Barry M.,
Canada.
Whether at work, in school, in a neighbourhood… especially a new one you moved to, as a Black person, especially as a Black man your acceptance is conditional. Your every mistake is taken as a reason you do not belong. When you do right no one notices. Anyone is allowed to make negative comments about you and assign socio-politcal meaning (almost always negative) to your clothes, hair, personality, foods you eat, how you walk etc. If you do not fit in the pigeon hole for “one of the good ones” then you are tossed in the other pile. You are labeled in some negative way and any negative feelings are automatically validated if you do anything seen as “wrong” whether or not others are allowed to get away with such things.
The “condition” of acceptance is what ever those with power in the given setting consider perfection.
