Let us presume that there is a difference between Black Power and the power that Barack Obama has as a black man. Is it a distinction without a difference? Let us presume also that there is a difference between Black Power and the power that Colin Powell had as a black man? Is that closer or further away? Should we not care so long as they're both black? Or is one more or less black than the other?
The point of this rhetorical exercise is to examine what I call the Black End Game. Which is to say, how long in America should anybody care which avenues black men decide to take? At what point should the average black American stop caring about whether or not there should be an asterisk on all the advice they get throughout their lives - should they look for a black version? And I'm not talking about simpleminded flavors of life, I'm talking about substantial life skills. For example:
It's hard to imagine anyone saying that 'the black community' would cease to exist, but in many ways it already has. It just depends on which black community you're talking about. My aunt was born at home. Who is born at home? I haven't asked about it but there was probably a time in my grandparents' generation when it was just unthinkable for blackfolks to go to hospitals to have babies delivered by doctors. And I'm quite sure that there were many black midwives who handled the business of birthing babies just fine. I, for one, know zero about that culture. All I know about hot water and lots of towels I learned from old black and white TV shows and movies.
If Barack Obama or Colin Powell is black power then what can be said about their avenues? That is to say is that all just individual achievement or is there some social path we should identify such that the black ways and means have some orthodoxy or identifiable traits? If your kid grows up digging Justin Timberlake but not knowing anything about Michael Jackson is it still black music? If they don't go to a black Church with a black Jesus is Christianity still appropriate? How much black-orientation is sufficient? Is it like oxygen?
An assumption behind all this is that there is some way to be demonstrably pro-black through black achievement and such achievement naturally accrues benefits to black communities. Maybe it's osmosis. Maybe it's Osmosis Jones. Maybe it's role modeling. Maybe it's reparations. Whatever it is, it should get the Good Blackkeeping Seal of Approval and all those in places of responsibility to oversee such matters, Stuart Hall, for example, would readily acknowledge with the proper brownie points.
Are we to acknowledge that nobody scores a run until the entire lineup has circled the bases, or does it count to be Reggie Jackson hitting a solo shot to deep right center?
We should also presume that 'equality' in other words keeping up with Becky's Mum and Daddy, is a worthwhile goal. That there is only one American dream and by gum you had better be dreaming it, Pookie. That you can't be holding us back with your intransigent anti-Progressive Aunt Jemimism or whatever other throwback symptoms you display. Respectable Negroes won't put up with it, and we have the power to shun.
In summary. What is the great arc of Black history and what is it bending to? And how long (not long?) do we have to pay strict attention?
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