Is this news to you?

Every now and then some news story will remind me that my black experience isn’t everyone’s experience.

Such is the case with U.S. incomes reveal racial divide over at CNN.com.

The story touches on the fact that income levels for black men have declined in the past three decades and income levels for whites have increased more than those of blacks. Oh and this stat jumped out and grabbed a bitch…one in three blacks from middle income families make more than their parents while two-thirds from white families make more than their parents.

Now, this bitch gets the fact that there are people out there who are so entrenched in their gated communities built on a foundation of white flight that the income race divide may actually be news to them (mercy), but there is an underlying angle of surprise in this examination that gets my back up.

I can’t help but wonder if folks think some black communities are struggling because we like to struggle.

Blink.

Mention the income disparity in casual conversation and odds are there would be an automatic knee jerk assumption that black people must not work as hard, be as smart or clever or have as much ambition…all assumptions built on the skillfully maintained stereotype of the lazy, ignorant and in need of the white man’s guidance simple minded black person.

The reality…which came as no surprise to this bitch…is that grown black children are just as likely as whites to have higher incomes than our parents but the income of our white counterparts has increased more than our income.

That shit ain’t news and a bitch isn’t exactly thrilled that people require a study from the Brookings Institution to grant black people the benefit of the doubt when we say that the motherfucking playing field isn’t and hasn’t been level.

Shit.

This matters big time, because public policy needs to reflect what really is not some flawed perception of what is. Communities need adequate schooling but current funding systems result in separate and unequal education. We need programs in place to address and prevent workplace discrimination, but policy makers have to admit it exists and then agree that it’s wrong. And society needs to acknowledge that single parent homes need and deserve support through programs that empower rather than humiliate.

But here I am reading what I already know to be true and feeling the same way my ass did when I tried to explain why being profiled by the police when shopping while black isn’t fucking understandable.

Ugh!

Holla then throw up both your hands…