Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards Dinner

President Obama speaks of his Administration's work to deliver on his campaign promises and reaffirms his Administration's commitment to restoring the economy and creating new jobs during remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards Dinner. September 18, 2010.

President Obama addresses the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and tells Black leaders they must motivate the African American base to turn this November.  Even in 2008, while all other ethnic groups voted in larger numbers than previous Presidential elections or any election, the African American voter base had minimal gains in terms of turn out. Then if you compare it to voter turnout in terms of various voting groups, it was even more dismal. Therefore, how can anyone expect the African American vote to be any different or more impressive than it was in 2008 with no Barack Obama on the ballot. So as November approaches, nationally, I would be shocked if African American voted at about 30% considering how we didn't even vote at 50% in 2008 for the first African American President in our nation's history.

The Talented Tenth and What It Means Today?

I received an email a couple of weeks ago regarding the Detroit elections but within the email, it spoke about the Talented Tenth and Black Greek Life. Just read the email below:

Dear Greekdom in Detroit,

These are members of Black Greek-Lettered Organizations seeking the offices of the Detroit City Council and the Detroit Charter Commission. Please render your support to encourage the Talented 10th and their representation into Detroit politics.
1. Alberta Tinsley-Talabi (Detroit City Council) Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
2. Andre Spivey – (Detroit City Council) Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
3. David Cross – (Detroit City Council) Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
4. Elliott Hall – (Detroit City Council) Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
5. Freeman Hendrix – (Detroit Charter Commission) Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
6. Janice Mitchell Ford (Detroit Charter Commission) Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
7. John Johnson – (Detroit Charter Commission) Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
8. Ken Harris – (Detroit Charter Commission) Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
9. Sara Lile (Detroit Charter Commission) Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
10.Teola Hunter (Detroit Charter Commission) Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Please support the following men and woman of Historically Black-Greek Lettered Organizations by voting on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at the polls and/or through absentee ballots.

Now this isn’t the first time, I have heard someone refer to the Talented 10th and Black Greek Lettered Organizations as one or at least imply it to a certain degree. Therefore it made me wonderful what the talented tenth really is. So here is what I found out about the talented tenth because originally it was an argument between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois over what would be the best way for blacks to lead themselves into the future.

Booker T. Washington, educator, reformer and the most influential black leader of his time (1856-1915) preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accommodation. He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. He believed in education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills and the cultivation of the virtues of patience, enterprise and thrift. This, he said, would win the respect of whites and lead to African Americans being fully accepted as citizens and integrated into all strata of society.

W.E.B. Du Bois, a towering black intellectual, scholar and political thinker (1868-1963) said no--Washington's strategy would serve only to perpetuate white oppression. Du Bois advocated political action and a civil rights agenda (he helped found the NAACP). In addition, he argued that social change could be accomplished by developing the small group of college-educated blacks he called "the Talented Tenth:"

At the time, the Washington/Du Bois dispute polarized African American leaders into two wings--the 'conservative' supporters of Washington and his 'radical' critics. The Du Bois philosophy of agitation and protest for civil rights flowed directly into the Civil Rights movement which began to develop in the 1950's and exploded in the 1960's. Booker T. today is associated, perhaps unfairly, with the self-help/colorblind/Republican/Clarence Thomas/Thomas Sowell wing of the black community and its leaders. The Nation of Islam and Maulana Karenga's Afrocentrism derive too from this strand out of Booker T.'s philosophy. However, the latter advocated withdrawal from the mainstream in the name of economic advancement.

So if we look any further the real question is has the talented tenth already arrived with Obama or is it still a dream deferred? Michele Battle Fisher said, “I, along with many citizens, listened with great anticipation to hear President Obama’s speech to the combined Congressional assembly on February 24, 2009. His eloquence was apparent, but I had another issue in mind. How can others in the black community find venues to voice concerns to such a captive audience as he? Perhaps if WEB Dubois were still with us today, he would shout to the rafters “the talented tenth has arisen!” The idea of the “Talented Tenth” espouses that there will be a select number of leaders of color who will serve as the rhetors of the black nation.”

They will be articulate.
Obama-check.
They will have the best education offered and the capacity to think and express.
Obama-check.
They will be given the credibility by others to assume such a position.
Historic election- check.

Still today’s discussion of the Talented 10th and DuBois’ writing, “Conservation of Races” was a very interesting one. Dubois offered a response to the previous philosophers’ belief’s that blacks had not made a significant contribution to society, as well as the history of humankind. DuBois’ response to this belief was that the future would be based on the forth coming contribution of blacks. DuBois’ arguments were based on the idea that in order for blacks to make this contribution, it is important that African Americans not assimilate but rather develop black owned, operated, and separate institutions. This idea supports his stance that it is on the shoulders of blacks alone to advance the race and make a contribution. This I feel has been a common stance for African American leaders throughout history and today, an idea that I fully support.

I don’t think that it is necessary to be completely separate as a race, but I do think that in order to make any real changes, that race must be at the forefront of the movement. This is true for all other movements whether based on race, class, gender, or sexual orientation; that group has to lead the movement. Unlike DuBois, I think that all members of the group should have a voice and can actively participate in the movement. DuBois deemed the blacks in America as the ‘Talented Tenth’ that would be responsible for the advancement and contribution of the Black Diaspora. While the times and nature of society has changed since DuBois published this article, I feel that some still share his belief. I have been commonly taught that DuBois meant the Talented Tenth to be the upper echelon, elite Blacks. This interpretation is what I continue to see today. The most educated, the wealthiest, and the most “advanced” of any group are looked up to and deemed responsible for the entire group. Some would see this as meaning members of Black Letter Greek Organizations.

However the contributions of African Americans are range widely; traffic lights, automatic gear shift, the electric trolley, and air conditioner! But other contributions have shaped the arts, music, and culture of not only black America but America as a whole. The sources of these contributions are not limited to what we consider the “Talented Tenth” of African Americans; they include uneducated and poor African Americans. What we consider to be important in our society has determined what we consider to be valuable contributions, and who we consider to be productive members of our society. The talented tenth idea perpetuates the idea that those uneducated and poor members of our society are not making valuable contributions to society but history in itself proves otherwise.

There is even a bigger problem that makes this talented tenth discussion even more interesting and relevant today considering the conditions of the black community. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West wrote an article for the Black Collegian entitled “Racism, poverty and the ‘talented tenth.’” In the article, they write that …the size of the Black middle class. . . has quadrupled… Simultaneously--and paradoxically--the size of the Black underclass has grown disproportionately as well… 45 percent of all Black children [were] born at, or beneath, the poverty line. Economists have shown that fully one-third of the members of the African-American community are worse off economically today than they were the day that King was killed in 1968. If it is the best of times for the Black middle class--the heirs of Du Bois's "Talented Tenth" it is the worst of times for an equally large segment of our community.... Now if you read this than you would probably think it was written just this year but the reality is that it was written in 1996, however it still implies today.

Even with the election of President Obama, that alone will not solve the many issues plaguing Black America and as shown by President Obama’s ascension to the top, the talented tenth is not just those who are apart of Black Lettered Greek Organizations but as previously mentioned it is those who are college educated who are the best of the best of the black community. Some may call the talented tenth the black middle class and above but as we can see from data that if the talented tenth is suppose to lead us as a people than it is huge gap between the talented tenth and the rest of the black community much like the same way it is a huge gap between the rich and poor in America as well as the rich and middle class.

Gates and West say, “Race differences and class differentials have been ground together in this country in a crucible of misery and squalor, in such a way that few of us know where one stops and the other begins. But we do know that the causes of poverty within the Black community are both structural and behavioral, as the sociological studies of William J. Wilson have amply demonstrated, and we would be foolish to deny this. A household in which its occupants cannot sustain themselves economically cannot possibly harbor hope or optimism, or stimulate eager participation in the full prerogatives of citizenship. One of our tasks, it seems to us, is to lobby for those social programs that have made a demonstrable difference in the lives of those sufficiently motivated to seize these expanded opportunities and to reinforce those programs that reignite motivation in the face of despair.”

More important, however, we have to demand a structural change in this country, the equivalent of a Marshall Plan for our cities, as the National Urban League has called for repeatedly. We have to take people off welfare, train them for occupations relevant to the highly technological economy of the twenty-first century, and put them to work. Joblessness, as Wilson has shown, is the central cause of our country's so-called racial crisis. The figure in the carpet of America's racial crisis, we are arguing, is economic scarcity and unequal opportunity.... To think this was written a decade ago but this is what the stimulus package and Obama’s urban plan wants to do.

Gates and West go on to say, “It is only by confronting the twin realities of White racism, on the one hand, and our own failures to seize initiative and break the cycle of poverty, on the other, that we, the remnants of the Talented Tenth, will be able to assume a renewed leadership role for, and with, the Black community. We must stand boldly against any manifestation of anti-Black racism, whatever form it might take. On this matter, there can be no compromise. But to continue to repeat the same old stale formulas, to blame "the man" for oppressing us all, in exactly the same ways; to scapegoat Koreans, Jews, women, or even Black immigrants for the failure of African Americans to seize local entrepreneurial opportunities, is to neglect our duty as leaders of our own community.”

Clearly Gates and West lay out marching order for the quote unquote talented 10th of the black community and as I look at it today, it seems as if those marching orders still apply but so few of the quote unquote talented tenth have taken these orders and implied to moving the black community forward. We can just look at how this is playing out in cities like Detroit where candidates running for public office have this I versus them mentality and the, I are blacks and them are whites and others. This is the 21st century and this is not the mentality that is going to make the black community any better or further long in society than it is right now. As President Obama has shown, it takes everyone blacks, whites, Hispanics and other ethnic groups to rebuild America and that is the same mentality that it will take to rebuild or build up black communities.

