One of the more difficult things to grasp in dealing with what I have called my generational imperative, is the shibboleth of Education. This is an Old School thing, and by extension a black thing, but interestingly a liberal thing.
I spent a few minutes considering how I would define my political upbringing this morning on the way to work. I've called myself a Progressive for years without having been certified by any body. I started off as a Black Nationalist of course and then spent a little time dramatically adjusting that to the realities of integration and white liberalism. And then I did what comes natural in black politics, assumed the mantle of the imperatives of the Talented Tenth which is essentially what Obama says it is. Go to the good schools and use marginal middleclass advantages to crack open doors for 'the least of these', your black brothers stuck back in the ghettos you escaped.
There is no honest black man or woman in the Talented Tenth that doesn't understand first hand exactly how the uppity Negro gets bitchslapped on occasion from his uppity but beknighted cousin. The hubris of the black upper and uppermiddle classes are rigorously kept in check by a collection of kneejerk reactions deeply understood Back Home. I might be able to sum it up in one word: 'Edjumacation'. The black motherwit doesn't trust it. It's such a loud chorus in the background of black politics and culture that it almost drowns out the hallelujahs of black American success. Every generation has its crabs, and the well-worn calling card of the crabs is that they're 'keeping it real'.
There is certainly a downtrodden note in the bleak reality of many African Americans. 60+% of us are middleclass or better, but 40% of 38 million people cannot be written off. Every year the Urban League reminds us all of the sad but true story of a black America that isn't finding much to dream about in the American dream. And yet as close as we all remain together, blacks bumping heads across the borderlines of class, the solutions which work for some can never be far from the ears of others. There are equal numbers of platitudes back across the wrong side of the tracks. For every knucklehead who has his voice amplified by ghetto DJs spinning 'keep it real' there is a hard working mom who has her voice amplified by the local officials saying 'stay in school'. Say no to drugs, work twice as hard, handle your business, respect your black woman. For every Fiddy, there's a Cosby. Or more properly for every 4 Fiddys there are 6 Cosbys. The message gets across both ways.
I think that the ideological difference is permanent. This is only problematic because black people are not used to being poor. I'll say that again. Black people are not used to being poor. Being used to being poor means accepting that place in life with dignity and ease - not seeing one's life as being essentially unfair. For too many generations, the Negro has looked up for a home, not down. And today we're unhappy being anywhere below average, which is why the knuckleheads are not simply happy like rednecks. Nobody likes a poor happy black man or woman. It is a symbol for futility in the greatest nation on Earth. If black people were to be poor but happy, if they were to be comfortably settled in the lower classes of America, then the clash of ideologies between the 40% and the 60% would be merely academic - nothing to get excited about, a regular part of American life like the difference between Red and Blue states.
But no. Blacks require progress. In today's culture, black mediocrity, black weakness, black backwardsness is unacceptable. Which is why Edjumacation is so controversial, because it only gives us the appearance... well let me take a moment and explain.
Barack Obama symbolizes everything, and I do mean everything, that the overwhelming majority of blackfolks expect to be someday. He is educated at the very tippy top of the pyramid. It wasn't long ago, a mere 15 or so years, when Derrick Bell sounded off all around the country that something is radically wrong with America because he was the only black law professor at Harvard. And then he proceeded to self-destruct in a fit of pique worthy of Leonard Jeffries. Which is why Obama is happening and Bell is not. Where Bell was extraordinary and alienated at the top, Obama was supremely comfortable. Where Bell had to be blackified and defensive, Obama could be neutral and effusive. Nobody really believes that Obama is as brilliant a mind as Derrick Bell or even Clarence Thomas, he could never accomplish as much as a jurist. There'd be a big stamp across his head - UNQUALIFIED. Nobody would suggest that Obama could hold a candle to Thurgood Marshall. So what exactly was the point of him graduating from Harvard Law? He made it look easy. Obama is not about ultracompetence and fierce determination against all odds. No that was the task of another black generation. He is not about excellence, but achievement. Respectable, competent, reliable, uncontroversial, bourgeois achievement. Obama is all about black privilege. All of that starts where? Edjumacation.
Edjumacation is the middle class and upper middle class passports to American mainstream success. If you graduate from Ohio State with a bachelors degree in accounting, you are not a world class brain. But, you have a very good chance of getting a very good job and fitting in with America - no problem. This is what African Americans have come to expect, because we are not used to being poor, and being a Negro Problem is unacceptable. BUT. BUT. BUT. BUT. Black people want to own black people and 40% of us refuse this playing nice-nice with the mainstream, bourgeios, middle class , white bread, ordinary, flavorless flyover country. This is why hiphop exists instead of crossover. Blackfolks have to have their own flavor. Blackified like Derrick Bell, so you can get up and say things about Katrina that nobody else on the planet would even think about saying in the wake of human disaster. NO NASCAR! Blacknecks and rednecks don't mix. It's the same identity crisis, and the poor blacks and the poor whites are dad-blamed uncomfortable. Except that the blacks are WAY more uncomfortable. That's why everybody gives black Republicans shit. Because by and large, we are independent thinkers and don't mind being odd out of the bunch, but I digress. It has long been a fantasy of the Left to unite black and white proles, bohunks and -billies of all sorts. Whether you are an around the way girl or a coal miner's daughter, there has always been a promise of recognition and empowerment. BUT. Them ghettos don't mix.
So what I've been noticing is the extent to which a sort of disdain for the uneducated is generated out of the social context of a black educated class, which I suggest is tantamount to a first generation of collegians. The people you cannot imagine sitting in their office without putting their degree on the wall. That's where the biting edge of class and social lines is felt hardest. So I think a characteristic of the resentment of *comfortable* poor people has everything to do with the nature of striving to get an edjumacation. I think people should just chill, even though they've spent their lives achieving.
The imperative of getting an education in order to get respect in this society is tied very tightly to our notions of meritocracy, but everyone doesn't merit and all of the distinctions of merit in a society this large eventually become petty. What matters most is character and morality, dare I say, nobility and virtue - things that represent another dimension of achievement and excellence, one more equitably spread across demographics. Correctly identifying this thread of righteousness is the right priority for this or any nation, and it is something I fervently wish we would pursue more fervently than edjumacation.
