of institutional racism or sexism, of economic violence, of opportunities denied through social injustice. It’s the fascist side of the self-empowerment movement. Just think positively, believe in yourself. True words: but a woman who makes seventy cents to every dollar a man makes for doing the same job doesn’t need a lecture on self-esteem. She needs an end to gender inequality.”

- Max S. Gordon