Are You A “Sell-Out”?
What is a sell out? People throw the word around so freely with very little thought as to its exact meaning. Not too long ago Clutch took a look at the “Oreo,” which is apparently more than just two yummy chocolate biscuits separated by white creamy filling.
This issue, we’d like to examine the “sell-out.” We often hear the term used when referring to interracial couples, typically of the Ebony & Ivory variety as well as black people who have interests, lifestyles and/or any other traits that deviate from stereotypical African American customs.
In many ways, the “Oreo” and “sell-out” are synonymous, as the former are condemned for their ‘whiteness’ being sandwiched by a chocolaty façade. Oddly enough, the small percentage of Black folks who dig Nascar, monster truck racing, death metal music, or any other stereotypical “ultra white” activities are rarely mistaken for the tasty Nabisco snack (perhaps because they’re widely ignored).
Clutch’s Risa Dixon put us on to the very meaning of the antiquated slur:
[An Oreo is] A black person who is regarded as having adopted the attitudes, values and behavior thought to be characteristics of middle class white society, often at the expense of his or her own heritage.
And it don’t quit. It’s the classic polarization of Black & White; the vile versus the virtuous. How tragic is it that we live in a day and age when our entire culture is viewed as embracing ignorance, poverty, and narrow-mindedness, as if every culture on the planet doesn’t lay claim to a segment of those who are less fortunate? So, what is a sell-out? Is it an individual who dares to ignore dreadful stereotypes that have bombarded our culture for centuries, or simply a modern day Uncle Tom who upholds the illusion of African inferiority?
It would seem as though there is a difference between a sell-out and a person who freely pursues interests and activities irrespective of cultural mores. Sadly, the history of Africans in the new world is one absent of deep cultural roots, resulting in our identity being assembled from the insane blueprint of our oppressed heritage. Situations tend to get rather turbulent as we struggle to redefine ourselves. It’s no wonder that folks fear having their “Black Card” revoked when making the even the slightest deviation from the unwritten rules of blackness.
If an African American enjoys a wide variety of music, regardless of the artists’ origin, does that make him/her a sell-out? What about a brother or sister who prides themselves on speaking grammatically correct English, subscribes to a lifestyle geared towards academic success, or loves to partake in cold-weather sports? Perhaps it is these individuals who are actually in the process of redefining what it means to be African American.
All knowing Wikipedia (wink-wink) defines sell-out as:
The compromising of one’s integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, ‘success’ (however defined) or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society. A person who does this, as opposed to continuing along his or her original path, is labeled a sellout and typically regarded with disgust and immediate loss of respect. Selling out is often seen as gaining success at the cost of credibility.
Why do so many black folks lose respect for an another who chooses to indulge in their inalienable right to ‘do them,’ especially when it’s not at the expense of others’ well-being? Perhaps the label “sell-out” should be reserved for those who personify the term. Russell Simmons has been accused of selling out due to his love of non-black women, despite the fact that he’s one of the few black celebs who is always involved in efforts to enhance African American life. On the other hand, fellows such as Ward Connerly, Clarence Thomas and Alan Keyes actively work to do the opposite – which is why those cats are “sell-outs” in every sense of the term.
Next time you’re witness to someone accusing another of being a “sell-out,” try asking that person to articulate how the alleged traitor’s behavior is compromising his/her integrity, or the integrity of his/her people. In the words of Spike Lee: “That’s one of the frailties of the human condition-people fear that which is not familiar.” In all likelihood, the time will come when we are all familiar with living outside the limitations of bigotry – if you look closely, you’ll see that those seeds are being planted every single day.
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HAHAHAH! THIS TICKLES ME. MY DAUGHTER NAME IS ORIANA..I NIC-NAME HER ‘OREO’ BC SHE IS MY COOKIE! BUT EVEN DEEPER BC SHE IS AN ARRAY OF COLORS, HERTITAGE, AND BEYOND ANYONES JUDGEMENT-SO SHE IS QUITE THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WAS LISTED. I AM FROM THE VIRGIN ISLAND, MY FAMILY IS FROM PHILLIPINES, PUERTO RICO, DOMINICA, AFRICA, LONDON, AND HER DAD IS FROM THE SOUTH…AND MAYBE MORE MIXED IN THERE THAN I REALLY KNOW…BUT SHE IS THE PERFECT BROWN SUGAR. WHEN SHE WALKS INTO A ROOM NOBODY WILL GUESS SHE IS SO FLAVORFUL, BUT THEY WILL WONDER. I WILL ENCOURAGE HER AS MY MOTHER ENCOURAGE ME TO LIKE WHAT I LIKE! BE WHO I WANNA BE! AND REACHING FOR THE STARS IS GREAT BC YOU TAKE EVERY THING, EVERYONE YOU STAND FOR BEYOND THE WALLS ..BEING GREAT INSPIRE OTHERS TO BE GREATER! SO HOW CAN YOU ‘SELLING-OUT’, BC THAT WOULD INDICATE BEING BLACK EQUALS BEING HELD BACK, WHEN IN FACT THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESSSSSSS!
