07.16.09
Conservatives, be careful what you ask for… You just might get it!
All this week we have seen the constant battering of the Supreme Court Nominee with racial overtones. Uncle Pat B. has come out with his usual tirade on affirmative action to say that she was not qualified to be at Princeton in the first place. Conservatives love it when President Obama or any black man or woman tell black folks they need to take responsibility for themselves, stand up and live the American dream. No one will give you a hand out and don’t expect one. Stand up and be counted! Some black folks hate talk like that and lose their ever lovin’ minds. Remember what happened to Bill Cosby?
I don’t think that conservatives know what they are really asking. Malcolm Gladwell spoke at a conference a couple weeks ago and talked about how effort trumps talent. When people go up against obstacle, they come out with skill sets that take them to whole new levels of success. You see black folks have be compensating for obstacles for years. We have a staying power that is often unmatched. Effort against obstacle has led us to fight in wars for and against people in this country who only saw us as servants. When we were denied education, we made sure our children were given opportunities even if we could never see it for ourselves. We were killed, maimed, beaten, bombed and hanged, we kept going. Now we sit at the head of the table, and some people not only can not believe, they can’t stand it.
So when President Obama tells people to stand up and take effort by the horns, it takes on a whole new meaning. It is more authentic now more than ever. I don’t think that the conservatives want a whole community of black folks coming into the revelation of what our ancestors knew. If our young people ever get the revelation of what effort really does for a person and that obstacles takes you to a whole new level, those who oppose our success will lose their minds. The notion of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is just rhetoric in conservative speech, but it truly holds power to those holding the straps. So when you start seeing people of color rising to new levels of success and people of color determining their own financial future, resisting the charms of narcissism and avarice, eluding the trappings of a one-side criminal justice system, be warned, you asked for it! Since we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, I will leave you with a quote from one of the founders of the organization W.E.B. Dubois.
W.E.B Dubois co-wrote “The Negro In The South” along with Booker T. Washington which was published in 1907 . In the chapter entitled, “Religion In The South” he states,
” If my own city of Atlanta had offered it to-day the choice between 500 Negro college graduates–forceful, busy, ambitious men of property and self-respect, and 500 black cringing vagrants and criminals, the popular vote in favor of the criminals would be simply overwhelming. Why? because they want Negro crime? No, not that they fear Negro crime less, but that they fear Negro ambition and success more. They can deal with crime by chain-gang and lynch law, or at least they think they can, but the South can conceive neither machinery nor place for the educated, self-reliant, self-assertive black man.”
