I have decided to turn a page. I didn't realize that I would until this evening having listened to Afronerd Radio. All at once it became clearer to me what I wasn't about. I am not about a certain school of racial uplift. I believe too much in economics to think that political agitation is going to change the destiny and fortunes of black people. So today I want to give up all pretense or suggestions that such is the project of Cobb. If necessary, I'll kill Cobb to make that clear. Right now I don't see the contradiction. I've never second guessed blackfolks. But perhaps some thought I was here to lead them to the promised land. No way.
Furthermore, I am deciding on a Nixonian tactic of benign neglect. My presumption will be negative. I now accept the label of antiblack. In fact I will no longer be black friendly in my political writing. On any subject considered black, I will assume that everyone will be talking about people who are incapable of surviving without third party assistance. That's not malice, it's neglect.
See, what I perceive is that Progressives and the Left, especially the politically correct and hard multiculturalists have placed the black masses in their minds as beyond criticism. They have defined the only sorts of criticism they think blacks should accept or consider and that everything else is just hate (or self-hate). I'll let them have that, and all of their black political prisoners as well. I think they really believe that blackfolks are, by and large, victims; that urban life and what it takes to succeed in America is beyond their ken and means and that everyone who isn't breaking their neck to assist them is an enemy. I'm no longer going to waste any effort disputing that idiotic perception. Instead, I'm going to talk about what I think Americans should do, and if anyone for any reason doesn't think that applies to black people, more power to you. I am not going to pretend to be a better friend to blackfolks than you.
The new black burden of proof is to disprove that African American alienation is so complete and intractable, that we will always have to talk about different sets of values between black and non-black. I will leave the maintenance of 'black' values and that program's details to others. I will be American and talk about a singular set of American values. If you don't understand me, it's your fault.
What I expect is that I will have my card pulled, that I will officially be called a race-traitor. Sobeit. Anyone who considers themselves that authority gets no respect from me anyway. I hereby retreat into the solace of the blackness that is the sole province of my family heritage and upbringing. Anything I don't already know...whatever to that. I'm not a social scientist, I'm a computer scientist. I accept the possibility that my logic doesn't apply, and I no longer care.
This officially means that the creative aspect of the Old School project is complete. It is what it is and does not advance from here. I will continue to observe and comment, but my era of creative solutions, such as it was, including structural analysis that I think would aid and abet others than me, that's pretty much over. My analysis is for my benefit. I'm deep into crusty curmudgeon-ville.
There are three major factors in this decision. One is the Afronerd factor. I sense a great deal of energy in his internecene class warfare, and his hardball pro-black "we don't care what whitefolks do or say" attitude. I perceive that is something that was desired of Cobb, and it has become clear to me that I have little interest in that game. See your local Afronerd for details.
Second is the emerging Africa factor. I am very encouraged by all of the signals I have been getting from Africans in my orbit on matters of markets and free trade as opposed to aid. I think this signals the death of the welfare state from a Pan-African perspective, and yet another confirmation that the domestic black left is fast approaching irrelevance. It's the economy, stupid. Manning Marable may continue to spin even before his grave.
The third is personal, and that is that I think I should take seriously the critique that without a constant communion with folks in the 'hood, that my opinion as 'black' is undermined. I have no interest in diverting my ambition towards social work, but in fulfilling my role in my extended family. And it is becoming increasingly clear, as I look at my family profile, that we will continue to be odd out of the bunch. Our success alienates us from the African Americans whose 'well-being' is the obsessive focus of Left and Progressive political partisans.
In sum, I find myself returning to the state I was prior to the invention of Cobb, which was rather apathetically disengaged from the everyday political battles, and more interested in music, technology and epicurean delights. Back on the bourgie fence with independents who really didn't care if Republicans or Democrats won - with no compelling reason to inform a political opinion about blackfolks, just a series of 'My Daddy told me' stories. I think this leaves me well-placed for uppity Aggregation, because in my life, I've known few upper-class blackfolks who really cared about the political disposition of the many, other than to mack that role-modeling circuit, and try to climb the BE-100.
And so now Cobb walks from the field to sit down on his front porch. I guess that makes this the sixth or seventh instantiation of 'The End of My Blackness'. I'll let you know when I find another reason to jump back into the pool.
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