Acting White: No Look Handshake and Other Secret Black Greetings

Black people never know if their invisibility has to do with an unwillingness of whites to see them or white people’s inability to see anyone, down their perceived totem pole. The only way for me to know this would be to secretly watch to see if they ignore their fellow whites similar to the way they ignore blacks. For the record, I believe when you are the top dog you are going to naturally have problems ‘seeing’ others, as they simply are not important to you and there is no penalty for your ignorance. This is the same mindset I summon on rare occasion when I have to run a gauntlet in Berkeley, the panhandling capital of California.

So this is where some people, President Obama as lead exception, score high. They see people that their station says should be invisible. Obama sees people very well, but especially black people, both before and after he won office. He reaches out in a myriad of ways, a nod, a handshake, a pat, a point, a wave, or a rare bump, and these people will forever remember that tingle of specialness because he gifted them with an instant of his mind share. “The leader of the free world thought about me for a split second. Yep, I’m special.”

Now I have certainly noticed that in countries where blacks are the majority these greetings diminish. This behavior would only insure that no one ever reach their destination on time. And perhaps this behavior with whites, where they are the majority, is more for expediency rather than subjugation – I’m sure this would be George Bush’s excuse. But as people wonder about all this black-on-black signaling, they should understand that it is a direct descendant of the memory of institutional hostility. In a sea of frowns, we seek out a smile.

Finally, contrast this with the hub-bub made when Michelle Obama touched the back of Queen Elizabeth AFTER the Queen extended her arm to Ms. Obama's back, at their meeting of the G-20 this week. You would have thought she popped the old lady's bra strap or something.

"No-one - including the ladies-in-waiting standing nearby - could believe their eyes. In 57 years, the Queen has never been seen to make that kind of gesture and it is certainly against all protocol to touch her.

'But she didn't seem to mind a bit and was smiling and joking throughout,' the eyewitness said", noted the Daily Mail media outlet.



Perhaps the Windsors will try a fist-bump in the privacy of their Buckingham Palace apartment, later.

James C. Collier

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