In 1775, Samuel Johnson made a quote famous when he declared “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel” as the American Revolutionary war was manifesting. It means when someone doesn’t have anything to show, they resort to a false self-profess claim of nationalism. Samuel Johnson's statement rings true well in the Black community in 2022 as we got a lot of scoundrels who rely on self-professing a Black identity claim instead of just being a true value creator in the modern economy. 

If we go back to 1770 when Crispus Attucks was recorded as the first person killed during the American Revolution uprisings. Crispus Attucks is not recorded as the “first Black person” in any history books – he is purely attributed as the first person to die fighting for the Revolution. Jean Baptiste Point DuSable is recorded as the first person to set up a trading post along Lake Michigan in 1780 that would turn into the city of Chicago. Jean Baptiste Point DuSable is not referred to as the “first Black person” – he is simply referred to as the founder of the city of Chicago. 

The “first Black” is a late 20th-century made-up trope designed by those who are desperate for some kind of history recognition relying on Black identity as the last resort of the scoundrel. True Black American History is based on true inventors, true trailblazers who innovated and created value from Elijah McCoy to George Washington Carver. There are several problems with the “first Black” trope that we have to take seriously in our Black community. 

First, there is no proof of “first Black” because, during the post-slavery reconstruction era, there was an explosion of innovation among early ADOS. Black people were learning new trades, new techniques during the Industrial Revolution including mass manufacturing. So there were Black people all over the country starting something that may not have been recorded properly in the history books in the early 1900s. 

Second, the term “first Black” is nothing but an uppity social contract proposal with Black people expecting us all to buy into it. No one in the Asian or Latino community gives a damn about the “first Black” only we Black people are supposed to care about who the “first Black” person is. Then we are supposed to attribute a person's name to that “first Black” as social programming within our own community so that person can be recognized and we are supposed to respect them.  

Then we saw the game – in reality, the “first Black” is really the first Black allowed to exist by White Privilege. For example, saying some Black person is the first Black executive at a racist corporation that now claiming they are DEI is not an accomplishment – that “first” Black person was likely a token sellout that White Privilege propped up. There was plenty of Black executive talent out there but they weren’t chosen, the token sellout was. Should the Black community celebrate that “first Black” stuff when this is what is really going on? 

In 2022, we are seeing a lot of Black folks running around screaming they are the “first Black” in a world of artificial intelligence and global economic opportunities. There was a dumbass story about a Black couple here in Georgia bragging they are the first Black-owned autonomous self-checkout store. Then you look at the video and see White people doing the shopping. Now think about it – how the hell does a first Black-owned autonomous store matter to the Black community when Black entrepreneurs have set up EBT shops over a decade ago to actually serve the community? 

There is a difference between being the “first Black” and actually creating value for Black people and the Black community. People who claim “first Black” are really chasing headlines and recognition and not really interested in delivering true value. This is what we are seeing nowadays, a lot of folks are just thirsty to be recognized and want to use the Black community as their backdrop to make the statement of being the “first Black” among us instead of actually creating real value that benefits others. And the reason these folks claim “first Black” is because they are mediocre. 

This is the year 2022 – did you know just about 20 years ago in the year 2000, China India, and even Korea were undeveloped countries with poor educational levels and no real infrastructure. We are talking squatting and shitting on the ground level of underdevelopment – you can look at some YouTube videos where Chinese folks in early 2000 were just shitting everywhere in their new urban cities because that’s what they were used to. There is an infamous video where some woman held her naked baby up while on an airplane flight and let the baby shit right on the airplane floor. That was 20 years ago the same period Black folks were advanced enough to elect Black mayors, drive Ford Expeditions and buy McMansions in Atlanta and Dallas. 

In those 20 years from 2000 to where we are at today when China was allowed into the World Trade Organization and South Korea created their first major international airport in Incheon and India started the outsourcing wave – their own nation became more than “firsts” – they built up modern infrastructure, established global trade lines and accelerated their middle and upper-class in the past 20 years and it only took them 10 years to manifest. South Korea is looking better than Japanese cities right now. China got megacities and built more highways and railways in the last 20 years than America has ever built in its entire existence. India taking jobs from brothas and sistas with their own call centers and outsourcing firms they expanded worldwide. Now we got Africans rising up, stealing Netflix movie roles from African-American actors. 

What I’m saying is the “first Black” don’t mean shit in 2022 – either you are on the competitive global stage producing value among a whole bunch of “firsts” from other nations or you are just another scoundrel using Black identity as the last place of refuge. I don’t see Mexican-Americans running around talking “first Hispanic” nor do I see the Asian or Indian community doing that either. I only see us Black folks running around talking about “first” in 2022 and we haven’t built up anything and our Black communities have been deteriorating ever since the 1970s. In fact, what the Hispanic and Asian community acknowledge is “first Asian/Hispanic generation” giving all of their people credit, not one or two special “firsts” like we do in the Black community. 

During Black History Month in February, we should tell all of these “first Black” clowns to go somewhere with that nonsense. The “first Black” crowd relies on us Black folks to accept that BS and we don’t do that anymore. If we do anything, we focus on our first generations of people. The first generation of Black folks to start sharecropping, the first generation of Black folks to move up North for the Great Migration – that’s our real focus because that’s our parents and ancestors and our history collectively. 

We should cancel this “first Black” stuff in 2022 and call these morons out that show up smiling still saying this “first Black” stuff. Instead, let’s celebrate mom and pops, grandma and grandpa and great-grandma and great-grandpa and what they accomplished as a first-generation, second-generation to get us to where we at today – that’s real Black history.