Dear Dean Magazine: September 2023

M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N
D R . M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N
This action plays out every time there is a “Black first” —
Astronaut, principle dancer, senator, mayor, CEO,
university president, coach, franchise owner, sports team
owner, NASCAR racer, and, yes, President and Vice
President.
We are chastised about being too happy, and celebrating
too loudly and with too much energy. We are cautioned,
warned, and even find ourselves kicked out of our
children’s graduation ceremonies when we cheer — and
our kids are even denied their degrees when they cheer
their own accomplishment.
When we’re dancing alone or in groups, when we’re
laughing joyfully in public, when our kids are celebrating in
school.. here comes the negative nabobs of negativism to
try to shut us down.
How miserable it must be to express misery at other folk’s
joy.
Now imagine you are Black and you have all that negative
attention and energy directed at you, your family and
friends, and your kids.
All the time. Every day. And for any reason that the
average person would find joyful — if the joy was being
expressed by almost anyone else who isn’t Black.
It is saddening, maddening, debilitating, and exhausting
for us, our children, our elders, and all of the Black
diaspora who live in and who visit this nation.
Can you imagine any people in the world so insecure in
their own selves that they actively work to stop a minority
group from having and expressing any type of joy or
happiness?
When our athletes celebrate they are penalized in almost
every sport — rules were created to stifle and penalize our
celebrations in baseball, football, tennis, basketball, and
any other sport we find ourselves in. The owners of the
leagues and the networks that pay them — owned by white
men — dedicate time, resources, and money to stop Black
folk from having fun.
It is critical to note that Indigenous, Latino, Hispanic, and
other non-white brown people experience similar vitriol
for expressing and sharing joy and jubilation. Jerry
Seinfeld dedicated an episode on his former show making
fun of the fact how much he hates New York’s Puerto
Rican Day parade- the largest parade in the city and one
that has celebrated the nation’s 5 million Puerto Ricans
for decades.
And cable news attacked Mexican-Americans who
cheered the Mexico national team when they played the
US Men’s team at the L.A. Coliseum in 2011.
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2023 | p.11