THE
BRIDGE: Class and Classism
By Darryl
James
Lately, I have been hearing derisive talk about impoverished Blacks
that is hateful, elitist and downright classist. I can not call
the comments racist, because ironically, they are coming from
other Blacks.
Yes, there are difficulties among the poor blacks in America and
there has been a moral and political disconnect but it is elitist
and classist to pretend that any of these issues are solely the
issues of the poor and Black.
Those who wish to rail against the poor without activism are no
different from armchair quarterbacks who criticize football games
on their fat lazy behinds, without ever having stepped onto the
gridiron.
Armchair activists view themselves as socially active because
they support programs targeted at our best and brightest even
as they ignore the second best and the not as bright.
Any of us can point to the problems. What I would like to hear
discussed are the reasons why the working class and underclass
have worsened, because at that point we can begin to identify
solutions.
For example, Blacks once enjoyed jobs that were easily obtained
with very little education. Those jobs were adequate to support
a family, even if on the verge of poverty. Changes in the economy
have erased many blue-collar jobs, and today¹s minimum wage
jobs are barely enough to raise an individual. Add that to the
growing difficulty in obtaining higher education, and young Black
men find themselves on the path to prison more often than on the
path to success. Many of the females left are raising children
alone.
Simple realities of this nation¹s legacy of racism are still
in place, even as people choose to place blame on the heirs of
racism. Blacks are still the last to be hired and the first to
be fired. The glass ceiling is still in place for those on the
rise and there are sadly too many of us circling the financial
drain, including the very poor as well as some of the so-called
middle class.
Bill Cosby¹s rage against the poor Black machine outlines
symptoms of an illness. Part of the illness is abandonment by
the so-called middle class, as well as civic and social organizations
and the church.
Entities such as the NAACP and the National Urban League are like
Black unicorns to the community. Ask many of today¹s poor
and they have no idea where to find these organizations or what
they actually do.
Some of our "benevolent" organizations, including Black
fraternities and sororities are more concerned with promulgating
their own legacy than providing community service to those in
greatest need.
For example, what of those who have "C" or "D"
average grades? Where are the programs designed to streamline
them into colleges or trade schools? Where are the elitist classists
to give them choices when the Armed Forces recruiters or the drug
dealers or the gangsters come a-knockin¹? Where were the
elitists in the 1990¹s when urban schools began to fall apart
and programs designed to give poor people choices evaporated?
I know where they were.
Absent.
But they will show up to a rubber-chicken dinner all bathed and
greased to honor those in the community who are already equipped
with skills to make their way to the top of the heap.
Integration opened the floodgates for our best and brightest to
flee our communities. Black entrepreneurs closed or abandoned
businesses and so-called middle class families evaporated from
the Œhood as dreams of "movin¹ on up" were
pursued vigorously.
Currently, the most impoverished of Blacks huddle in ghettos filled
with the unemployed and the underemployed. A strong disconnect
between they and the rest of Black society is growing each day,
along with a strong distrust. Yet, many so-called "progressive"
Blacks now rail against impoverished Blacks without attempting
to understand their conditions.
It took the Black church well into the 1990¹s to begin to
address community redevelopment. Sadly, for many churches, this
means little more than erecting huge structures the homeless would
be bounced out of if security catches them seeking shelter.
In many cities, the poor of color are left without intrinsic government
assistance and without assistance from other Blacks, sending them
into a whirlpool of devastation from which there is little sanctuary.
Crime is now the basic economy.
Before Cosby and other elitists decide that today¹s poor
are defective, let them be mindful that they are made of the same
material as the impoverished Blacks they disparage. They are made
of the same stuff but came through different conditions.
That is all that makes us different.
The issue is class and classism. Those who are well-off criticize
the poor for behavior that is hardly endemic to poverty.
Dr. Cosby should know. It is still a mystery whether Autumn Jackson
is Cosby¹s child, but no mystery that he was sending her
mother support money and reportedly sleeping with her. And hey-be
man-be, did-be you-be think-be we-be forgot-be Fat-be Albert-be?
There was clearly a language problem.
Sean "Puffy" Combs has been pushing abject materialism
for years and Russell Simmons is famous for calling other Blacks
"Nigga." And, oh yes, the gaudy wheels that spin around
were made famous by Latrel Sprewell. Materialism works from the
top down, not the bottom up.
Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court¹s ruling in Brown v. Board
of Education stated that separating Blacks based on race, brings
on feelings of "inferiority as to their status in the community
that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever
to be undone."
The oppression of a people leaves emotional scars, which run deep
into the self-esteem of the oppressed, grows within the community
and perpetuates itself as efficiently as folk tales, songs and
disease. It can only get worse with other Blacks now dogging us
out.
While the sons and daughters of former slaves rail against their
own brothers and sisters who are poor and of "questionable
moral standards," the worst of us are getting worse.
We don¹t need anyone to pontificate on how bad things are,
because as bad as the situation is, the badness is overly apparent.
What we need now is action.
Unfortunately, many of the people weighing in are selfish, elitists
who deep down inside must hate themselves and manifest that hatred
in the hypercriticism of poor Blacks. They will criticize, but
take little, if any action.
These people are classists. And they have no class.
Darryl
James is a syndicated columnist and the author of "Bridging
The Black Gender Gap," which is also the basis of his lectures
and seminars. James was awarded the 2004 Non-fiction Award for
his book on the Los Angeles Riots at the Seventh Annual Black
History Month Book Fair and Conference in Chicago. He can be reached
at djames@TheBlackGenderGap.com.
