I wonder what kind of sense it makes to be a total cynic today, because that is what the candidacy of Arnold Schwartzenegger makes me think about.
The Old School, of which I inherit, consists of men such as my father and my uncle. As black men they have startlingly frank reasons to have no trust whatsoever in government. I am starting to believe that a real conservative must have this kind of distrust deep deep down. For to allow oneself be represented in governement by someone of only average intelligence is to suggest, in a nation of brilliant people that a crippled government is best.
I think that perhaps I have given a bit too much credence to the idea that African Americans vote for more government. While it makes perfect sense to me that we the black people deserve our equal share of pork as well as government services - those we have always been denied, I have not balanced it with the distrust I know to be present. The overwhelming history of American government has been cruel to and dismissive of African American political ambition. What we have done is to survive without it. We have ganged up against gangs because police could not be trusted. We have had 'mayors' of blocks because the real mayor would never walk our streets. We have managed all sorts of alternative remedies to what has ailed us, some functional, some dysfunctional, all black-owned, inspired and operated. This is what has sustained two societies, separate and unequal for generations.
Crippled government can be reformed, but a wrecked political process is what really concerns me. These days blackfolks are Democrats out of habit, not because the pork or services are being effectively delivered. Black progress has come through the greater acceptance of the sweat we have always put forth in our working lives; our salaries are being equalized, our degrees are being recognized. While it remains the case that the background noise of racism retards our efforts and degrades our results, many of us have grown new ways to work the systems of America and that black middle-class is permanent if apart. But the political aspirations of that black middle-class generate little heat in the hearts of the Democratic or Republican parties. It is no wonder to me that we are sitting out many elections.
There will always be a class of blackfolks who missed out on Affirmative Actions of the 70s and 80s. There have always been too many African Americans for any of the Civil Rights concessions to raise. Many punk pundits enjoy righteous indignation at the failure of blacks in spite of the 'trillions' spent by the liberals they love to hate. We rise on our own steam with a little help from our friends. But there are few friends remaining. If the black middle-class does not heel to the ideological barking of neo-conservatives, they are hounded from the halls of the Republican party. If the black middle-class does not suck up to the radical mau-mauing of longhair liberals, they are called traitors to the Struggle and their race. But those unfortunate blackfolks who suffer the indignities of a polarized economy and hypersegregation always have the attention of the left and right. Single black mothers below the poverty line, young black men in jail, abandoned black elders disabled with disease, desparate struggling black immigrants all serve a useful if symbolic purpose in the schemes of mainstream politics. The left of the Democratic Party will always have their concerns at heart, as they should. But the left of the Democratic Party is in disarray and has been effectively destroyed by the Clinton Era. While most folks take it for granted that sizeable portion of the black electorate will continue to support , they misinterpret that it is the black middle-class that will continually do so.
The sunshine period of racial integration is fading. It may not be called racial or ethnic, but what is labeled 'cultural' is becoming a black and white excuse for political retrenchment. In the wake of the death of the accomodative politics of integration, the parties are falling back on old myths. The myth of black political unity still stands in spite of the fact of black economic difference. The nobility inherent in the selfless determination of race-raising by the talented tenth is seriously challenged by the practicality of political reality. Blacks in the middle-class get very little by voting for the Democratic Left, not only because the Left doesn't deliver (whether or not it's ideas and programs are actually effective), but because the Democratic Left is not in tune with the class interests of non-dysfunctional blackfolks. Blacks in the middle-class get very little by voting for the Republican Right despite their ability to deliver because the Republican Right demonstrates no ability in accurately representing their unique interests or in considering their legitimate criticisms. The only black Americans either party accurately represents are those at the margins of society. This overstates their importance to the nation at large and alienates greater numbers of the black middle-class, the people who actually would vote the most.
So I find myself in the midst of this dilemma beginning to echo the most cynical positions of the prior generation. Yet I have no problem with good government. In fact I am probably a prime Goo Goo candidate myself. Like the Republicans, I have no tolerance for waste, fraud and abuse. Like the Democrats, I believe that a safety net is crucial for the stability of society. But unlike either party, I understand the politics of emergence - of the creation a larger middle-class and what a reformed government should be doing. Where they take the middle-class for granted and promise tax rebates and ideological purity, the black middle-class in particular needs to hear their own tales told. And we are not hearing them, and we are staying away from the polls, cynically.
The biggest joke of all is the assumption by both parties that Hispanics will fall in line with what outdated visions of crossover dreams blacks have already abandoned. They can't even get class distinctions correct for African Americans who have always been more political than Latinos (not counting Chicanos), so what makes them think they can appeal to people they don't even distinguish as anything more than 'spanish speaking'? Aside from a few hundred college students across the nation and the odd persecuted physicist, Asians aren't even in the conversation.
I don't expect a compartmentalized message for each ethnic group in the rainbow from the parties, but I do expect more than 'outreach'. I expect that the middle-classes that have been formed in the past 30 years be respected according to the ways and means of their achievement, and that they not be subsumed into minority politics as usual and their votes and support taken for granted.
