I have a conjecture about the reality of black power. It is simple. Black power in America whether you consider it social, economic, intellectual, cultural or spiritual has not been accomplished by the aggregation of ordinary black Americans. Rather it has been made manifest by claims of its existence by prominent individual accomplishments. More simply stated, as I did in my podcast last week, extraordinary, nominally black Americans have accomplished gaining power in relatively standard way - control of powerful American institutions. In short, black power is mainstream American power that happens to be black.
There’s nothing really interesting about this stereotype of ‘the black community’ precisely because it is a stereotype. I listened to Heather MacDonald the other day and her tale of woe had something to do with the reality of ‘black on black crime’ which is a term she refused to use. But in fact she was talking about the racial overrepresentation of blacks murdered on the Southside of Chicago and the racial overrepresentation of black imprisoned in America. It was a harsh and tragic tale, but I found that I really couldn’t be emotionally swayed by it personally. It’s not that I haven’t heard it all my life. It’s not that I was unconvinced by her statistics. It’s that I don’t care about the fate of the race.
If I truly believed that my ability and mobility in society was determined by the fate of felonious convicts or drive-by shooters, in other words by black criminals, then I think I’d care a great deal. But in my entire life, I’ve only known two or three individuals I could name that spent any time in jail or prison. Crime has nothing to do with me, personally. This fact is born primarily from my simple understanding that black people aren’t criminals. I suppose it’s better expressed another two ways.
The fraction of all blackfolks that are criminal is insufficient to call the African Americans criminal.
I don’t associate with or care to consider the fate of criminals at length, and certainly not for my personal well-being.
So it goes both ways. I have no particular black politics. Therefore I have no particular reasons to focus on extraordinary black failure or extraordinary black success. It is what it is, and there is no particularly effective black political strategy for getting me pointed in either direction. This bears repeating.
There is no particularly effective black political strategy for pointing anyone towards extraordinary success or failure.
Everybody is simply a creature of their own habits. The potential criminal is studying the ways and means of criminality. The potential success is studying the ways and means of success. Luck plays its role, but in the end, you are who you are.
What gets reflected or reified into the mainstream as an example of black success, and thus ‘black power’ is not determined by a particular fidelity to some identifyable black process. It is as easy to ‘buy in’ as it is to ‘sell out’. Whether or not you are identified as a sell-out is beyond your control. Just as your racial identity is beyond your control. The only question really becomes whether or not there exists a ‘black mafia’ and if you are connected or not.
Having grown up in the foothills of the most properous black community in America, View Park, Ladera Heights, Baldwin Hills & the Dons, I can recall the day that President Obama made a stop in that neighborhood for a photo op. I can recall how many people knew about it, but were frustrated by their inability to get invited or be anything more than somebody on the parade route. So are you a friend of the Obamas? Considering the fact that my brother was in 2007, part of his town’s forward activists, but then nothing in the following years, I’ve seen that kind of betrayal. You think you’re on the inside, but are you really?
I hope I have saved myself some headaches from not having very high expectations of my proximity to political power. It’s easy to see today. There is no ‘leader of black America’.