Don’t get me wrong blacks have to accept responsibility for taking care of their own communities and that is no different than what other leaders have said when it comes to responsibility that everyone has to accept. West and Gates say, “Not to demand that each member of the Black community accept individual responsibility for her or his behavior --whether that behavior assumes the form of Black-on-Black homicide, violations by gang members against the sanctity of the church, unprotected sexual activity, gangster rap lyrics, misogyny and homophobia -- is to function merely as ethnic cheerleaders selling wolf tickets from the campus or the suburbs, rather than saying the difficult things that may be unpopular with our fellows. Being a leader does not necessarily mean being loved; loving one's community means daring to risk estrangement and alienation from that very community, in the short run, in order to break the cycle of poverty, despair, and hopelessness that we are in, over the long run. For what is at stake is nothing less than the survival of our country, and the African-American people. “

Now this to some degree is the problem that many black communities face and why the quote unquote Talented 10th message sometimes go on death ears because so few of the Talented 10th stay in black communities that are suffering from the poverty, despair and hopeless that plague blacks like never before. Still Gates and West are not the only ones who make pleas to the Talented Tenth to do more for the overall state of Black America and black communities. Langston X. Thomas (Baba Adubiifa) wrote, “Harvard University recently concluded a five-year study that found that race is deeply embedded in our cultural landscape and most Americans are in a state of denial. The 50 researchers concluded, "Race continues to play a powerful role in the chances for success in America and black Americans continue to lose jobs to recent immigrants." Andrew Hacker, a white college professor says, "The fact that slavery existed for so long and was so taken for granted cannot be erased from American minds." And says Hacker, "that is why white people, although they won’t openly admit it, find it not improper that blacks still serve as maids and janitors, occupations seen as involving physical skills rather than mental aptitudes."”

Thomas went on to write, “Psychologist Na’im Akbar says black Americans are also in a state of denial about the lingering effects of slavery on our thinking. Akbar and Hacker agree that the American psyche remains traumatized by slavery and is in need of mental healing (psychotherapy). And Dr. Akbar says in psychotherapy, "a confrontation of the original trauma and a restructuring of the mind’s faulty adaptations to the assault can serve to correct these disturbed patterns of responding." Under this view, if we are to eliminate the "ghost of the plantation" from our cultural landscape, there must be honest and continuous dialogue within as well as between the races.”

So Thomas asked, “What about the "Talented Tenth"? W.E.B. Dubois envisioned that the 10% of Black Americans who acquired the skills and/or education that enabled us to succeed in the larger society would eventually "come home" and use our tools and talents to build a bridge between the Black "haves" and the Black "have-nots."” Thomas goes on to write, “Unfortunately many of the "talented tenth" (and I speak from personal experience) used our tools and talents to build personal bridges between the so-called races and then used these bridges as private access roads from the ghetto to the suburbs. In the process, of course, we left our less fortunate sisters and brothers behind.”

Hebrew scholar Ben Ammi, wrote in his book, God the Black Man and Truth, "Education today is based upon class, aimed at attaining power and fulfilling materialistic desires rather than providing a service to our fellow man." Thus Thomas goes on to say, “I remember how my college classmates and I laughed at the African brothers who said they were going to get an education and then go back home to help their people. In retrospect I now know, an immigrant wants to help his people while a slave wants to help himself. Many of us are now confessing we made a bad deal. We voluntarily sacrificed our spiritual health for the pursuit of material wealth. We now remember that when we had less, we shared more. And we also remember when a "good home" meant something more than a "well-built house" in the suburbs.”

Thomas wrote his opinions before the 21st century and in concluding, Thomas writes, “As we enter the 21st century, we must accept the responsibility for our own destiny as a people. Perhaps racial profiling and the attacks on affirmative action are blessings in disguise. As Professor Hacker so diplomatically reminds us, "America is inherently a ‘white‘ country: in character, in structure, in culture." And in America’s version of apartheid writes Hacker, "White Americans show little inclination toward giving full nationality to the descendants of African slaves." We must therefore struggle to understand the words of the late scholar/researcher Chancellor Williams when he said, "Now it is just here within the race where integration is not only needed but it is mandatory." And most of all, we must rededicate ourselves to God. In her appropriately named book, Volunteer Slavery, Sister Jill Nelson uses the term "spiritual materialism" to describe our misguided, dollar driven approach to God. "Spiritual materialism" has infiltrated all religions, however, since we are predominantly a Christian people, I’ll define it as talking about Jesus when we really want to live like Caesar. Can the true spirit of Christ dwell in such an atmosphere? We’re sending mixed messages to our children and then wondering why they are in such a state of confusion. One sure way of praising and honoring our Creator is by using our unique qualities and abilities to better the human condition. GOD IS, LET’S GET BUSY!!”

Thus Thomas views are views that many Blacks and others have shared about the conditions of the black community and the reality is that some today feel that perhaps the black community is better off without waiting on the quote unquote talented tenth to lead them but instead lead themselves out of the communities of despair and hopeless that exists. Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D. wrote an article entitled “Moving Past Black America's "Talented Tenth": Can The Black "Bourgeoisie" Do More?.” In it, Dr. Samad said, “This is the season for cotillions and now botillions, scholarships, luncheons and banquets, opportunities for those who have, and for those who work for companies who have, to send as many students to college as they can -- or so they say. Or do they send as many students to college as they can?”

Dr. Samad goes on to say, “College has become more competitive as higher education has become a more prized commodity in the global workforce. Even the once "self-made" man and woman, whose entrepreneurial spirit once shunned education, had better have an MBA from some top tier "B-school" (business school), or have someone working for them who has one, in order to compete. And it is in this season that Black professionals and socialites call their scholarship rolls of “their children,” who are often second and third generation college attendees (with a few first generation college attendees mixed in), and who replicate the legacy tradition of America’s elite democracy practices.”

Still Dr. Samad writes, “This, from a people who were 99% illiterate at the point of slavery’s abolition in 1865 and yet 30 years later, in 1895, were arguing the best way to achieve social acceptance, labor proficiency (Booker T. Washington) or intellectual proficiency (W.E.B. DuBois). Forty years after slavery, after the turn of the 20 Century, Black folk had stratified into "social classes" and the appearance of “Black elites” emerged with DuBois’ new “talented tenth” ideology that the top ten percent would lead the other 90% of the race into social acceptance. Well, 100 years later we’re still waiting for that ideology to take hold, and what we’ve witnessed, instead, is the perpetuation of Black elitism and the formation of a Black "bourgeoisie," who would just as soon save themselves and leave the masses behind.”

Dr. Samad warns that, “This is a dangerous mindset, as our children need more help now than at any time in our history since the turn of the 20th Century. The talented ten percent have shrunken to a more exclusive "five-percent," as college bound Black students in the "A" or "B+" range (3.5 grade point average and above) represent just five percent of all Black students. Today, a 4.0 (what used to be an A average) will not get a student into some of the top tier universities and colleges in America. Yet, many of our best and brightest go to college, many with multiple scholarships offers, while the rest end up in community colleges or out of college, just because their grades aren’t good enough. Moreover, college is not an affordable endeavor for students not part of the elite tier of scholars.”

Does that mean those who can, should not try to help the rest get into college, or live the "bourgeoisie" experience? Have the Black elites lost sight of what they could do, and should do, to change the plight of Black America? Some think so. Some think the Black bourgeoisie can do more. Dr. Samad wrote, “This is a controversial topic for Black America, as the race grapples with economic classism within. The wealth gap is greater than ever within the race, and we see a bifurcation like never before, within the Black community. We live in a "chic society," where exclusivity separates the best from the rest, as VIP rooms, velvet ropes, private clubs and personal bankers insure clique-ish exclusive access to "the good life." There are benefits to accomplishment and success. However, exclusivity doesn’t have to translate to elitism. Elite opinion directs how his country rolls, while mass opinion keeps it from rolling out of control.”

“It is the same in the Black community. Success is defined by where you live, what you drive, what you wear, and the groups to which you belong. Being considered part of the "Black elite" is centered on whether you are on enough "A list" invitations to be considered "in" or whether you can hang in the most exotic (and decadent) of social affairs. When it comes to community service, charity in some of these groups (I’m not talking about all of them), borders on tokenism. The awarding of scholarships is just one of these areas,” said Dr. Samad.

Dr. Samad went on to write, “In the 20th Century, it was the Black fraternities and sororities, along with prominent social groups, that put up the money for the Brown cases, cases that endowed Black colleges, that opened private schools for Black children, that built Black hospitals. Much of this is, today, only fractionally done by Blacks. The talented tenth, 100 years ago, did more with less money and fewer numbers than the so-called Black elite today. There’s something to be said for that. Today, we give less even though college costs more, and fewer give at all beyond their own children’s need. We need to do better.”

“Many professional Black men’s monthly "green fees" or "pu**y bills" (lavish expenditures entertaining women who entertain them) are greater than what they give in annual scholarships. Professional Black woman’s monthly "pamper" bill (hair, nails, and massage upkeeps) are more than what they give in annual scholarships. I haven’t even factored in "bling" (jewelry) and clothing expenses, or semi-annual trips. Many Black folks are doing well, but could learn to do good at the same time,” said Dr. Samad.

Clearly, the Black bourgeoisie could do more. And just to clarify, all Black professionals aren’t bourgeoisie, but many do engage in elitist behaviors that could be considered "bourgsie" acts. Dr. Samad goes on to write, “One well-known socialite group held a cotillion for foster girls. It received rave reviews in the community, even though the members were deeply divided on it. Their fear was that it would make them appear "common" by dealing with "common girls." The Black elite’s biggest fear is that of being perceived as common — not doing something good for the community. Another group bought prom dresses for foster girls and girls from poor families. Another gave $100,000 in scholarships. The 100 Black Men of Los Angeles and its affiliated supporters, through its Young Black Scholars Program, gave over $200,000 in scholarships for this coming academic year. These are significant commitments, but dare I say it — more can be done. For to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Therefore Dr. Samad concluded by writing, “I am appealing to other exclusive organizations to expand their reach beyond the A and B student, a position I’ve held for 20 years, to help others students see their future by helping them to fulfill their academic potential. If we can’t see it, they’ll never be able to see it. We can all do that. We can encourage others to give more and reach out to more than just their own children. All our children deserve the same opportunities as the "well to do." It is time those who have, make an effort far beyond what they have already done to make a difference. Otherwise, the grassroots community and the generation we, by and large, perceive as disconnected from the struggle and from us, will see us as just a bunch of bourgsie ni**as who made no sacrifices for them. They’re all talented. We just have to move past the ten (or five) percent, and reach the masses.