IF MJ WAS A SELL-OUT..ALL YALL AZZEZ THAT WEAR WEAVES ARE SELLOUTS! A SELL OUT IS NOT WANTING TO CHANGE THE OUTSIDE..ITS ABOUT THE INSIDE OF A PERSON. AND ITS NOT A BLK OR WHT THING! ITS NOT WHO YOU CHOOSE TO MARRY OR WERA YOU PLAN TO LIVE..OR ANY OF THAT MESS EVEN THOUGH ITS CONSTANTLY USED WHEN SOMEONE HURT THEY AZZEZ STILL AT A STANDSTILL WHILE EVERYONE ELSE IS MOVING FORWARD! A SELL-OUT IS SOMEONE WHO ACTION DOESNT MATCH HIS/HER WORDS. JESSE JACKSON NOW THATS A MF SELL-OUT! U DONT HAVE TO VOTE FOR WHO I VOTE FOR OR DO SO BC HE IS BLK, BUT YOU SHOULD KEEP UR FEELINGS TO URSELF, BC BOTTOM LINE IS GOOD OR BAD IT WAS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION FOR THE BLK COMMUNITY. AFTER ALL THEM YRS DDEICATED TO LIFTING BLKS UP, DIRECTING THEM, FIGHTING FOR OUR RIGHTS…HE SOLD OUT THINKING HE HAD A RIGHT TO SPEAK SO NEGATIVE AGAINST OBAMA (EVEN BEHIND CAMERAS).
Do European Americans have a cookie?
I wonder why it was necessary to describe a behavior in the American environment?
Does the word describe a behavior accurately?
Is there a war of race rality going on everyday? And who is aware of the soldiers who are fighting and what are they fighting for? How many people know who the enemy? And does the enemy fight with pictures and wrds everyday? Does the enemy have a think tank working 24/7 or is war a natural reality in America?
Yes, I would like to know what the European American cookie is? Like German, Italian,English,French, Etc…. sounds like a cookie in there some where or are we the only one who is a cookie… That breaks down like a cracker?
Nyota- I agree with what your saying about everyone having issues with the looks. I don’t mean to stir the pot again, but if you look at Michael’s older pictures, he’s always had a cleft chin. It just got more pronounced when he got older. And he wore lace front weaves after the early nineties.
Brandi- ITA about Alan Keyes :/
[...] Are You A Sell-Out? [Clutch] [...]
@ halima, that was deep about the weaves! I’m not saying I agree or disagree but it made me think, especially in the context of people bashing MJ for his plastic surgeries. I don’t think MJ was a sellout either. He had self hatred but I don’t think he had hatred toward the black community. His issues ran deep and I think his development stunted as a result of being robbed of his childhood. I think that’s where a lot of his “wacky” actions stemmed from – it’s like he had the mind of a child in some ways. Well that, and the media making him out to be a horrible monster, where really he was just always looking for love & acceptance.. and a lost childhood. A sellout though? Hell no. MJ donated $300 MILLION to charities in his lifetime, many of them doing work in Africa.
I don’t really think of the term sellout in terms of race. I think of it as a loss or absense of integrity and social responsiblity.
Halima- you dumb ignorant fool wearing a weave does not make someone a sell-out.
Hair extensions is a like an accessory it enchances your beauty like dying your hair or polishing your nails. Black people are our worse enemies. Only our own people would take wearing hair extensions and make it negative. Halima you are the sell out for making that dumb-azz comment.
Hmmm…
Can someone please explain to me why people think that Wayne Brady is a sellout? I have never quite understood that.
Toya, i was wondering the same thing!?!?!?!? y???? what did he do? I like him he is cute and funny!
