"Is California A Sunken Place For Black People?"

"California’s stance on what I always perceived to be progressive multiracial liberalism has limits that are quietly anti-black and perplexing. I’ve found that many black people actively subdue their black identity and highlight their other racial or cultural identities instead. A black coworker of mine informed me that their 10-year-old child just found out that they were black. When I asked how that was possible, I was told that California’s education system stresses multicultural colorblindness, to the extent that it’s completely normal for a black child not to “see” their own race...

Throughout California, most universities only have an average black population of 3 percent. This is alarming considering that California is home to the fifth largest black population nationwide. It’s also shocking because it’s a stark contrast from the on screen well-educated and rich characters of Think Like a Man, Being Mary Jane, Love & Basketball, etc. But it makes sense given that the University of California regents abolished race as a factor for consideration for college admission in 1995, resulting in an instant plummet in black student enrollment...

California’s has a horrific history of white supremacy. Immigration bans against Chinese and Mexicans? Check. Government-sponsored relocation of Japanese Americans? Yup. KKK-led reigns of terroragainst black vets seeking better housing? You got it. “Sundown towns,” small towns with policies stating that blacks weren’t allowed in public after dusk, were a fact of life for black residents from Hawthorne to the East Bay in the early twentieth century. Given this history, my daunting conversations with black Californians about racial identity and success should come as no surprise."

https://blavity.com/california-a-sunken-place-for-black-people?utm_content=buffere3e19&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

THIS IS SO ACCURATE TO MY CALIFORNIA CHILDHOOD.

California blackness isn't a thing, we are all subsumed by the white liberalism. History is aggressively ignored, denied, not taught. 

I love my state, but there isn't a place of safety to grow up a black child.

(also, still haven't seen Get Out because I know it's going to be too real) 

Related: Palo Alto racism; staring into the sun (because there is something here about the mysticism of California sun)

FB: well this is super real. California is a case study for the disaster of performative color blindness