I agree with what Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D. wrote and his conclusion that we all can do more and it would be wise for us as a people to move past the ten or five percent. In fact even DuBois changed his mind regarding the talented tenth and felt the best way to achieve social acceptance was to have labor proficiency (Booker T. Washington) and intellectual proficiency (W.E.B. DuBois). Thus DuBois the creators of the Talented Tenth rejected his own notion that the Talented Tenth alone is the way for Blacks to gain acceptance in society. DuBois is largely misunderstood in the present day because people choose to forget that he abandoned his original idea of the “talented tenth.” He ultimately believed that the working classes would be the agents of social change for blacks in America. Many assume that the “talented tenth” are still the key to social change, and they rely on DuBois’s seminal essay to bolster this point of view. However, they refuse to see how undemocratic and elitist this view of social change is.

DuBois’s gradual change in thought occurred because of the events in DuBois life that led to the reshaping of his philosophy. The context for misunderstanding DuBois now may be this idea of “selective memory”—people interpret DuBois in a way that best supports their own social position now rather than realizing that DuBois shortly before leaving the NAACP adopted a view that both the elites and labor are needed for blacks to gain acceptance. Many people don’t want to accept the fact that DuBois changed his reality because the consequence may be that people will rethink the way they view the idea of the black elite as leaders of social change, or at the very least that this group of elite reviews the desire to serve.

It is clear that W.E.B. DuBois gradually changed his perspective on “The Talented Tenth” because he first believed that an elite class of blacks would lead the race out of oppression, that it would be a cure for both white racism and black poverty. However as time grew DuBois later admitted that he assumed that this group of elites would have the sense of responsibility required of such agents of social change, and that this could no longer be assumed. DuBois grew more and more critical of the idea of an elite group of agents of change, and ultimately came to believe that the working classes would be the real agents of change in the black race, because they are the ones who suffer most and have the more real and unselfish desire to change things.

Although DuBois himself ultimately rejected the idea of the talented tenth’s elitism, many people still hold on to the idea of the “black vanguard,” e.g. The Black Panthers. Some black scholars like Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West believe themselves to be the remnants of the talented tenth: they advocate that blacks must both confront white racism and their own failures to seize initiative and break the cycle of poverty in order to become leaders for the race. They say that blacks must not continue to make the same complaints about “the man” or other races taking away all the opportunities.

However, does this mean that black intellectuals must never criticize any of the systems of power that have historically disenfranchised them? Some people argue that blacks must look critically at the middle-class ideology that has slowed progress for them in order to rework a new concept of social progress for the entire race. While others who are inspired by Karl Marx ideology, see racial conflict as a conflict of class oppression. In this conflict, they have dissented against middle-class blacks, but realized that they are dependent on them for the education and freedom of the unemployed poor.

Ultimately, the notion that the Talented Tenth of the Black Community will be the creators of social change or will improve the black community is just not true. In fact DuBois while abandoning his own idea in favor of Washington’s still missed the fact that social change occurs when all blacks no matter if they are the educated or the work class work together to create it. In fact the fact that DuBois himself abandoned the idea of black elites leading change in favor of the more democraticized idea that the working class would be the true agents of change shows just how DuBois saw that the black elites cared more so for themselves than actually implementing change that would raise all Blacks to that elitist status. Thus if it is to be real change in Black America than it will have to occur with working and educating blacks working together to create the type of social change necessary to improve the conditions of black communities. Poverty and despair will not go away with simply teaching new skills and having blacks use their hands to create new things but it will go away with that as well as with blacks pursuing high educational avenues.

The Talented Tenth notion still exists today but the reality is that the Talented Tenth are not the leaders of social change and will not be the leaders. No social movement or social change that has occurred in America was led by one social class of people, not the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, abolitionist movement, etc. It was a combination of the educated and the working class who led all these movements of social change it will take that same combination o rebuild and create black communities that are filled with poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment. This is the only way that we can create better communities that blacks can achieve success because it is clear that if we are waiting on the Talented 10th to do it than far too many blacks will be left behind waiting for such a select group to save the other 90% of African Americans. This is simply way DuBois abandoned his own idea because the Talented Tenth had forgotten about the rest of the race to some degree or another and even today, it seems as if that is the case to a degree.

This is why a combination of DuBois and Washington’s ideology is the only way for real social change to occur not only in Black America but throughout America. The election of President Obama was an example of how both ideologies came together to elect someone who the elite and the working class could agree on and do it in such a peaceful way. This is why now more than ever such a combination must be adopted immediately in the likes of cities like Detroit, Memphis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Birmingham, Atlanta and others if our urban communities are to grow and prosper where blacks can achieve success by working and by getting educated. This is what the talented tenth means today and the direction we need to as a society.


Source:
The Talented Tenth
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=174

Frontline: The Two Nations of Black America—Booker T. & W.E.B.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html

The Fate of the Black Church in Black America

Ahh the Black Church. What a huge subject. Let's dive in. TODAY, as in 1945, the Black Church is a spiritual fortress and an economic and political giant. Having survived the Jim Crow era, the Black Church is still the biggest and strongest institution in Black America and is in a powerful position to meet the new challenges of the new century.

In 1945, when EBONY magazine was founded, the Black Church was smaller and more cohesive, with less competition from external forces. Perhaps the most powerful religious leaders in that year were David V. Jemison, the president of the National Baptist Convention, and William A. Fountain, the senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among other highly visible leaders of the Church in that year were Adam Clayton Powell Jr., pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church and congressman from Harlem, and major spiritual leaders like college presidents Benjamin E. Mays and Mordecai Johnson, and theologian Howard Thurman. There were, of course, strong local pastors like Martin Luther King Sr. of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. One of the major features of the church scene in these days was the national presence and power of charismatic leaders like Father Divine and Daddy Grace.

This, of course, was in the heyday of Jim Crow, and it was widely said then that 11 o'clock Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America and it still is today according to some church leaders. Since that time, largely because of the work of Black Church leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and other members of the Black clergy, the Black Church and the White Church have changed significantly. The Baptist Church, which was the leading Black denomination in 1945 in terms of membership, is still the largest denomination in Black America. But the relatively small Pentecostal denominations of yester-year have grown phenomenally, and current survey figures indicate that the Church of God in Christ is now the second largest Black denomination in the nation. Most denominations, White and Black, have lost ground in overall membership, but the Black Pentecostal groups, according to current figures, are the fastest-growing Christian religious groups in Black and White America.

There have been other changes as well, including the sharp increase in the number of Black Muslims, Black Baha'is and other non-Christians. At the same time, again largely due to the Black Church-led Freedom Movement, there has been a dramatic increase in the power and influence of Blacks in what one Black churchman calls the "outposts" of the historically Black Church, predominantly Black groups and denominations in historically White churches.

In 1945, there were no Black bishops or major officials in the White Church. Today, there are major officials in almost all White religious organizations. In some cases, and in some cities, Black men and women are the major officials of these churches.

By almost all accounts, the Black Church has made major contributions to Black and White America since 1945. Racial equality has always been a precept upheld and espoused in the Black Church and has since chimed through the halls of White congregations as well. It is generally agreed that the Freedom Movement, led by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr., increased the amount of political and spiritual freedoms in Black America.

The distinct musical style of Blacks, with its varied meters and African-inspired beats, has lifted the soul and spirit of Christian and Gospel music alike. And, the lively worship style that characterizes the traditional Black Church has become commonplace in the larger church community.

The changing years have also brought about new challenges. The modern-day Black Church is confronted with a membership that includes fewer men and an increasing number of women who are demanding greater participation in the life of the church, according to religious observers, such as Dr. Clarence G. Newsome, dean of the Howard University School of Divinity, Dr. James H. Costen, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, and Duke University professor and author C. Eric Lincoln. Over the past 50 years, the numbers of Black men in congregational life have sharply decreased. The abrupt decline, religious leaders say, is partly attributed to incarceration, gangs and the lure of non-Christian groups.

While the church works to improve its male population, all observers agree, that it will also have to increase its efforts to include women at every level of church leadership.

"The Church is just beginning to challenge sexism as a social ill," says the Rev. Vashti McKenzie, pastor of Baltimore's Payne Memorial AME Church. "In the next 50 years, I hope that we'll go beyond equal access in ministry to leadership positions and break beyond the glass ceiling in the church as we have in business."

Moreover, the Black Church of the future will be further challenged to establish itself as an even stronger economic, social and political epicenter in the community, some religious leaders say. "The African-American Church needs to be in a position to leverage the decision-making process at every level," Howard University's Newsome explains, "so that the dollars that would be spent to incarcerate mostly Black males could be spent in ways to develop people."

As one era gives way to another, the Church will have to move from its role of spiritual caretaker to a more practical role of community nurturer, providing services as varied as temporary housing, employment programs and rehabilitative services. While some churches do, so few don’t because of economic restraints.

Indeed, with prayer, grace and purposed action, the Black Church, observers say, will arrive, safely into the 21st century. "The Black Church must demonstrate tough love in its ministries to itself and others, insisting on high standards, uncompromised values, hard work, tenacity and Christ-like concern," says ITC's Dr. Costen. "For Black religion is a religion of the head and of the heart, of healing and doing and, most especially," he adds, "of being."

That is why the current fate of the Black Church in Black America is one that concerns me because looking at where I stay, in a city that is 85% predominately black and with a church nearly on every corner in the city of Detroit, I can’t understand why the city has crumbled so badly. Thus it made me wonder what is truly the future role of the Black Church in black communities today when so many residents of the communities where black churches reside are unemployed or are living below the poverty.

