Prometheus 6

The best way to interpret that stricken sentence is that, essentially the imperative of the Talented Tenth has expired. The Tenth themselves don't want the burden and the Ninety aren't looking to them for it. 'Each one teach one' suffices.

I think it's generally accepted that blackfolks who don't help out other blackfolks when the opportunity arises are strange and somewhat dysfunctional. But I think it's equally accepted that crusaders are more trouble than they're worth. So, give the 'sup and answer the knock on the door if and when it comes. Common sense.

I am hopeful that the era of role monkeys is coming to a close.

The best way to interpret that stricken sentence is that, essentially the imperative of the Talented Tenth has expired. The Tenth themselves don't want the burden and the Ninety aren't looking to them for it. 'Each one teach one' suffices.

I felt it best to leave you to clarify it. I can see a reasonable person taking that position (well, I already have, haven't I?).

Me, I wouldn't have said the opposite either. But there's a personal dimension along which you and I are traveling in opposite directions (more vs. less "entanglement") that explains a lot to me. 

I'm moving towards spirituality and philosophy. But not until I understand a little more about economics. I started with immersion in the cultural flavor back in the days when I thought performance poetry would actually save hiphop, plus have something to say worth hearing in the world. Then I went directly to anti-racism. I took a break and now I'm at the tail end of class and politics. I'll probably look at philosophy and macroeconomics at the same time. When I do so, Africa may be in the picture but African Americans won't be center stage.

The community of blackfolk exists purely because of the minority status of blacks in America. Not that y'all asked my advice, but it suffers mightily as a community for two reasons:

1. it's too large
2. it's involuntary

For a community to function as a community, it needs defined boundaries such that most people know each other personally, or at least know of each other as individuals. It also needs expectations on behavior, and a willingness to confront behavior beyond the line. Then responsibility can arise, with community members feeling responsible for one another.

That doesn't mean that outside the boundary people don't try to help one another, of course they do.  But it does mean that it is normal that they don't feel anywhere near as responsible as they do with respect to their community members.

I agree. My presumption however was (and remains for the most part) that in Old School successful families, the best of the traditions and values of African America would be preserved voluntarily. The question is how long will that impulse to preserve remain, and when enough people reach the class position so that integration isn't necessary for mobility, will that actually be a viable subculture?

Look at somebody like Skip Gates who intervened and helped to pay the rights for an Eyes on the Prize redistribution. He would be central in such an elite, except that Gates doesn't have the dough and depended in a cat named Lerman at Yale. If this continues to be the case, the black legacy will be in the public domain. Hell HBCUs can't even survive.

The very wealthy can make a difference for the masses, in particular by endowing educational opportunities.

But a kid raised outside any successful community has a very difficult path, and wealthy people can't do much about that. Ordinary people can.

"I think it's generally accepted that blackfolks who don't help out other blackfolks when the opportunity arises are strange and somewhat dysfunctional. But I think it's equally accepted that crusaders are more trouble than they're worth."

I don't think that it is equally accepted that crusaders are more trouble than they are worth as long as it is understood that their role is to act as crusaders. Their role is to make trouble and disturb our sleep. Many of them may be high maintenance and consequently don't fit well into certain niches such as managers in corporations or government but the good ones are always worth more than the trouble they cause.

One of the major reasons that Richard Parsons, for example, did not have to act as a crusader, aside from not having a combative personality, is that the Rockefeller Republicans who recruited him into their ranks did not attempt to use him as wedge or recruitment symbol for their wing of the Republican Party. I am personally acquainted with several New York-based black Republicans who are comtemporaries of Parsons. All of them confirm that their recruitment and acceptance into the Republican Party that was dominated by Nelson Rockefeller and his allies at that time was not accompanied by any pressure to adhere to any policies or beliefs that they found anathema to their principles.

Michael, I can well understand your objections to having the role of a "black Republican" and all that it implies foisted on you but given the sort of rhetorical racial bombast members of your party - white and black - have engaged in for the past three decades I can't see you slipping easily out of that role. When Richard Parsons and others were brought into the Republican Party there was no implicit or corresponding demand that they denounce black Democrats or the agenda of the civil rights movement. Their presence and the ease in which they were eventually brought into the upper eschelons of the party sent a clear message to other blacks who then followed them.

The imperative of the Talented Tenth expired as soon as the great DuBois set the words to paper. The reality of the Tenth is that most of them never wanted the burden and many of them regarded those in their ranks who wanted the burden as crusaders and troublemakers. The paradfox of our situation here in America is that we are both alone and not alone. And the sadness is that these conditions sometimes exist simultaneously.

All of that has been changed under the regime of this current group of bounders, pretenders and poseurs. You cannot put a tuxedo on Strom Thurmond or Jesse Helms and still try to convince black folks that they still aren't dogs. You will be alone but I'm sure that you can handle it with a minimum of fuss and a great deal of grace.

The community of blackfolk exists purely because of the minority status of blacks in America. Not that y'all asked my advice, but it suffers mightily as a community for two reasons:

1. it's too large
2. it's involuntary

This also describes the community of humans affected by gravity.

For a community to function as a community, it needs defined boundaries such that most people know each other personally, or at least know of each other as individuals. It also needs expectations on behavior, and a willingness to confront behavior beyond the line.

Crips got that.

Michael, I can well understand your objections to having the role of a "black Republican" and all that it implies foisted on you but given the sort of rhetorical racial bombast members of your party - white and black - have engaged in for the past three decades I can't see you slipping easily out of that role.

I just got a copy of the press release and oath of loyalty that so disrupted the NBRA. Basically all of it has been in the news already. but they were absurd.

BLACK REPUBLICAN GROUP PRAISES BUSH’S DISASTER REACTION

Washington, D.C. - September 2, 2005 – Seeing the hundreds of relief convoys pouring into New Orleans, bringing medicine and millions of gallons of food and water to provide relief and comfort to the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the National Black Republican Association (NBRA), a grassroots organization, issued a statement of praise for President Bush and his show of compassion and leadership in directing the relief effort.

"President Bush is to be commended for deploying all of the resources of the federal government to help the refugees," said NBRA Chairman, Frances Rice.

"The President turned an unacceptable situation in New Orleans into a massive relief effort," NBRA Chairman Rice noted, "including deploying all of the assets necessary to provide immediate help for the people and long-term planning to rebuild communities."

Thousands of National Guard troops in full battle gear and over 1,400 Military Police are pouring into New Orleans to secure the city and stop the looters and thugs armed with shotguns who have terrorized the people and hampered relief efforts. President Bush is working to provide maximum support for the Mayor and local emergency personnel, who happen to be African Americans in a city with a population of over 67% African Americans.

"As African Americans," NBRA officer Andre Cadogan said "we are deeply concerned about efforts of President Bush’s critics to politicize, for their own partisan political agenda, a disaster that affects so many of our fellow African American citizens."

"Ignored by the President’s critics," NBRA Chairman Rice said, "is the fact that initially the media reported that Hurricane Katrina had veered away from New Orleans and that the city had escaped severe damage. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, the critics are attempting to blame President Bush for the breaks in the levees that produced the disaster unfolding before our very eyes."

Given the Black community's immediate reaction the signatories of such a press release will be taken as seriously as Jesse Lee.