This article irritates for the very reason that I became more active in fighting for black progress. Everyone seems to have their one favorite solution. And unless you are on their bandwagon, you aren’t woke, aware, or a true warrior for black liberation. And any other effort, in this case the misnomer, “black capitalism” is a waste of time. Since it hasn’t worked, it can’t work. If that is the criterion, then the one true path to black liberation hasn’t worked either and therefore, can’t work.
The stupidity (and if that offends you, it’s meant to, leave if you need to) is in believing there is one true solution. No society or part of society overcomes its oppression with one approach. No community is being oppressed with one approach. That’s the cliff notes version. You’ve read as far as you need to.
The author’s one true solution –
Actually closing the gulf requires dealing with inequities in housing, employment, investment, and assets. This task requires recognizing black people not as consumers or entrepreneurs but as citizens—as members of a society with a national debt to which black people have claim. To access their citizenship, black people need not spend more money at certain stores. They need not start more businesses. They need not settle for tax breaks. The price of black Americans’ citizenship has been paid many times over, and the bill is past due.*
News flash: Trump occupies the White House. The racist elements of society have let you know they have no intention of recognizing black people as citizens, dealing with the inequities or paying any bill that has come due. They will lie, cheat, steal, oppress, cage and kill to remain in power. Changing is not an option under consideration.
The problem is not with black people, but that believing the only approach is for racists to change denies reality, especially if they have told you point blank that isn’t going to happen.
There is nothing wrong with black people that warrants we be subjected to poverty, injustice and inhumanity.
However, our response to economic oppression, injustice and being treated inhumanely can be ineffective, stupid, even delusional – even, if justifiably so.
Knowledge, opportunity and growth have purposefully been denied us in many areas, not just economically. But begging white people to change as a solution or before we can move forward, is stunting our growth and progress as well. We have no choice but to develop our own agency economically, politically, in regards to community and family, the law, environment, and every area of oppression, even if white people were to become perfect.
Yes, I can hear it, some of you can only feel free, if the racism stops, if they stop at a soul level rejecting you, and blackness, and start accepting you in how they think about you. Sorry, don’t care.
What has always puzzled me is why so many black people get caught up in what racists think. It’s as if you can’t see yourself as an American until every last racist changes and accepts you – until then, America is not real. That day is never coming, at least not in your lifetime. I’ve never even though it was a goal for which to aim. I don’t care what racists think. The majority of you don’t have enough power or stamina to stop me, so there is no reason I should give a shit.
I only need to consider (not worry) about the few who can obstruct me. But their racism does not negate any part of my entire existence. The fact that some people hate me just because I’m black, makes me that much happier when my big, fat black ass walks past them unconcerned. Some of you worry too much about what white people think to no useful end.
Instead of waiting for them to change and the inequities to end, we’re going to have gain enough power to stop and reverse them. If you don’t think we are capable of doing this, or your psyche is so damaged that doing it in the face of how they think about you is too hard to bear, you’ll probably comfort all the liberal white people who overdose on black oppression porn and wonder why the poor little black people would ever think of turning things around without them leading the way. Because you see yourself the way they do.
I’ve thought a lot about how to deal with these black self-esteem issues and the need to be accepted by all white people, even racists. But it might be a waste of time. If begging white racists to change is your path to black liberation, we’ve had enough. It’s time to offer the people who are ready for it effective options.
*This paragraph shows that the author’s understanding of what he calls “black capitalism” is faulty if he believes it is about consumerism and not about the inequities he mentions.
https://www.thenation.com/article/nipsey-killer-mike-race-economics/