It makes me wonder what exactly Black Churches are doing to combat the issues plaguing black communities such as high unemployment, high HIV/AIDS rates, and high teenage pregnancy rates as well as high abortion rates. It makes me wonder what is the role of Black Church today beyond just the preaching the gospel and musical styles. What are Black Church leaders doing to appeal to the hearts and souls of those in the black community who have lost faith not only spiritually but in life period?

While it is not just up to the Black Church to restore black communities, it goes to say something when if you look around black communities like Detroit and see a church or perhaps two in a .1 mile radius of each other but poverty and plight being high in the communities where the churches reside. This is just one of many issues that one will notice. Therefore the fate of the Black Church in Black America needs to be questioned and the timing is appropriate now more than ever.

I can recall reading an article entitled “The Current and Future Black Church.” Below are excerpts of the article:

The Spousal Unit and I are dealing with our issues of traditions. I like angelic choirs and organ fugues, she likes rocking gospel and tambourines. We both love God but we cannot find a house with the right flavor. We have both experienced the humiliation and embarrassment of watching each other be uncomfortable and alienated in the other's house of worship. I think that our petty differences serve to illustrate something of the alienation of many people from Church and it brings me close to some fundamental questions that I have decided to deal with at length during this period of my life. It is not the cause, but a serious reason for me to undertake matters of theology.

It was therefore providential that at the last minute, the topic of debate for my episode of 'Black Men Revealed' was switched to 'Why Black Men Don't Church'. While I would much rather have talked about politics or culture I had to deal with how I thought other black men deal with such matters of the spirit in relation to the Black Church.

I'm Episcopalian. There aren't many black Episcopalians, but the Anglican Church is ascendant in Africa, and the number two man in the Episcopal Church (which we often refer to as the Body of Christ), the Archbishop of York, is too African. As with every other branch of Christianity, what Africans bring to worship ultimately changes the character of church. Churches change. Christ remains the same. How do we reconcile the two?

When we talked about this, my wife and I, she said something that I think very well exemplifies the problems of the Black Church. At least, I can get my head around it. I'd like to share that insight with you and kick off a bunch of discussion. But first let me give you one of my overriding concerns.

The biggest concern I have with Christian Churches are their flexibility. I can't explain exactly how it makes me feel (other than awful) to read Bible verses today in something other than the King James Version. So I don't. I grew up getting gold stars first in Bible School, by memorizing the denotation and the connotation of Bible verses. I did so in the Foursquare Church, which was a Pentecostal Evangelical sect of Christianity. Everything I knew about God, and I was a precocious little twerp, meant people getting the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, dancing all over, faith healing and the whole kinetic experience. My Bible was a black leather King James red letter edition with a zipper that had a cross on it. That was, unquestionably, The Word of GOD! The same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

From reading this article, I took from it that the author had many questions regarding not just the leadership of the Black Church but the teaching in Black Churches. The author had an issue with many religions such as Catholics. The author attended a catholic school and begin to ask questions such as who was this Virgin Mary, and how come we didn't talk to Jesus anymore? What are these Stations of the Cross and what is Confession all about? The author asked every question and got every answer and begin to realize there was more to God than he had ever known. Because if God could accept these Catholics into his Heavenly Kingdom, there are more ways to God than the author could ever believe possible. And the author watched Catholics writhe and pain at the passage of Vatican II, and lament the fact that Mass was said in English instead of Latin. And the author freaked out when they said the Lord's Prayer with different words. Now all of this was happening to the author during the same time that President Nixon was being kicked out of office and air raid drills rang out every first Friday at 10am. The world was upside down, and they even changed the Bible.

So how could all of God's people be so misled when deep down in their hearts they wanted to be faithful? How could an entire church be wrong? How could a minister, oops I mean priest be wrong? The Catholics had an answer that satisfied the author in the definition of a Sacrament. A Sacrament is an outward expression of an inward commitment. Suddenly the author understood that it was the inward commitment to God that mattered most. Churches could change, Bibles could change, prayers could change, but one's love for God and God's love could never change. Church then, is all about getting one to that moment. To quiet one’s mind and open up one’s heart to be at one with the Holy Trinity.

Now I know that this is what brings other people to tears as it does to me when I write it. But that beauty and peacefulness of the Spirit is here with me now as I do. It's difficult for me to understand why everybody wouldn't want that same blessing. But I know that people don't. I acknowledge that there are many different traditions that get different people to that holy moment, those moments of numinous oneness with God. And so when we are brought to speak about black people, we must know that amongst all of us those differences are real. Which brings me back to the author and his Spousal Unit.

The author’s Spousal Unit says, “That the problem facing the Black Church is what to do with young people. She knows as we all know that there are far too many black folks who need God in a desperate way, but are not getting churched. And she says that the Church is struggling with that mightily. When I was a child, she said, it was inconceivable that some kid with baggy pants, sneakers, football jersey, gold chain and a baseball hat could come into Church. You don't come in here looking like that. And therein lays the paradox because this is the child who needs church most.”

Therefore it is clear that in today’s society the youth of today have no spiritual guidance and they don't have decent community and they don't have people they can trust when America doesn't have their back. These are the people that we are losing and the Black Church must help find. And that is the core dilemma faced by Black Churches. Do they take these people in as they are? Do they change the music to attract them? Do they change the way Church is done to accommodate the sinner? How does the black minister of today appeal to the black youth of today? What difference does it make? Those are some of the questions that the Black Church faces today in terms of relating to sinners particularly youth who have no spiritual guidance.

Then as the author sates, there are other problems plaguing Black Churches. The author says: “I'm conservative. I think the Catholic Church is more conservative than the Episcopal Church and I have half a mind to switch to it. I do so because I want my church to be unchanging as God. I want to feel conformed with the infinite in the company of men and women who feel the same. For me that means ritual. I can meditate and pray and reach God when I feel like it. I don't need church for that. I need church for those other things - to reach that holy moment in communion with others. So for me the very idea of changing any church for the sake of black youth or Serbian grandmothers or Chinese farmers or Malaysian miners is crazy foolish in the extreme. Church isn't supposed to change for you, church is supposed to change you. And yet I acknowledge and recognize that every church is different. God gets through.”

So when it comes to the Black Church, the dilemma then is who should initiate the change. Given that change is inevitable and that the church will reflect the desires of the people to express themselves as they do, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Who picks which version of the Bible? Who says whom is certified to be a minister? All these things are changing dynamically in African America. People in Los Angeles are going to church where the Lakers used to play basketball. In my world, that's unthinkable. But it's real. By the thousands it's real. Church is marketed. Congregations are target markets. Reaching out with the Word means reaching the masses, by radio, by television, by podcast, by email, by video game. Have it your way. Why not?

The Conservative in me says that something is amiss. There is something about the harvesting of souls that's not quite right. The fishers of men are using huge nets and dumping all of the souls on the decks to be processed. However the Liberal in me says that there is something to be said about mega churches and the work they can do to impact our societies but still for so few communities, it seems as if black communities are going down the tubes as the Black Church particularly mega churches prosper. Now I am not saying that mega churches are bad but what I am saying is that what more can the mega church do to help not only its members but the communities in which they reside to improve the conditions of those who are not members of the church but are members of the community for which the church resides.

So my indictment goes to the minister who does not have a sect. I see nothing wrong with the storefront church. Every ministry starts somewhere. But I have a hard time understanding where the Methodists disagree with the Mormons or the Baptists with the Anabaptist and the Presbyterians with the Seventh Day Adventists. I have a hard time understanding how these Protestant traditions are losing ground to today's Faith Domes. I have a hard time understanding how the institution of the black church is changing and why and which direction it is headed.

I understand that the Black Church has been overloaded with responsibilities it alone shouldered in the days before civil rights. I understand that a great deal of black tradition has been lost to integration, that our freedom and empowerment to employ mainstream institutions has weakened and specialized the Black Church to be little more than a church. Where it once might have been a school and a political organization and a graveyard, blacks can now use the public facilities.

But is the Black Church on the right track? Are the traditions growing stronger or is it all a New Jack thing? What's the difference? Is that old time religion good enough for anyone? On the whole are blacks closer to God because of the Black Church or is black America losing spiritual ground? I think there is a looming crisis. What is the institutional future? Is it bright? If not, what is to be done?

Those are the questions that I myself even struggle to answer because while there are many black pastors, ministers or bishops who are fiery and give spiritual rhetoric in a thunderous way that makes the crowd or congregation constantly say “Amen!” It is still a question that lingers as to how many black church leaders truly get it and are working to improve the conditions of society. It is something to be said about black church leaders who are doing God’s work but are living lavish lifestyles while many in their congregation are losing their homes, are on welfare or are living paycheck to paycheck which means they are one paycheck away from being in poverty while some are already there.

These are the issues that make me wonder just how much the Black Church is really doing to impact the black communities and Black America. While the Black Church has played a pivotal role in Black America, it is still something to be said for those Black Church leaders who in 2004 told many Blacks not to vote in the Presidential Election or told their congregation that voting wouldn’t change their conditions so why waste your time but instead give to God that is where real change happens.

So is the new Black Church role to tell its members not to vote in elections when the Black Church helped pave the way for the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement and the voting rights act which protects all Americans but especially people of color right to vote. What does all of this mean to Black America when the Black Church tells it members not to exercise their right to vote? With so many issues plaguing Black America, it will take more than just prayer to deal with the problems facing us as a people. In fact prayer without action is powerless.

"Faith without work is dead!" "Prayer without action can grow into sterile pietism. Action without prayer may deteriorate into questionable activism." "If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always blossom into concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do, indeed, lead us into a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, these acts will always thrive with prayer." "In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ." Therefore "Prayer is not an escape from direct involvement with the many needs and pains of our world." We must not just pray but we must act as well when times call for actions because not all things will be solved through action and not all things will be solved with just prayer alone. This the balance the Black Church provided us as a society and today it seems as if both are losing its way more and more in today’s time.

