Automatic Misconception of Black Identity in Society

 Danielle Robinson  

Professor Jaleesa Harris  

ENGL 2017  

30 April 2023 

 

Automatic Misconception of Black Identity in Society 

 

In society African Americans are the most misunderstood. People tend to have this automatic misconception. The lack of knowledge of African American history is the root of the problem. It is either swept under the rug or covered up. Deep down the problem is still there. Every day, we are automatically misjudged as dumb, angry, ignorant, unhuman, dependent on the system etc. We are expected to stay in this small box but when we do not it becomes a problem.   

At the beginning of A Different Drummer, they talked about the “African blood.” They believed it is something in African Americans' blood that drives the way we act. Angry, bitter, unhuman. The story of the African is a prime example of faulty thinking of how we are perceived. He was exaggerated to be this horrible, inhumane man. “So that’s probably what folks hereabouts did; take the African, who must-a been pretty big and strong to start and make him even big and stronger” (Kelley 9). Tucker destroying everything linked to suffrage of his family lineage was in his “blood” also. “But the way I see it, it’s pure genetics: something special in the blood. And if anybody in this world got something special in his blood, his name is Tucker Caliban'' (Kelley 8). With lack of knowledge and understanding they were automatically deemed as inhuman. Tired of being stuck in a system that is made to belittle and strip you of your own identity, it lights a fire inside of you. The African and Tucker show that.  

As I stated before, society puts blacks in this small box. We are seen as dependent on the system that constantly goes against us. They expect us to accept it because we have been repressed for so long. The mass exodus in A Different Drummer displays this well. All the African Americans deciding to leave the South and migrate North started a turmoil. The white population in the town did not know how to understand the fact that the black people were not dependent on them anymore. “None of them had a reference point on which to fix the concept of a Negro-less world” (Kelley 188). They felt they were owed an explanation. The blacks decided to free themselves from the bondage the South trapped them in.  

Lastly, the main misconception of black people in society is lack of intelligence.  The level of respect is low because we are seen as ignorant. The men on the porch in A Different Drummer believed Tucker was not able to start this major revolution because of his lack of education. “Did you believe that? Did you really believe that? You really think Tucker Caliban was smart enough to start all of what we got on our hands” (Kelley 192). African Americans must fight daily to show that we are more than capable. We have made progress over the years of proving the misconceptions wrong but there is still work to do.