It just occurred to me that some of my work may be redundant.
I was just commenting at another blog in the following manner:
The corrosiveness of racism that we do suffer kills fewer people than train accidents. So I'm not particularly impressed with people who go on and on about racism just as I'm not particularly impressed with train safety people. OTOH at least the train safety people are getting paid to save lives. Anti-racists yammer on for free and don't change much.
However I do take anti-racists seriously because in the realm of social influence, yammering matters. The question for me is whether the examples you cite about rock throwers in Forsythe should outweigh the average ordinary black family trying to live out the American dream. That is to say, if you're going to bash the idea of celebrating Oprah, what do you have to say that's more important - given that you're going to be influential in the social sphere?
It seems to me that blackfolks have hoped very hard for generations to see their faces on TV in a successful context. They have done so in the face of a terrible violent racism that we no longer fear. Well, most of us, that is. It may be true that Oprah is just another celebrity who doesn't have anything profound to offer, then again anti-racists aren't saving lives either.
Blackfolks live in their skin. What favors are we doing them to suggest that the study of racism is more important than the study of American success?
What indeed? Do black people need to be reminded that there is racism in America? Do whitefolks? I'm of the mind that blackfolks don't need to heed the hash and rehash the daily grumble of 'race relations'. Nor should we be overly concerned that the issues of racial injustice as if they are never addressed. Rather what is most important is some forward thinking about how we are going to frame the continuing discussions about identity. I want to touch on something I picked up over at P6 this morning:
I listen to silly arguments like "affirmative action make white people doubt Black people's capabilities" when the general image of Black people in the American mind is light years ahead of what it was in the 50s'...as a result of the graduates that got a chance due to affirmative action.
'The general image of Black people in the American mind' is what I mean by social capital. It is a fundamental premise of the political orientation of Cobb that the era of Civil Rights is over and that African America is entering the era of Social Power, and that our politics ought to reflect the reality of our emergence. Being in the upper middle class of America as a black man, I am on the edge of that new reality enough to be enmeshed in controversies which seem to divorce me from the humanity of 'the overwhelming majority of black people today'. While I certainly understand and respect the differences between African Americans - we are not a black monolith - I also understand and respect our common ground. So with regards to social capital, I will continue to put emphasis on that which works and is appropriate to bourgeois delicacies and the imperatives of the American upper middle class, often at the expense of the hoi polloi. However I am also concerned with the emergence of the black working class and poor as well as the dispensation of the underclass. So by various means I am becoming concerned that we in the privileged classes are the only ones up to the task of providing some cultural continuity of black emergence.
More simply said and exemplified. What continues to be considered culturally black for the next generation of ever-increasingly successful African Americans depends upon what we successful blacks cosign. What's difficult about this is maintaining the kind of relationships that keep such existential juices flowing because we are a diaspora. There are real geographical, political, educational and cultural hurdles to overcome.
This is something of a different tack than that I've been taking with regard to the Old School, which has appears somewhat defensive and combative. You have to admit that works well in blogospheric context. I think that is part and parcel of the way this kind of writing works, in contrast to what comes across when I compose video blog entries. For me personally, I am much more the person you see than the persona you read. In text, I can get right down to business.
There are two primary assertive conclusions to be drawn from these observations.
- From a black perspective, the only benefit to be gained from anti-racism owes to a positive forthright engagement with non-blacks in the spirit of direct action.
- Within African America the value of culture is higher than that of politics.
There are some very profound consequences that I see for black politics that flow from these axioms which will change the direction of Cobb with regard to blackness. From time to time I will bring to light the assumptions that undergird this thinking. But here are some of the immediate consequences I see.
On the first point, I think that black political partisans are going to have to play what they essentially call LaShawn Barber's 'game'. That is to say that they are going to find, attract and hold the attention of predominately white audiences and teach their way to freedom. That is to say that partnership is the only way out of the subtleties of racial politics in America today. If the threat of racism were as large in reality as it is in some people's heads (people that don't get out much), then I might suggest otherwise. In the same way I support Bush's decision not to talk to Ahmadinejad until the nuclear threat is gone, I would support a black partisan decision not to involve whites in discussions if such threats were manifest as they were 40 years ago.
Take this guy for example. Every black community activist knows someone exactly like him. He will get a white audience faster than I will. That's a problem for everyone. I'll deal with Kamau Kambon later. My point is that his way of withdrawing from society puts him at odds with society. How he gets to be a college professor is beyond me, but like I said, later for him. So the challenge before us is to have greater volume. I mean his video has over 100,000 views.
More on the second point later.
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