The fate of the Black Church in Black America is in limbo but that is not reason for despair because the Black Church can reclaim its old glory with outreach that extends to the communities for which the reside. Going door to door as if it was a political campaign not just spreading the gospel but spreading the news to the members of the community as to what the church offers in order to entice some to get involved in the church or least encourage their youth to get involved. The fate of the Black Church in Black America today has hope for the future but it begins with a proactive revolutionary approach that showcases the Black Church to Black America in a way that hasn’t been done. It is not enough of the Black Church regardless if it is mega, big or small to just preach the gospel and advertise on the radio, television or internet to attract members but it has to be more hands on with the black community particularly those residents where there churches reside. It is not enough for the Black Church to just attract members but it is time for the Black Church to uplift its members as well as non-members to believe again in the power of God through the power of prayers and action.

The Black Church role in Black America must change but most of all it must change to improve the economic, social and spiritual conditions of the black community today.

What’s Holding Blacks Back?

For weeks and months, I have heard many blacks speak to what is holding we as black people back. In fact even as our nation has elected its first quote unquote African American President, many people in the black community continue to ask the question what is holding blacks back. One thing that is clear in the black community is that we as blacks have become indoctrinated with the Democratic Party in order to deal with many of the social issues plaguing us as a people. Martin Luther King never subordinated the civil right movement to the Democrats or Republicans. By building the civil rights movement independently of the Democrats and Republicans, he forced Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to push through historic civil rights legislation. That is why if we as blacks are to get ahead we must organize like Dr. King and dare the politicians to oppose our fight for justice, equality, and economic prosperity for all blacks when it comes to any issue plaguing us as a people.

We has black people must learn that by being attached to one political party or putting our total faith in one political party to do what is right for us a people will not get us any further. In fact we as black must learn the lessons of the civil rights movement and build our agenda for economic prosperity, financial literacy and 21st century world class education begins with us as a community working to instill that in our youth. If we as black people want our children to know the hardships that we as a people had to endure than we have to indoctrinate them in black culture as a community and not depend on government or a political party to create that indoctrination mechanism for us.

We as black people must have our youth read Roots cover to cover and expose them to documentaries that show old newsreels of black civil rights protesters being hosed, beaten, and dragged off to prison. We have to make sure they read accounts of black America before the civil rights movement and we have to help them learn of black lawyers working as office clerks, black classical musicians stuck orchestrating cheap stage revues, brilliant black professors trapped in threadbare segregated colleges; but most of all we must have them read about the Scottsboro Boys, Emmett Till, the Black Panther Party, and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

If our youth learn this than this should fill them with horror—but then with relief, even triumph. After all, wasn’t the point of All in the Family that Archie Bunker was powerless in the face of his daughter and son-in-law’s racially progressive positions? Didn’t his black neighbors have the moral upper hand—and wasn’t it they, not Archie, who got to move to the Upper East Side, i.e. the Jeffersons (George and Weezie)? Teaching our youth this should make them grateful and excited to live in times of bracing progress for my race.

Even during decades of the 90s I came to realize that this feeling made me an odd man out among most young Black Americans. In every race-related debate—whether over Rodney King, O. J. Simpson, the Million Man March, Ebonics, affirmative action or the election of black leaders particularly President Barack Obama—almost every black person I knew, many with backgrounds as comfortable as my own, started from the fierce conviction that, decades after the Civil Rights Act, whitey’s foot remains pressed upon all black Americans’ necks. For most black Americans, the rapid increase of the black middle class, of interracial relationships and marriages, and of blacks in prestigious positions has no bearing on the real state of black America. Further, they believe, whites’ inability to grasp the unmistakable reality of oppression is itself proof of racism, while blacks who question that reality are self-deluded.

Doubtless some black leaders mouth the ideology of victimhood for political advantage: “Confrontation works,” as Al Sharpton has calculatingly observed. But most rank-and-file exponents of the “racism forever” worldview really mean it. Their conviction rests on seven articles of faith, carefully passed from person to person at all levels of the black community. These beliefs, rather than what remains of racism itself, are the biggest obstacle to further black progress in today’s America. And all are either outright myths or severe distortions of truth.

One: Most black people are poor (and middle-class blacks are statistical noise). Almost half of the blacks surveyed in a Gallup poll supposed that three out of four black people live in inner cities. Yet in 2007 before the economic recession most black people are neither poor nor even close to it: by any estimation, middle-class blacks outnumber poor ones. And at last count, only one in five blacks lived in the inner city.

Two: Black people earn 61 percent of what whites do. Though accurate as a nationwide median in 2005, this figure is dragged down by the disproportionate number of single black welfare mothers. Black two-parent families earned 87 percent of what white two-parent families earned in 2005. Also distorting the median is the disproportionate number of blacks who live in the South, where wages are lower overall. If you look only at specific areas rather than at the nation as a whole, black household earnings in 2004 exceeded whites’ in 130 cities and counties across the nation.

Three: An epidemic of racist church burnings has swept across the South. There was never any such thing: about 80 black churches were burned from 1990 to 1996—but then over seven times that many white churches burned as well.

Four: The CIA created the inner cities by pumping drugs into them. This one pops up in pamphlet after pamphlet at leftist marches and gatherings; it is taught to many black college students. But the San Jose Mercury’s charges on this score proved false. Yes, some CIA agents aiding the Nicaraguan contras decided to look the other way and allow them to profit from some drug sales to California, but that’s hardly a plot to addict blacks in all of America’s inner cities.

Five: Because black men are disproportionately incarcerated, racism reigns eternal. This belief assumes that blacks do not commit crimes any more frequently than whites. But if black men make up almost 50 percent of the prison population, they committed roughly 42 percent of violent crimes in the 1990s and nearly 58% of the violent crimes in 2007 according to the FBI, and many studies have shown that, when severity of crime and past record are taken into account, there is no bias against blacks in the criminal justice system. At its inception, the War on Drugs, often interpreted as a “War on Blacks,” had the strong support of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose members aimed to stem inner-city violence. If these black officials, who at the time exhorted Congress to “save our communities,” were racists, then the definition of this term is beyond my comprehension.

Six: Racial profiling is racism. It can be—but just as often isn’t. In some parts of the country, black men are so overrepresented in criminal activities that police officers, white and black, would be shirking their duty not to concentrate on them. Sure, sometimes profiling ends up detaining more blacks than their rate of conviction for the targeted crime justifies, as with drivers recently stopped and searched for drugs in New Jersey. But even here, officers generally have acted less out of race hatred than out of a pragmatic assessment that they can fill their quotas faster by focusing on a group that commits a disproportionate share of crime. Inappropriate, yes—and widely condemned as such: indication Number 674 that racism is on the wane. Some have always suspected that today’s profiling-must-stop contingent secretly believes that whites deserve black crime as retribution for oppression. But to halt all profiling would increase the number of blacks murdered, mostly by other blacks. And black leaders would cite this rise as further evidence of racism, as happened in New York in the 1980s, when cops turned a blind eye to a wave of black crime. Many of those crying racism about today’s New York City policing were sounding the same call about the Dinkins administration’s lax policing. Nonetheless racial profiling exists and profiling by race should be condemned but most of all, police should just do their job regardless of race no if’s, in’s, or but’s about it.

Seven: Excessive police brutality against blacks shows that racism reigns eternal. Certainly blacks have suffered greater police brutality than whites. But this constitutes not the prevalence of overt racism, but its last holdout; as Orlando Patterson argues, you’d expect racism to persist longest precisely among undereducated keepers of order working under conditions likely to spark impulsiveness. And most important, the police brutality situation is improving rapidly. For example, though I think Officer Justin Volpe would not have brutalized a white suspect as he brutalized Haitian Abner Louima, his expectation that the “blue wall of silence” would protect him proved false. In the Diallo and Dorismond killings, the undertraining of police officers to deal with chaotic, tense situations was much more at fault than white racism—and, of course, black officers have been involved in similar cases across the country, though such cases don’t get headlines in the liberal media.

These articles of faith add up to a deeply felt cult of victimology that grips the entire black community. Some subscribe to it fiercely; most accept it as a valid point of view, at least. The “serious brother” who launches into a tirade about the War on Blacks at a party sets heads nodding all over the room. You’d think that a group committed to advancement would avoid such an obsessive focus on the negative, especially when the negative steadily fades from year to year. But blacks, inevitably, suffer from a classic post-colonial inferiority complex. Like insecure people everywhere, they are driven by a private sense of personal inadequacy to seeing imaginary obstacles to their success supposedly planted by others. Once the 1968 Kerner Commission report fueled that tendency by positing that American racism was an institutional, systemic matter rather than a merely personal one, black leaders and thinkers, haunted by the oppressor’s lie that blacks were inferior, worked obsessively to find evidence, often fantastical, of “the system’s” evil.

In the grip of this seductive ideology, blacks have made the immobilizing assumption that individual initiative can lead only to failure, with only a few exceptionally gifted or lucky exceptions. Yet many groups have triumphed over similar (or worse) obstacles—including millions of Caribbean and African immigrants in America, from Colin Powell to the thousands of Caribbean children succeeding in precisely the crumbling schools where black American kids fail. Indeed, thinkers such as Thomas Sowell and Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom argue that American blacks could have advanced—and were advancing—even without the civil rights legislation of the sixties and the racial preferences of the seventies, since black unemployment was at an all-time low in the mid-sixties, and the black middle class was already growing fast. But these facts can’t outweigh the almost narcotic pleasure that underdoggism provides a race plagued by self-doubt.

Blacks aren’t the only people who’ve sabotaged themselves through victimology. Take the eerily similar case of the Boston Irish, the target of contempt and discrimination in nineteenth-century America. By the 1920s, when anti-Irish bigotry had receded greatly, historical memory allowed Mayor James Michael Curley to maintain power by stoking Irish resentment very like today’s black resentment. Curley found “anti-Irish” sentiment everywhere: merit hiring systems were “anti-Irish”; “Anglo-Saxon” culture was fatally diseased. Even today, the remnant of this mentality still traps members of South Boston’s Irish community in crummy housing projects full of idle adults who have high rates of substance abuse and even speak a local dialect it takes a little while to wrap one’s ears around. In South Boston, as in South Central, a fatalistic skepticism that you can rise above your community and a deeply embedded wariness of mainstream culture thwart ambition even where opportunity is available.