“Is Wayne Brady going to have a choke a…”
I just think that the showtunes, dancing and singing. It just didn’t come off as manly. Then add to that he had an Asian Wife. I guess people brought in all of the worst stereotypes of a man that doesn’t want to be around Black people.
Honestly. Until he did the Chappelle show. I guess I was in that camp also. That was the first time I started to look at him as a performer. Shallow but true.
black people who demean themselves and assimilate their cultures are sell-outs to me. Michael Jackson, may he rest in peace, was indeed, a sellout. He let the black community raise him up to superstardom and what did he show for it? Extreme cosmetic procedures, his mysteriously totally white children, his always white significant others. People who get their cake from the black community, take it and run with it are indeed sellouts. Not to mention how they look back and laugh at what they left, watch it crumble and do nothing to save it.
Black people do have self image issues when it comes to our hair.
Don’t deny it.
To me selling out is a refusal to accept who you are, and where you come from in hopes of being accepted into another culture, as well as intenionally playing to stereotypes.
MJ was a sell out for having slef hate issues and changing himself physically, no way I believe that vitiligo is solely responisble for his skin color, permed hair, nose job, and chin job.
At the same time there are a lot of people out there who are sell out cause they play up stereotypes and negative images to sell to other cultures, namely these hardcore rappers who are going on 50 and still talking that street mess knowing that the consumer is white.
Black Republicans are sell outs cause they will not acknowledge racial issues in politics when it is thrusted on to the scene by their white counter parts, just because they want to be apart of the GOP.
I dont think you can no longer be called a sell out for acting white but for being white.
As a black caribbean, living in UK, I hate the term sell-out. It often seems that if you dont speak ‘ghetto slang’ and you have aspirations to do a lot with your life then your seen to be selling out. I say that because iv been called that before. We call it ‘bounty’ here, as in the bounty chocolate bars, brown on the outside, white inside…
Iv been called it for these reasons: I was raised an educated in a mainly white dominated area (which wasnt easy at all), I speak a high level of English, clearly pronounced and understandable. I travel globally and try foods outside of my own culture.
However, where people fail to understand my roots are that most holidays, I journey back to Jamaica, stay with my nan in the sticks and spend weeks at a time with her (which I can only afford to do because I work damn hard to have the cash!) I cook plenty of Jamaican food in my own house and listening to RnB, reggae music is my primary pastime. My peers are largely of black culture and we attend events aimed at people of black origin within the UK. I am aware of my roots, I embrace them and incorporate them into my middle class lifestyle. I enjoy having so much colour to my household and my life.
So does that make me a sell-out? No, I have the best of both, a black man by my side who is happy with the knowledge that one day we will raise our children to embrace their black culture whilst enjoying the fruits of our labour.
This is a great article. I wanted to comment on some of the Wayne Brady comments. It’s interesting that people would feel his interest of show tunes and singing and dancing as some form of “Selling out”.
I’m an African American woman who spent most of her young years in dramatic theater and musical theater. The first time I came across Wayne Brady on Whose Line Is It Anyways? was a breath of fresh air to me because it was rare you saw a Black person taking part in off the cuff theater sports and entertainment on television. It was also great to see the man had real talent; his singing voice is superb.
It troubling that, because this falls outside of what some Black people would see as “black activity” or “Black behavior” that he would be seen as a sell out. The man has a love an talent of music and theater. Doesn’t mean he’s a sell-out to his race. I think his cameo on the Chapelle Show was a very smart professional move because it proved he wasn’t just some “song and dance sell-out”, but that he was a performer. It’s just sad that it’s only a certain type of performance that some African Americans can find respectful.
I think, at times, if the performance or type of performance falls outside of what a lot of Black people know they automatically label those that do know it as sell outs.
I once stood in line in front of a Black man and hummed along to a Bob Dylan song playing overhead. He told me “You need to be re-conditioned”, insinuating that because I’m black I’m a “sell out to my race” because I listen to different styles of music. My response to him was that he needed to learn to condition himself to everything the world has to offer because staying in a racially isolated box of knowledge is selling yourself out.
These are EXACTLY the same kind of questions I have! Well-written, insightful article. I would like to link this page to our site (at The Pantheon Collective). Coincidentally, I have an upcoming book called “Sellout” and it explores issues similar to what’s discussed in this article. You can find a blurb of it here: http://www.pantheoncollective.com/?page_id=29
Thanks for your time and hope to hear from you soon!