What we are getting instead is a political circus which believes we will vote for any idiot the party's wealthy benefactors decide fund and put behind a podium. We may be becoming cynical but that is precisely because we are not stupid.
Posted by mbowen at August 27, 2003 12:37 PM | TrackBackIs the Democratic Left most suited for working class blacks? Outside of Detroit, where have they delivered union jobs and contracts to blacks? It is a complete no brainer to see that millions of plumbers, electricians and carpentry jobs are all within the reach of highschool educated blacks, but the Democratic Left has done squat to open up closed shops. In every city with a black Democrat mayor, there should be a burgeoning system of patronage but there is not. Even in the most crude terms the Democrats have done nothing.
This is startling when you think about it. There seems to be a great poverty of practical language and experience within the elected class of black officials in the Democratic Party and the man on the street when it comes to matters of black capitalism and ujamaa.
I think of all the blacks in the middleclass who go for multi-level marketing schemes. I think of the marginality of black banks and insurance companies. And what I believe is that the Democrats are more interested in appropriating the cultural appeal of MLK than to pay attention to his or any economic program.
In short, the democrats have had no local economic program for blacks aside from Affirmative Action. Section 8 is Federal, and that's it.
The generation of black politicians who make up the CBC don't seems to be well hooked up with local politicians in their home districts. They are still talking about black youth at risk and all that high falutin' intervention madness. But every district hasn't been outsourced or appropriated by huge corporations.
I think we simply have to admit that the generation of civil rights borne black Democrats never had, and still don't have a reasonable economic program for blacks willing to work and advance. They have depended on Affirmative Action as an economic tool despite its obvious deficiencies as such. Where is our pork, where is our graft, where is our corruption? There is no money to be shown.
The Democratic Left have become excellent civil libertarians. We know every hate crime. What we don't know is how they have lowered black unemployment one point in ten years. What we don't know is where the economic hookup is.
When A. Phillip Randolph was the man, blacks were this nation's maids, butlers, porters, servants, waiters, cooks and bootblacks. That, my friend, is what is now known as the hospitality industry, and blacks have squat to show for it. This is the endemic failure of the Democrats to recognize African Americans as economic creatures.
If blacks still want to vote for that Democratic Left, who is going to show them the error of their ways?
Posted by: Cobb at September 1, 2003 10:13 AMThis conversation is one that is sorely needed...and probably is worth more than commentary. I'll give a quick response and try to deal with it at another level later:
* Again, it isn't accurate to refer to the Democratic Left. The Republican Party is basically controlled by the right with the exception of the Northeast (and MAYBE L.A.). But the Democratic Left doesn't even control DETROIT much less the DNC. There are consequences to getting it right here that go beyond the academic.
* Every city with a black mayor DOES have a patronage position in place. Detroit has one (the casinos, the new stadiums, all had strong programs designed to aid black business development). Atlanta has one (check out the deals brothers and sisters got with the airports). And those are just for starters. BUT the benefits of this program have largely gone to the middle and upper-class (the groups you believe the DNC has NOT benefitted oddly enough). What's needed here is a strong educational program. Get money to the schools for the purposes of vocational training. This is something the Democratic Party KIND of fights for...and the Republican Party ignores.
you know what's scary Cobb? I made a similar, although not nearly as well presented, argument at Oliver's ...here
Posted by: Jason at September 1, 2003 05:53 PMwow. and you live in los angeles too? we do need to hookup.
Posted by: Cobb at September 1, 2003 09:37 PM
A couple of problems with the following passage:
"The myth of black political unity still stands in spite of the fact of black economic difference. The nobility inherent in the selfless determination of race-raising by the talented tenth is seriously challenged by the practicality of political reality. Blacks in the middle-class get very little by voting for the Democratic Left, not only because the Left doesn't deliver (whether or not it's ideas and programs are actually effective), but because the Democratic Left is not in tune with the class interests of non-dysfunctional blackfolks. Blacks in the middle-class get very little by voting for the Republican Right despite their ability to deliver because the Republican Right demonstrates no ability in accurately representing their unique interests or in considering their legitimate criticisms. The only black Americans either party accurately represents are those at the margins of society. This overstates their importance to the nation at large and alienates greater numbers of the black middle-class, the people who actually would vote the most."
* It doesn't make much sense to talk about the Democratic Left. The Democratic Left DOES exist...and the Democratic Left is who African Americans WISH to vote for...but the Democratic Left does not control the party apparatus.
* By all objective measures, the myth of black political unity is no myth. Not at a federal level. At a local and state level you see diversity...but NOT at the federal level.
* Middle class blacks don't get much voting for the DEMOCRATS (as opposed again to the Democratic LEFT) because the democrats ignore black people PERIOD.
* On the other hand middle class blacks DO get a great deal from supporting the Democratic Left, because it's the Democratic Left that is most interested in increasing its ranks. Particularly as the vast majority of middle class blacks either remember poverty DIRECTLY or have close relatives that EXPERIENCE poverty, it is in the best interest of the middle class to see black poverty effectively REMOVED.
Posted by: Lester Spence at September 1, 2003 06:09 AM