The victimology cult has in turn engendered a cult of black separatism. Inspired by the Black Power movement of the 1960s, which violently rejected whites as terminally evil, today’s separatism, in the same vein, flirts disastrously with the idea that, because white racism ineluctably drives black people outside the bounds of civic virtue, blacks shouldn’t be seriously punished or morally condemned for criminal behavior. Black transgressiveness is understandable, even “cool.” A typical consequence of this view was the feting of the four black youths who maimed several people in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict, with the Nation of Islam setting up a defense fund for the “L.A. Four.” The most recent manifestation of the idea was Jesse Jackson’s intervention when a Decatur, Illinois, high school suspended for two years seven black teenagers who injured bystanders during a gang fight at a school football game. Jackson painted this response to thuggery as a racist attempt to deny “our children” an education.

The worst result of the sense that black America is a fundamentally separate realm is a widespread cult of anti-intellectualism. Consider the data: even in middle-class suburbs, increasing numbers of middle-class black students tend to cluster at the bottom of their schools in grades and test scores. Black students whose parents earn $70,000 a year or more make median SAT scores lower than impoverished white students whose parents make $6,000 a year or less, while black students whose parents both have graduate degrees make mean SAT scores lower than white students whose parents only completed high school. Why? All through modern black American culture, even throughout black academia, the belief prevails that learning for learning’s sake is a white affair and therefore inherently disloyal to a proper black identity. Studying black-related issues is okay, because learning about oneself is authentic. But this impulse also implicitly classifies science as irrelevant, which is the direct cause of the underrepresentation of minorities in the hard sciences. The sense that the properly “black” person only delves into topics related to himself is also why you can count on one hand the number of books by black Americans that are not on racial topics.

The belief that blacks and school don’t go together has its roots in slavery’s refusal to let blacks be educated. But it gained strength in the mid-1960s, when black separatism rejected traits associated with whites as alien, and black students, in this spirit, began teasing their fellows who strove to excel in school as “acting white,” a much harsher taunt than merely dismissing them as nerds. When I was four—and this is my very first memory—a group of black kids in the neighborhood stopped me and asked me to spell a word. When I did, one of them directed his little sister to hit me repeatedly. I later watched a friend of mine treated similarly for answering such questions as, “How far is it from New Jersey to Florida,” and I’ll never forget being asked by one of his tormentors, “Are you smart?” in the menacing tone you’d use to ask, “Did you steal my money?”

The “acting white” charge—which implies that you think yourself different from, and better than, your peers—is the prime reason that blacks do poorly in school. The gifted black student quickly faces a choice between peer group acceptance and intellectual achievement. Most, out of an utterly human impulse, choose the former. Even if they open themselves to schooling in college or later, their performance all too often permanently suffers from the message they long ago internalized that “the school thing” is an add-on, not a mix-in.

The prevailing orthodoxy lays the blame on other factors, of course, but none of them withstands scrutiny. The fact that the children of working poor immigrants, including black Caribbean and African immigrants, often do well in school, disproves the claim that their working-class roots deny today’s newly middle-class blacks the “cultural capital” to teach their children to excel in school. The success of Southeast Asian immigrants’ children in the same terrible inner-city schools in which black students fail disproves the Jonathan Kozol gospel that it is the “savage inequality” of school funding that makes black kids fail. Though Kozol’s followers counter that immigrants are an inappropriate comparison because they are a “self-selected” population, rich in initiative, Latinos are also self-selected immigrants and yet lag behind in school almost as much as blacks—which shows that culture plays a major role among immigrants. Finally, educators often assert that white teachers are biased against black children, dousing their initiative early on and then tracking them away from advanced placement classes. However, studies repeatedly suggest that teachers track based on demonstrated ability—and, again, black Caribbean and African children do fine, despite presumably suffering the same treatment as native-born blacks.

Finally, what of Claude Steele’s influential argument that middle-class black students underachieve in school because fear of confirming the stereotype of black mental inferiority makes them choke up on tests? I know from my own experience that there’s a grain of truth in this argument. But a tiny grain: after all, college assignments are not composed to test racial abilities. And all these conventional arguments neglect the elephant sitting in the middle of the room: if black students who try to achieve in school get sharply teased for it and threatened with ostracism, why would we not expect this to be the main cause of their academic underachievement?

One well-studied case decisively confutes all the conventional arguments. In tony suburban Shaker Heights, Ohio, funding is generous, support programs aimed at black students (about half of the student population, not an alienated minority) abound, there is no ability tracking (students track themselves), and such racism as can be found is too intermittent to destroy the academic curiosity of a human being of normal resilience. Yet blacks there cluster at the very bottom of the school, and black students report that they come up against the “acting white” charge whenever they try to excel. One girl interviewed there knuckled under to this teasing and saw her grades plummet, while white students interviewed talked about how, in many of their cliques, doing well in school was “cool.” Districts all over the country, including Evanston, Illinois, Prince George’s County, Maryland, and Nyack, New York, report similar results.

Victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism underlie the general black community’s response to all race-related issues. The response to affirmative action is a case in point. Blacks see it as a policy that appropriately bends the rules for a people denied the opportunity to compete on a level playing field—a notion that in 2006, when middle-class blacks are a massive and thriving group in American society, can only seem plausible through the lens of victimology. The defense of affirmative action on the grounds of “diversity” is an expression of separatism. After all, since there are not enough black students to be admitted to selective schools on the same merits as the other students, beyond a certain cut-off point blacks are being valued as much for their distinct and separate cultural traits as for their academic accomplishment. This is a state of affairs, moreover, that requires a strong dose of anti-intellectualism to accept without discomfort. And the same anti-intellectualism rests content with the flimsy reasoning behind all defenses of affirmative action: that because black students are overrepresented in underfunded public schools, for example, it is immoral for colleges to require a top-quality dossier from the black child of a doctor and a corporate manager, or that, as William Bowen and Derek Bok argue in the sickeningly overpraised The Shape of the River, affirmative action ought be continued indefinitely because its first generations of beneficiaries didn’t mind it and are happy with their lives.

Today, these three thought patterns impede black advancement much more than racism; and dysfunctional inner cities, corporate glass ceilings, and black educational underachievement will persist until such thinking disappears. In my experience, trying to show many African-Americans how mistaken and counterproductive these ideas are is like trying to convince a religious person that God does not exist: the sentiments are beyond the reach of rational, civil discourse.

Even author John H. McWhorter confirms this when he wrote: “After I gave a talk at a black bookstore outlining why the conventional explanations for black students’ underperformance don’t hold water, a matriarchal figure simply dismissed my argument by pronouncing that America is “set against” black students, period—to the applause of the entire room. Time magazine’s Jack E. White wrote a disparaging review of my new book, Losing the Race (“Come on, Professor”), which simply repeated the traditional explanations of what holds black students back, as if he hadn’t been able to take in my chapters arguing against just these points. During another talk I gave on the book, one black schoolteacher kept interrupting to insist, fantastically, that when black students accuse others of “acting white,” they are criticizing these students for not teaching their peers how to excel in school as well.”

Now there was a time when fighting and decrying institutional racism was the main task at hand, and blacks of my generation owe a debt of gratitude to those who did it; our comfortable lives would be impossible without their efforts. Today, though, these people are well-intentioned relics of another era, an era they in their moment helped us to get past. Our main concern must be with new generations, who can fulfill their potential only in an America where victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism don’t flourish among black Americans. There are two main paths to this goal according to John H. McWhorter.

First, it’s time for well-intentioned whites to stop pardoning as “understandable” the worst of human nature whenever black people exhibit it. The person one pities is a person one may like but does not truly respect. Certainly whites must keep extirpating vestiges of racism, even within their own souls. But for David Howard to concur with his firing by Washington mayor Anthony Williams for using the word “niggardly” is condescension, not compassion; for Nathan Glazer to reverse his longstanding opposition to affirmative action because whites “owe” black people is to cast blacks as characters in a morality play, not to usher living human beings out of a historically conditioned wariness of school.

Second, it’s time for our selective educational institutions to eliminate affirmative action in admissions. This policy may have been useful in the 1960s in creating a black middle class. Today, however, the children of Bowen and Bok’s happy campers are hobbled from top academic performance not by poverty and residual bigotry, as their parents often were, but by a sense of spiritual separation from the whole endeavor of learning, an estrangement that set-aside policies and lowered standards cannot help. To achieve in any endeavor, people need incentives. As long as top colleges exempt black students of all classes from serious competition, their admissions officers shouldn’t wonder why so few black students submit top-class dossiers. Only without such a policy will parents, teachers, and school boards, genuinely alarmed at drop-offs in “diversity” in institutions of higher learning, start to help black children become truly competitive for selective schools. What happened after California ended legalized racial preferences in 1995 is a case in point. Programs exploded throughout the state to prepare minorities to be competitive and to eliminate their financial barriers to college.

Eliminating affirmative action will also help dispel black college students’ resentment-tinged anxiety that their white classmates dismiss them as affirmative action picks. It will promote richer interracial contact among students poised to become the nation’s leaders. The tacit understanding is that white students somehow ought not suspect that blacks got in under the door—but this is a hopelessly unrealistic fiction, given that in 28 selective schools in 1989 less than one in four white students with SAT scores in the 1250-99 bracket was admitted, while three out of four black ones with the same scores got in, as The Shape of the River reports. The black student who can confidently claim to be on campus for the exact same reasons that white and Asian students are there is less likely to embrace the myth, which many black college students cherish, that whites are all covert racists.

