Visions of An Integrated Black Identity - Part I

Are you one those who was convinced that integration was a benevolent (goodwill) concession articulated by government policies that had a primary mission to end the exclusion of African Americans? Perhaps to the contrary, you believe it was the first step to destroying cultural plurality and deconstructing Black Identity and Black solidarity. Let me be clear: Cultural pluralism is NOT Radical Nationalism. They are two very different things, please look it up. Cultural Pluralism exists when members of different races and ethnicities maintain their unique cultural identities, while still operating within the mainstream laws, norm and values of a national society. Italians, Asians, Arabs, the Irish, the Mexicans and other Latin or Hispanic people have done a good job of integrating into American institutions; education, law and politics, but still remain strongly connected to their cultural identity, which is cultural pluralism.

I believe that the more Black people have as individuals been provided opportunities to excel, that their/our increasing need to aspire to attain material well being ($$$) and mainstream "melting pot" values (Americanism) has become paramount and central to our identity and for our need to be perceived as American. However I also believe this is a misadventure of critical thought, of knowing who you are, and from whence you came!  Material well being in and of itself is NOT a bad thing to aspire toward.

However, it seems that Black people are the only people -culturally--- that operate in a state of mind that constantly negotiates the boundaries between; "I can only get this at the expense of that", or "either I have this or I have that" mentality. We never believe that we can stay connected to our Blackness (heritage & identity) our history of oppression and exploitation (slavery, Jim Crow and poverty) in this country and the positively strong history of our African Ancestors--- while at the same time---- creating places and spaces that help us advance in our collective vs. individual class status. We seem to be consumed and dominated by the need to consume (consumerism/materialism). In other words, many Black people are of the misdirected thinking that in order for us to be materially well off (middle-upper class) that we have to divorce our souls our minds and our history from the Black experience in this country, our psychological understanding of who we are...as Dr. Cornel West says----"our humanity".   I agree with him in thinking this is tragedy of enormous proportion.  As Dr. West so eloquently stated in his book "Hope on a Tightrope, Words and Wisdom, http://www.blackexpressions.com/pages/nm/product/productDetail.jsp?skuId=1031912910. 
" If you think you can possess your soul by means of possessing things, then you have moral constipation stalking you." "Do you think you can stuff your humanity in your profession and social function?, Try it and see."

This is a direct result of having no centralized situated respectable identity in the United States, history or culture. As endearing and powerful as our group membership was when we were all shut out ---which allowed us the ability to organize and seek change; we have had to grapple with the reality likewise, that group solidarity has its shortfalls in a capitalist society. Thus, the chance for individual accomplishment was and remains very attractive and has created great schisms amongst the differing economic and educational classes of Black people. Somehow we have to defend our blackness as separate but equal from American identity. We seem not to occupy both spaces at once. If we are honest with ourselves-- we know very well that being Black and being an American have historically and currently remain a contradiction in terms. This is not because we have wanted it this way---but because it has been imposed upon us. Is classism this the contemporary ghost of good ole Willie Lynch?---class divisions between well-off and poor Black people.

This is leading many Black Americans to ask questions like is Race still relevant? Are we post racial? Have we transcended race? Are Black people holding on to the past to remain in –as John McWhorter put it in his book-- Losing The Race: Self Sabotage in Black America - trapped in a "Cult of Victimology?http://www.amazon.com/Losing-Race-Self-Sabotage-Black-America/dp/0060935936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255457137&sr=8-1

Corporate enterprises and interests knew that it was not good business to exclude segments of the population that could in fact increase their profits. Just as these same corporate and government interests knew that keeping women out of the workforce made it impossible for them to tax almost half of the population. Not to mention with many of the men going off to war, white women were needed to work in the factories, and in the benevolent social agencies (Family Welfare/ Child Protective Services) and other institutions. Re-passing the Civil Rights Acts of 1865 in 1964, assured those wanting to take the country into the Vietnam War that they would have freshly new minted " Black citizens," that had they not been enfranchised into the civic life of American society--- would have had a good case to make against going off to fight a war for a country in which they were not afforded basic civil rights, as full American citizens. These businesses know that picketing and collective bargaining (unions) and other organizing strategies threaten $$. Good business philosophy, in the interest of Capitalism will always dictate the policy…ALWAYS, despite what the politicians, leaders and talking heads tell you are their publicly stated positions. So the policy is: Fairness, Access and Opportunity.

The business objective that always drives the policy behind the scenes is Capitalism, open markets and free trade. I hope you get my point. It may not have been about you in 1865 becoming a freed slave---and it may just not be about you now. Corporatism has perpetuated a materialistic illusion---where Black and white has fallen on their Green sword. Or at least we seem to be $buying$ that line....and buying it literally! Look at how many of us determine our social-psychological worth by if we can afford to purchase the goods of some rich Italian designer, or purchase the finest wines. After your finished drinking your fine wine, go out on the street and try to get a cab, or go to a Bank and try to get a small business loan, or drive past the police and try your hardest to keep your heartbeat from accelerating----pounding out of your chest! How is that for your belief in the things in life?

So make no mistake about it----- when disenfranchised people gain any traction on rights, equality and opportunity, the capitalist business interests will always move in the direction of increasing profits for themselves or decreasing the profits of others. And since the corporations fund members of congress who are the people who make the laws, it’s not hard to see the connection. If it’s bad for business, it’s bad for policy. This is most significantly why the Women’s Suffrage movement was successful, why Civil Rights was successful, and ultimately why Gay marriage and other Gay rights issues will be successful. The formula is very simple, the more people you can reach with your product, (ideas or material) the more money you make-- and the likelihood you have to crush the competition. It’s about Money! Period.

Integration allowed White businesses, products and services to be integrated into the Black community. However, integration did not allow Black businesses, products and services to be integrated out into white communities---they have never really gained legitimacy. Integrating into the mainstream educational system may have seemed like the sensible thing at the time, but it cut us off from teaching our complete history, (culture, philosophy, art, science and technological innovations) our communication and language style and adopting it to our learning style. It may have started out deficient, but over time the power of the institution--- that would have certainly grew up around it as it evolved--- would have become a force to be reckoned with, in much the same way the Historically Black Colleges and Universities served the needs of Black college students.

Allowing Black students to get a Western Education, in which their own history is omitted, misrepresented or forgotten inspires Blacks to romanticize, admire and seek to be like the very people that have waged a steady campaign to keep you oppressed, repressed, suppressed and depressed. Period!
 “If a Man is not going to Treat you right, he is not going to Teach you right,” (unknown quote)

To be Continued - Part 2
Justice Speaks