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Jonathan Christophe

Professor Kelco

ENG 101

28 Oct 2019

#Blackexcellence

Black excellence is a mindset, not just a hashtag. You could even say that black

excellence is a lifestyle. To try and minimize something so beautiful to a hashtag is disgraceful.

When you think about the hashtag of black excellence, it is often pointed towards famous black

people in the community. Maybe you think about Oprah or The Obamas or maybe Beyoncé.

Although these are some great black role models, they are not the only ones who can define

black excellence. It shouldn’t just focus on these big leaders and activists, but should focus on

regular black people embracing their excellence. Black people have an everyday excellence that

we all carry. The point that I am trying to reach is that the hashtag should be something that we

all as black people should embrace and not just use it for some celebrity that is well known.

When you search the hashtag black excellence on twitter, you’ll come across a variety of

black people in different areas, from different walks of life stating their accomplishments from

graduating high school, graduating college, or even getting that job in a super competitive field.

Those things aren’t technically what back excellence actually means. If you were to go down my

twitter feed, you’ll see that I will retweet and admire their take on black excellence because it is

always good to support your fellow race. Retweeting and admiring true black excellence makes

my day. Twitter actually seems to have a place for us black people and we refer to it as “Black

Twitter.” Black Twitter is kind of like a home away from home. We know that as black people,

we have a culture that not everyone is able to understand and partake in. We post, like, and
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retweet these tweets about our childhood and the things our parents or grandparents used to say

and tell us. It’s a whole community for us as black people and that is a form of black excellence.

Using Black Twitter as a way of seeing everyone talk about black excellence is very

heartwarming to me because I am a black man living in a white-dominated society. Therefore

when the white man does a simple task it is going to take me, a black man, twice as hard to get it

done. Now if you were to go to another social media platform such as Instagram, you would not

see as much black excellence and that due to Instagram being whitewashed and mainly white-

dominated. For example on twitter one use will post one-to-four pictures and say “I graduated

top of my class”, “I have over 20,000 dollars in scholarships” and “I graduated with a 3.8 GPA

and going into med school”. However, on Instagram, it would just be a simple post with “I

graduated” the two are not the same, and seeing that we are in 2019 there is a sign that it will not

be changing any time soon. I am not saying that there needs to be a change in where black

excellence is being shown at but I am however saying that there are many ways to be black and

excellent in this society.

I believe black excellence is more than those big moments like graduations or elections,

black excellence in everyday life. It’s not just the educated business owners and those who excel

in their fields, it’s the single mother who has three kids in school and works two jobs to support

those kids. Black excellence is the felon who is trying to do better for himself and his family, it’s

everyone who has tried to make their dreams a reality but failed, and it’s the people who are

living paycheck to paycheck. We can’t just use this term when talking about certain people in the

black community because we are all examples of black excellence. Black excellence as a

mindset can make us believe that perfection is necessary. It can make us believe that there is no

room for error or failure but when in reality, failure is necessary for us to grow. Failure is not a
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bad thing but it is often seen as a bad thing in the black community. This comes from our

historical view of black excellence and exceptionalism in black culture.

Throughout the 20th century, there was a goal to rewrite the narrative in regards to what

it meant to be black. According to Steven Underwood at Essence “W.E.B. DuBois himself

submitted a case for the “Talented Tenth,” a population within the African-American community

who should be afforded the opportunity to become educators and leaders” (Underwood). This

goes back to what I mentioned earlier, black excellence cannot only be a certain amount of the

black community, it should be the entire community. During this time we were fighting to

become contributing members of society and this meant taking advantage of everything America

had to offer. Underwood goes on to talk about becoming a part of the Talented Tenth meant a

separation from other black. The separation was between success and failure. Underwood states

“failure within Blackness typically meant an inability to capture a sense of whiteness – a sense

that you can be of gain or a challenge to whiteness” (Underwood). As a black man Thus

definition holds true because I see it every day. Not a day goes by where I don’t see or hear a

black person being compared to their white counterparts. These comparisons have altered our

idea of success as something for only one race when success is possible for everyone.

I also believe that black excellence can have multiple definitions depending on who

you’re asking. As a result, I asked my diverse group of friends what they thought black

excellence was. My friend Deja who is mixed with black and white and has two homosexual

dads defined it as “Black folks succeeding and achieving all things in greatness.” My friend

Aleisha, a black woman who identifies as a lesbian defined it as “African Americans rising above

stereotypes & striving for consistent and irrefutable success.” My friend Mikayla, a black

heterosexual woman defined it as “Black people doing great things showing people that “we can
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do that too.” My friend May, a white, heterosexual woman with a black boyfriend defines it as

“Black folks being great, succeeding and reaching achievements just as well or even better than

others who discriminate.” My friend Sage, a black, non-binary person defines it as “An attitude

and or achievements that reflect progression within society as black people that contradicts the

negative stereotypes that diminish the black community.” Last, but definitely not least, my friend

Bell, a homosexual, Vietnamese man defined black excellence as “Black people doing great

things and being recognized for their accomplishments. Whether it is from receiving an award,

contributing to a community, and changing society. It’s the recognition that black people CAN

achieve higher and CAN do great things, further motivating other black people to strive for

greatness.”

In conclusion, there are many different definitions of black excellence. Although we

immediately think of those success stories, there is black excellence exemplified in some of our

struggles. There is beauty in the journey to our success and there is even beauty if failure. Failure

allows us to grow and to learn from the things we have done which is fundamental. Black

excellence is more than just a hashtag, it’s a mindset, lifestyle, movement, and culture. This is

what our ancestors dreamed about and what they fought for. Black excellence is every black

person working together for the advancement of our community. We as a community have an

everyday excellence that we carry so beautifully and that can never be taken from us because we

are everything.

Sources:

Underwood, Steven. “Opinion: Is Black Excellence Killing Us?” Essence, ESSENCE, 21 Aug.

2019, https://www.essence.com/amp/op-ed/is-black-excellence-killing-us/.
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