McWhorter believes that the time is ripe for such changes. People often ask him how black people have received Losing the Race, expecting him to describe a fearsome litany of invective and condemnation. Sure, he’s gotten some of that—one letter or e-mail a week, perhaps, along with the predictable tirades on black radio call—in shows. Doubtless plenty of blacks who don’t call in or write him also find the book repulsive. But almost all the letters and messages he’s received from African-Americans from all walks of life all over the country have been positive. At last count he heard from over 2,000 blacks, most telling him that his book says things they have long despaired of hearing from our so-called civil rights leaders. Black college students wrote him, telling him that his book helped them understand the internal, cultural factors working against achievement. Older blacks write, agreeing with him that there was a crucial and damaging change in black ideology in the mid-1960s. McWhorter even received three laudatory letters from black prisoners, all recounting how they subscribed to the party-faithful line in their youth but have rejected it since. McWhorter has also taken relatively little abuse on the radio shows: as one black man said to him calling into one of them, “Man, black people aren’t yelling at you because they think you’re wrong; they’re just mad that you’re saying it where white people can hear you.” So McWhorter’s views are really not so out of step.

Perhaps 20 years from now mainstream black thought will join McWhorter and other black leaders in stressing individual initiative and integration. And perhaps the national media will get on the bandwagon too. Today, when McWhorter is interviewed on TV or in the paper, a disparaging comment from some black leftist inevitably is part of the story, though when a Derrick Bell or a June Jordan is interviewed, never do reporters feel the need to bring in Shelby Steele or Walter Williams for their “alternative viewpoint.” Let’s hope that in 2029, the networks won’t feel that any talk of black personal responsibility needs to be balanced by victimology from some fading anachronism like Ishmael Reed, Roland Martins, Michael Eric Dyson’s or Maxine Waters of the world. That’s when we will know that we are past the coded fraud that passes for interracial discourse today and have made the kind of progress that yesterday’s civil rights’ leaders would recognize and applaud.

My Perspective: Why Blacks Are Holding other Blacks back from Prosperity?

In today’s times, I have seen some many arguments emerge and the word racism or racist used more times than I can ever remember in my time. It’s been a strange couple of weeks and months particularly year and the year isn’t even over with yet. I’ll say that much has changed and perhaps for the best as well as the worse.

A Black president has been attacked vigorously, and nary a soul can legitimately hint racism is involved. The same can be said of the plights of athletic stars Allen Iverson and Michael Vick, both saddled with enough baggage to provoke extreme levels of skepticism. In fact, the one incident that ended up being racially tinged involved a renowned scholar, honored by former President Clinton, befriended by President Obama and Oprah, and celebrated throughout the African-American community as an iconic figure. An individual deemed above the pettiness and belligerence considered normal whenever Blacks and Police Officers are mentioned in the same sentence.

Yet, Professor Louis Gates proved not to be above such insidious occurrences, after all. In fact, for all we know, he may have been a provocateur. Ditto for the rest of us so eager to jump to his defense, before hearing all of the facts. So what does our eagerness to draw uninformed conclusions about racial matters say about how far we’ve come as a people? About our nation, and where we are heading? In politics? In sports? In life? One must wonder.

Forgive me, but I found myself thinking out loud to a few folks close to me, at least vaguely connecting Obama and Gates with Iverson and Vick. Perhaps because all are black males and mentioned, some would say, with some tint of racial profiling these past weeks and months. Time and again, our cynicism as a society has proved to be so intense, we instantly look beneath the surface to discover the motivation behind actions. But lost in our search, at times, is the intent behind it. Sitting right on the surface, themselves. There must be maliciousness somewhere. Haven’t you heard?

In Obama’s case, where you have registered independents/conservative Democrats, per se, jumping ship, questioning whether the man knows what he’s doing, I’ve continuously encountered Blacks – including many loved ones, I must admit — too eager to swear: “They just don’t want to give that Black man a chance.” Rarely has any of my friends acknowledged that maybe, just maybe, our executive-in-chief should slow down, take a deep breath and recognize we’re all rooting for his success. Just don’t spend us into oblivion. Obama keeps reminding us that he inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit, but rarely illuminates the trillion-plus he’s already spent, his $3.6 trillion proposed budget, or the $1-to-$2-trillion his new healthcare reform is projected to cost.

While those same friends have applauded his desire to tax the affluent, few of them have taken a moment to assess the collateral damage higher taxes would have, along with the trickle-down effect destined to squeeze a Black community already saddled with 14.7 percent unemployment nationwide – predictably, the highest in America. (Translation: When it’s time for employers to absorb a pinch, do you really think they’ll pass on pinching You before pinching themselves?)

Those same friends, who shove aside Obama’s imminent, potentially catastrophic, maneuvers for the economy, choosing to focus on his intent and his vision, are the same friends who swore Gates, a Harvard professor, was racially profiled after he was arrested by a Cambridge (Mass.) police officer for disorderly conduct in his own home. They are the same friends who think Vick is experiencing his own version of racial profiling since some are not eager to let him back in the NFL following 23 months in federal prison. And they are the same ones who’ve said Iverson hasn’t found a team yet because he’s being unfairly stigmatized.

There’s no doubt that validity is attached to all the suspicions emanating from the Black community. But at some point, it just comes down to doing what’s right. Basically, we have no other choice that benefits us. When will Obama learn that you can’t walk into the presidency gung-ho on redistributing wealth, while unemployment continues to escalate, and expect your approval ratings to elevate? Or even stand pat?

Regardless of what may or may not have happened, why wasn’t Professor Gates composed enough to de-escalate a situation with the police, knowing that if he was just a black man, as opposed to a renowned scholar with influential friends, he could have easily been just another statistic lost in the news clutter? When will we learn that while Vick most certainly has suffered enough and deserves a second chance, that a segment of the Black populace won’t help his cause when coupling race with statements like: “They were just dogs. Damn! We know plenty of people who’ve done much worse and are not in jail. Let alone denied the right to earn a living?”

Or that as much as a lot of us may love and root for Iverson – myself included – his maverick ways no longer ingratiate him to coaches and executives more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing their jobs? A new day may have arrived, but it is foolish to assume new rules are en vogue when most Blacks still lament how two Americas still exists, even with a Black president.

If we’re being real, it’s undeniable that some within the Black community believe Gates suffered from the same selective amnesia our president should have suffered from before accusing someone the president admits was “an outstanding Police Officer” of acting “stupidly” in front of a nationally televised audience. And we’ve stopped counting how often Black athletes suffer from bloated egos, too often forgetting their ethnicity usually usurps their status whenever trouble arrives.

Racism and prejudice have always existed, and when we fight to fend it off, we’re obligated to pick our spots carefully. To make sure it really counts when we elect to do it. The truth is, we’ve fallen short on that mandate on far too many alarming occasions. And some would argue it has actually set us back. Most of America has developed a deaf ear to the issue of racism. It’s not just White America, anymore.

The fact that an incident involving racial profiling is being debated is a defeat in the fight against racism and prejudice. Whether it comes from the mouth of our President, the cantankerous behavior of one of our scholars or the purported exile of our talented athletes, the arguing of these claims weakens the issue of race in America by saturation, alone. That saturation gives Whites and others the argument that everything is about race. It allows other ethnic groups the license to be dismissive. It stymies progress, camouflages reality and builds resentment towards Blacks from all corners of our society.

It hurts to say that. Obviously it is not pleasant, but it is necessary. Especially coming from the mouth of someone within the Black Community. Speaking about and doing what’s right is one thing. But what about doing what actually works? When does that matter?

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is fond of saying, “when the rules are public, visible for all to see, Black folks usually find a way to excel in spite of the obstacles.” The Reverend is absolutely right about that. So long as we’re willing to accept the reality of the world we live in and go from there – and not continue to lament how the world should be without progressively stepping forward first, then looking in the mirror. Or quite simply, just asking ourselves: Where is this going to get us? Moving forward should be easier from there.

However still there are some in the black community who can’t get beyond America’s racial past and would love us as blacks to continue to play the race card in order to get ahead but playing the race card will not solve our social issues or the conditions that we as many black experience. While I agree with Jesse Jackson’s above statements, he has been a part of an old guard of black leadership in the black community that claims to speak for us as blacks but for his rhetoric, Al Sharpton’s rhetoric and many others, what have we as blacks gained since the civil rights movement in terms of prosperity and equity.

Still there are those who believe that race baiting will equate to equality and better living. A Que brother of mine recently wrote me saying:

“You blame Jesse and Al because they speak for you and your ancestors...as well as your children and yet Beck has the right to say whatever he wants. We realize that all Black Folk can not speak afor all Black Folk. Who are you speaking for....looks like youspeakonly for you because I am sure those young brothers in the neighborhood you grew up in the Motor that do not have a highschool education or a job or healthcare would love the race baiting to go on so they could at least get a fair shot at life.”

Now this same brother is in his 50’s and clearly from his statement you can see that he believes that the reason why many young man don’t get a high school education is because of the color of their skin and that race baiting or playing the race card is the only way that we as blacks can prosper. I can understand how others might think like my Que brother but the truth of the matter is that we are in the midst of the 4th generation since the civil rights movement and many of the issues that festered during the civil rights movement still exist today but not just in the black community but in all communities. While it would be easy for us as black to point the finger at other races for our lack of not obtaining an education, a job and a host of other things. I do not believe that we as blacks have truly been honest with ourselves in the blame game because for many of us we still don’t blame ourselves for the conditions that we see today.

If the white man or others are to blame for our conditions as some would want us as blacks to continue to blame than what blame if any do we as blacks have when it comes to our own socio-economic conditions of our fellow blacks. What does it all mean that we are still defeating equality in education 50 plus years after Brown vs. Board? What does it mean when the American Dream is further away for blacks and brown than other racists? Is it the fault of whites for the plight of the black community or is it the fault of the black elite and those who continue to stay in the black community that haven’t stepped up to improve the conditions of poverty, decay and rioting that is plaguing low income black societies in America.

