A question about Black Strength was raised to me in the context of whether or not America is truly interested in black success. Could an economic downturn, given the shaky psychology of the hiphop generation and the loss of pre-integration community, set Black America way back?
I honestly believe that African Americans have amassed enough social capital to survive any economic downturn in the US. Living in Southern California, I find it difficult to believe that blacks will not compete successfully against Mexicans, if indeed it comes to that. Blacks may not have climbed very high on the economic ladder, but they do have some room to fall, and in a very coarse way of seeing things, if speaking English is an advantage, if being closer to whites than Mexicans or other latinos is an advantage, blacks will take it.
My perspective on the strength of African Americans in the lower socioeconomic strata comes primarily from my view of the Armed Forces. Many folks like to make a target of 'the man's army' as a dead-end plantation one step above prison, but I think that is entirely wrong. The Army is an integral and fundamental part of the infrastructure of America and blacks are not excluded or barred. They are welcome; they are invited. America is never going to get rid of its Army, so if blacks are disproportionately there, then they are disproportionately better off. As well it cannot be understated that in any apocalyptic scenario of race war that there are certainly enough blacks who are competent to lead armies in any capacity anywhere in the world. If we wanted to take 5 southern states for blackfolks, it is militarily possible in that kind of incredible scenario.
I also consider what happened in Los Angeles in the Riot of 91. Fewer than 100 people died, and it's not clear that the majority of those who did were black. So even when it comes to chaos, shooting in the streets and burning cities down, African Americans survive crises. The black population is not decreasing. 35 some odd million is large and healthy.
I would be interested in seeing some kinds of 'black nation' statistics shown. I only see one side of the equation as when we hear about how many millions of dollars blackfolks spend on potato chips, immediately followed by some foolish statement like "Why can't we buy Citibank?" I talk about 'competing with them' and say comparing black to white is not a proper barometer of the health of African America. We need to look at that more objectively, like comparing various African American classes to Kurds or Punjabis or Aino or the people of Chiapas.
I agree that our internal diaspora has suffered from the loss of monoculture. But we are adapting rapidly to American class definitions about as quickly as any group this large can. Furthermore I think we are doing so with a great amount of cultural influence which makes our assimilation different from that of any other ethnic group. So I will concede that our emotional/psychological/spritual thang is being thinned out and dispersed. But my bottom line is that the psychic dysfunction we are acutely aware of goes out the window outside of a bourgie comparison. My definition of bourgie is, you are bourgie and middle class if you expect your clothing to make a social statement about you. People who work in chicken plucking factories don't have that luxury. Most African Americans do. So I am not inclined to sweat too much about 'babies having babies' or all other kinds of non-criminal behavior in which African Americans compare disfavorably to European Americans; it's not the proper context.
I think that blacks need to walk the walk of class when it comes to ideas of nationalism. Who ever said black nationalism was strictly socialist or Marxist? So when we actually do compare black Atlanta to Kurdish Mosul that we don't slip into ranting about the average black person in poverty as compared to those Kurds who are now trying to run their oil refineries. If there are black bank vice presidents here, then we acknowledge that in our comparisons.
Racism in all of its manifestations negatively affects blackfolks whatever their class. But the kinds of racism African Americans face today is of a different quality and frequency than that of 50 years ago. The context of my classifications of the different severities of racism was to speak about 'effective resonance' which is the effect of a certain racist act or acts on the whole of black society in order to measure out the appropriate response.
I think that if we are honest about class within African America we will find there to be different solutions to the same problems of racism, and different impacts. But the whole of African America is too deeply bound to the health of America for Class Three or probably even Class Two racism from retarding black progress. Blacks are not going to get fired from the Army, nor are they going to stop buying potato chips or shopping at Wal-Mart. Racism will not rise to that level for the same reason that all the farm workers and chicken pluckers won't be deported.
When America catches cold, all people in the lower socioeconomic classes will catch pneumonia, but African America as a whole will not. Being honest about class means acknowledging the strength of all African Americans who can and do thrive as well as the shared pain of the poor and undeducated across racial lines.
Posted by mbowen at October 10, 2003 02:43 PM | TrackBack