An article I read this week, in discussing the possibility of an egalitarian society, states that “the objective of the massed based elite is to replace the power of one minority with that of another.” Personally, I have witnessed this played out in the emergence of the new black middle-class. This group has began to assert its dominance over poor and working poor blacks, and created a new stratification within the ranks of African Americans. One in which the systems that enabled the more highly educated, more affluent blacks to succeed, have been disbanded through a lack of solidarity between African Americans as a whole. It is very much an “us and them” mentality between these groups. In terms of education, there is a general lack of concern among affluent middle classed blacks, about the plight of poor blacks, specifically those who have little to no access to a quality education. Middle class blacks would be more concerned with their own individual, personal access to material wealth, than giving back to the communities, sustaining the social systems, fighting against injustices for poor blacks, in the same spirit of the Civil Rights movement that made their personal success possible. What this does is to undermine the solidarity that made the emergence of middle-class blacks in America possible, and create division in the pursuit of the facade of the American dream. I say facade because even affluent, highly educated blacks come face to face with the fact that success does not erase, or make invisible the stigma of racial stereotypes or discrimination in a racist society like America. There must be, on the part of all groups and members of society, a collective struggle for equality that would lead to the emergence of a qualitatively new society in all areas including education. As the article that inspired this riff states, we need a “prolonged struggle based on hope and a total vision of a qualitatively new society.”
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3 comments:
I just read your entry and I understand your point and I recognize that their appears to be a need for solidarity among Black Americans from different socio-economic classes. But what I see is the evolution of the Black psyche from one that is singular in nature to one that is stratisfied by socio-economic class. This stratisfication is common in all homogeneous societies and was delayed among Black Americans because of the nature of the heterogeneous Empire known as the United States of America. I think the expectation among Black Americans to evolve differently than other ethnic groups, cultures or empires is a very high (maybe unattainable) one. In the life span of every nation their is a stratification of the haves, the almost haves and the have nots. Revolutions happen when the almost haves and the have nots come together with the financing of a group of cowardous haves (that should be considered still want to have but dont want my head in a basket) . In order to prevent such revolution it is imperative for Black Americans who have to give inroads (narrow as it may be) to their segment to the almost haves and the have nots. It still is up to the almost haves and have nots to widen this road. The almost haves and the have nots can not wait and depend on the "mercy" or "grace" of the haves to create solidarity.
I also agree that the American Dream is a facade and most of us unlike Neo in the Matrix have decided to take the blue pill instead of the red one. We want to believe in the facade because its rewards and its injustices all match the cultural norms that we have been conditioned with.
I once believed that their was such a thing as Black and White people. Now i have found out that their is only Rich, Poor and confused people.
---this response was written at 4 different times (with no editing for consistency) and may sound ridiculous and I apologize for any confusion caused by this rant---
Interesting comment. The one thing that differs about the United States is that all of its classist structure was derived from a theory of a superior race, northern Europeans to be exact, add to that the Protestant Republican "ethic," and you have a nation that evolved under the systemic devaluation and opression of all people who did not meet the stated criteria. I agree that class is a major factor, but I ask the proverbial chicken or egg question, "What came first in the US? Race or Class?" Is it even one or the other?
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