Then there is the idea that when it comes to name calling that we as blacks are the victims. In fact, people like my Que brother are quick to say that “we did not start this name calling...you see we called them master and they called us boy nigga, colored and every other degrading name that you would assign to an animal.” However what many don’t understand is that today, many of us as blacks use these names to describe our own people. We call our woman derogatory and degrading names, we call our fellow black man nigga when we greet them, and are quick to get upset when other races do the same to describe our people but we are okay with us as a people using these names. It is easy for us to get mad at other people for using names that don’t respect us but at the same time, we need to get upset with ourselves and our own people to get them to stop disrespecting us as a people.

The reality is that we as black people can’t grow as long as we continue to play the blame game. In fact we are quick to blame others for our own faults instead of accepting responsibility for our own shortcomings and short falls. We as blacks can’t continue to live in the past and act as if what took place to our people 50 years is the reason why we are suffering today. While some of our shortcomings as a society and as a people are the fault of the past, it is also the fault of us as black people as well. As much blame as we want to rest on the shoulders of whites, we can rest that same amount of blame on ourselves.

My Que brother went on to say, “You see during the late 60's and early 70's we had many folks that spoke for us... not only the Malcoms and Martins but we had the Stokelys and the Hueys and obviously you have never studied what they did for us. They made us prideful about being Black and not a negro or colored. James Brown cut a song tht became the national anthem for young black folk and Martin and Malcom gave their lives for us. As for standing up to our government, all the black folk that spoke for us did not, but there was a common purpose-making sure YOU and I got a fair shot at being equal in America.” Now what my frat brother doesn’t understand is that this is 2009 and where is the pride from our people today. As black people, we saw a resemblance of that pride during the Presidential candidacy of Jesse Jackson in 80s before his own words derailed him and today we saw pride as President Obama ran and won the presidency last year. However all Americans were pride and while we as blacks probably rejoiced the most, we are right now looking back on that triumph and are still reverting back to race baiting rather than accepting responsibility for our own faults in society.

Just as back during the 60s and 70s where all black people did not speak for blacks, today it seems as if most blacks who speak only speak with race baiting in mind and those who avoid to mention race as a the victim of our demise as people are ridiculed. Remember Bill Cosby spoke of parental responsibility and us as blacks taking responsibility for raising our own kids in 2001 in Detroit but he was quickly criticized by the likes of Michael Eric Dyson who wrote a book entitled, “Was Bill Cosby Right?” in order to make a profit off of his disdain for what Cosby said. However Dr. Cosby simply said the same thing that candidate Obama said on Father’s Day 2008 and throughout his run for the Presidency but Dyson never criticized Obama and in fact was one of Obama’s biggest supporters. This is the problem with us as black people, we are quick to dismiss or demonize those in our society we don’t agree with or we don’t like but for those we like we defend no matter how flawless their argument or statements might be.

For far too long, we as black people have been trapped in this age old debate of Booker T. vs. W.E.B. when in reality, both are right just like both Malcolm and Martin was right. We need the black nationalist as well as the black intellectual who has the utopia perspective that blacks and other races can work together to achieve equality and justice for all. However for far too long we have been entrenched in putting blacks vs. blacks or putting down blacks in order to keep blacks black which is thought in the “Mis-Education of the Negro” written by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. This is exactly what Michael Eric Dyson did when he attacked Dr. Bill Cosby for simply saying what many blacks have avoided saying for years.

We as blacks are holding ourselves back from achieving financial, economic and educational prosperity. For far too long and even today, we as blacks are quick to place the blame of us as blacks not achieving on whites and other races but we refuse to place the blame on ourselves. Look around black people and realize that this isn’t slavery although some of us still have shackles on our brains that we allow to stay there and this isn’t the 60’s & 70’s where dogs and water hoses were brought out to attack our children and women. This is 2009 and what is attacking us isn’t the Ku Klux Klan or police but us as blacks killing each other over senseless things. We are killing each other over materialistic things or the pursuit of money. Still we don’t want to speak up and say anything about that.

Many in the black community like to say they care about their people and that what’s important to them is a chance for blacks to finish high school and go to college. However how many of these same people have talked to our youth about putting down the guns, how many of them have talked to the parents about stepping up and being better parents and how many of them have even take the time as well as the effort to get involved in their communities yet alone their blocks by starting a neighborhood block club. We as blacks are quick to dismiss or speak badly about those we don’t agree with or we like to say that those that don’t think about race or speak of race in the black community are foolish or out of touch.

Black people wake up and realize that what we are facing today is not merely the ramifications of slavery and Jim Crow but it is also a part of us as black people losing our communal way. Look around our black communities and our black cities and the common trend that I guarantee that we will all see is that the talented tenth of our black race no longer reside in the impoverished black communities and have created new black communities within urban areas that weren’t black areas before or they have moved to the suburbs. While it is nothing wrong with that but what is wrong is, what does that mean for the blacks that they left behind? What does moving out of urban black cities mean for the development of black communities and most of all what does it mean for dealing with the disparities that we as black people face?

We as black people claim that we have had enough with the racial, economic and health issue comments and how we intend to solve the problems of Americans as my Que brother said to me but we continue to be the ones to speak of everything in terms of race no matter what the issue is. While we didn’t start the name calling as black people, we are sure quick to say that everything that happens between people of color and whites racist. Black people wake up and realize that if we continue to go down this path of claiming that our pitfalls are racists or someone else’s fault rather than part of it being our own fault than what message are we sending to future generations of blacks.

Are we telling our black youth that the reason they are not getting an adequate or decent education is the white man’s fault and the reason why they can’t get healthcare is the white man’s fault? What signal are we really telling our youth? Are we telling our youth that the reason why they are poor is because of the white man and the reason why their mother or father or even their grandparents doesn’t have a high school diploma or a college diploma is because the white man prevented that? While in some cases that might be true but in all cases it being true is just not right. Black people we are holding each other back from prosperity. We are our own worst nightmare and no matter how much we try to blame others for the shortfalls of us as a people, we just need to look in the mirror and blame our selves.

While we should teach our youth to be sensitive to the issue of race and their own blackness but not to use it as an excuse or a crutch for why they can’t get ahead but in order to gain pride in who they are and to understand that there might be some people even within the black community who use race to divide us as people rather than unite us. We can’t continue to sit up here as black people and attack each other’s beliefs and values without understand that all black people are not the same just like all people are not the same. We can’t assume because one is black that they experienced all the hardships as other blacks or used to dealing with black people because nothing can be farther from the truth. We as black people have to respect each other but most of all we must understand that if we are to get ahead as a society than we have to uplift each other, guide each other and most of all be there for each other through the good and the bad.

Black people we can’t continue to degrade each other and label each other names simply because one black person doesn’t think you or me. If we are to get ahead as a black community than we must understand that not all blacks believe in abortions, not all blacks believe in affirmative action and not all blacks believe in government programs. This is understandable because some blacks believe in blacks helping blacks to succeed which is what Black Nationalism was about. Some blacks believe that we as blacks need to accept responsibility for our own actions and our own lives by pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps through obtaining the best education possible, by reading often and by never accepting no for an answer but most of all never settling even when you achieve one goal. Blacks come from all walks of life and believe in different things but as much as our race brings us together, we need to look beyond race when judging our fellow black men and women.

We as blacks have to accept responsibility for our own actions and our own attitudes. No longer can we continue to blame others for our shortfalls when we have more black millionaires and billionaires than ever before. We have more black politicians than ever before and more blacks with Ph.D.’s, J.D.’s, M.D.’s and Master degrees than ever before. We can’t continue to blame others for our shortcomings as black people when we have more black CEOs than ever and we have more blacks as teachers, professors and other administrative positions in educational facilities both pre-secondary and post-secondary. We have more black clergy and more black mega churches than any other time in our history. So black people we have come far as a people but we still have farther to go. We can’t continue to blame others for our own misfortunes when we have more black single families than any other time in our history, we have more black man in prison than on college campuses and we have more blacks unemployed since the Great Depression. Come on black people, we have more blacks with HIV/AIDS, more black abortions than ever before and more black teen pregnancies than any other race. Black people wake up and understand that black on black crime in urban communities are at its highest since the 1980s and black on black youth violence in areas like Chicago are the worst it has ever be and perhaps even worse than the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of people being shot.

These are some of the issues that we face as black people all the while we have gained in other areas. For we can’t continue to blame others for children growing up in fatherless homes and when we as a community have not worked to deal with this issue and create a community for our children to succeed despite the lack of a male precise inside the home. Black people we are holding each other back from prosperity. We are the ones who think that if we race bait and play the color card that perhaps we will get ahead in life but if we look at President Barack Obama and use him as our example for our children to follow as well as ourselves than we will understand that understanding your race is okay but using it as an excuse to not succeed or want more is not okay. We as black people must understand that our race is not reason for us to accept an inferior education or inadequate city or governmental services from those who are elected to provide us with certain living conditions that many affluent people receive. We as black people must not accept poverty as a way of life but instead we need to understand that what we are today doesn’t always have to be what we are tomorrow.

These are the lessons that we need to teach to our youth and future generations of blacks if we are to get ahead as black people. No longer can we play the race card or use race baiting to achieve our goals as a society. No longer can we accept black leaders who use race as an opportunity to obtain wealth and no longer can we condone those organizations use racial issues as an opportunity to gain television time or newspaper clippings. Black people we have to stand up now and take back our communities and teach our youth that they are more than what they think they are. We must teach our youth and future generations that just because the generations before them didn’t achieve all they could, they worked for them to obtain a free and adequate education so that they can continue the fight for justice and equality for all. Black people we have to wake up and realize that if we are to succeed as a group rather than as individuals, it will take all of us working together to help one another, to encourage one another and most of all to understand one another to come to a common ground on what we all can work together on to achieve.

No longer can we ignore the fact that we as black people have been holding each other back and no longer can we continue to blame others for us a people for not achieving success when some of our own people love to hold us back. Blacks, it is time to stop playing victim and it is time to work toward achieving our goals rather than passing blame for it. If not now than when.