He's Not Heavy, He's Embarrassing

A good friend of mine who is a psychologist has recently taken to task members of the black elite and middle class for riding the black lower class so hard. She decries Bill Cosby (I know, sacrilege, I’m still mad too) and Juan Williams for focusing so intently on the personal shortcomings of the black urban poor and leaving out any discussion of the persistent and debilitating effects of individual and institutional racism.

My friend’s complaints crystallized a key aspect of any program or philosophy of uplift: it must be done in a spirit of pure altruism, of pure justice. Many of our forebears who did what was called “race work” in the early parts of the last century were as selfless as they were self-interested. Poor, uneducated black people made them look bad and dragged down their social capital in larger society. The activists fed and educated poor blacks in an attempt to raise the standing of the black community in white eyes partially because they knew that the rising tide would raise their boats as well. Black leaders in the early 1900’s thought that if they could prove to white America that blacks were just as moral, clean and educated as they were, white America would then extend the hand of full citizenship. They were far too optimistic.

It is the curse of the minority in a racist society to be judged by the conduct of his brethren, rather than by his own. A racist society will also judge those minority groups by the conduct of their lowest-performing members to prove that such conduct is indicative of the entire group. Even members of the minority group fall prey to such salacious stereotypes. This is why Jesse Jackson found to his horror that he was nervous walking alone in the street with anonymous young black men.

It is understandable that members of minority groups who want to be judged as individuals would want to throw off the burden of negative stereotypes. However, if the method of throwing off negative stereotypes is to force a straitjacket of conformist behavior on all members of a minority group, the spark of individuality, the expression of which is the essence of freedom, is lost.

No one thinks any better of black people as a whole because of the accomplishments of Colin or Condi, Denzel or Halle, King or Barak. Just give it up. Stereotypes are incredibly difficult to overcome and anyone who doesn’t fit the stereotype will simply be seen as “exceptional.” Although they are the majority in practically every conceivable classification (good and bad), whites are still seen as individuals. Even after the spate of corporate wrongdoing in the era of World Com and Enron, there was no surge of outrage suggesting that white men are far too immoral and sneaky to be CEOs. Some pundits would have you believe that we are saddled with the worst President since Nixon, yet no one has even intimated that it’s time for the white man’s grip on the Presidency to loosen. Members of the majority are judged as individuals, the rest of us exist in predictable groupings encumbered by stereotypes that undermine the individual expression of the actor and stifle the imagination of the observer.

“But YG&B,” you protest, “your argument makes sense but it proves too much. Am I really extinguishing the ‘spark of individuality’ when I simply want young people to stay in school and out of jail?” My response is of course not – as long as those desires are born of altruism, love of justice and a desire to create a better future. Loving correction that springs from an altruistic fount can still demand that low-performing individuals take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. However, if you want to change their behavior because their conduct embarrasses you as a black person since you know the whites will measure you with the N-yard stick, then I say you are fighting the wrong enemy.

Thanks for your thoughts, AEM.