We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2025
Between me and the [white] world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.
Black girls and black women are problems. That is not the same thing as causing problems. We are social issues to be solved, economic problems to be balanced, and emotional baggage to be overcome.
I own a book titled, The Morality of Gay Rights and another titled, What's Wrong with Homosexuality? As of this writing, amazon.com does not sell any books called either “The Morality of Heterosexual Rights” or “What's Wrong with Heterosexuality?”
Problems are part of the human condition and every individual has them, but our problems don't come down only to our individual experiences or our basic humanity. As suggested throughout this book, many of our problems stem from being denied the benefit of the doubt and grappling with bad-faith treatment. There is, however, more to say about the relationship between problems and systemic inequality. In this chapter, I consider three aspects of this relationship: the distinction between having a problem and being a problem, the question of who is held responsible for dealing with particular problems, and the way in which victim-blaming emerges from and reinforces inequality.
Having a Problem vs. Being a Problem
Whether someone in a difficult situation is understood as having a problem or as being a problem is a particular kind of moral alchemy, one in which we tend to have compassion for the person who “has” the problem while judging the person who “is” the problem. When someone “has” a problem, we help them if possible; when someone “is” a problem, we control them if possible.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
