Henry Gates is doing a week at the NY Times.
At first I felt a vague annoyance at today's editorial, and I figured out why. You see, I'm in substantial agreement with most of it.
"Americans suffer from anti-intellectualism, starting in the White House," Mr. Obama went on. "Our people can least afford to be anti-intellectual." Too many of our children have come to believe that it's easier to become a black professional athlete than a doctor or lawyer. Reality check: according to the 2000 census, there were more than 31,000 black physicians and surgeons, 33,000 black lawyers and 5,000 black dentists. Guess how many black athletes are playing professional basketball, football and baseball combined. About 1,400. In fact, there are more board-certified black cardiologists than there are black professional basketball players. "We talk about leaving no child behind," says Dena Wallerson, a sociologist at Connecticut College. "The reality is that we are allowing our own children to be left behind." Nearly a third of black children are born into poverty. The question is: why?Scholars such as my Harvard colleague William Julius Wilson say that the causes of black poverty are both structural and behavioral. Think of structural causes as "the devil made me do it," and behavioral causes as "the devil is in me." Structural causes are faceless systemic forces, like the disappearance of jobs. Behavioral causes are self-destructive life choices and personal habits. To break the conspiracy of silence, we have to address both of these factors.
Then it hit me:
"Go into any inner-city neighborhood," Barack Obama said in his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention, "and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white." In a speech filled with rousing applause lines, it was a line that many black Democratic delegates found especially galvanizing. Not just because they agreed, but because it was a home truth they'd seldom heard a politician say out loud.Why has it been so difficult for black leaders to say such things in public, without being pilloried for "blaming the victim"? Why the huge flap over Bill Cosby's insistence that black teenagers do their homework, stay in school, master standard English and stop having babies? Any black person who frequents a barbershop or beauty parlor in the inner city knows that Mr. Cosby was only echoing sentiments widely shared in the black community.
He opens with the same nonsense as everyone else. And he continues talking as though the responsibility for this mess is still basically Black folks' issue to address.
We have three race problems, people. Institutional, Black personal and white personal.
Sorry, Meatloaf, but two out of three IS bad.
Posted by P6 at August 1, 2004 11:22 AM
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Comments
Still, is this just an issue for black AND white folk? Poverty is not a race issue, it is a socio-economic issue. Poverty strikes no matter the color of your skin.
The problem I see is that when talking about "good" poverty, the poverty of "mom, the flag and apple pie", it is usually white --or as it is the case these days in NYC, an Asian face (because Asians are the new "white"). The bad, welfare-sucking poverty? It usually has a black American or Latino face. Native Americans? They only appear in movies --they don't even exist in this equation.
Obama was great but I have to hold my enthusiasm for a reality check. Black folks are not the only poor people in this country. It's almost as if it's an entitlement these days; that the only po'folk that can wave the poverty issue are the BLACK po'folk.
To equate a discussion of economics with race or culture is to fall in the same old trap of "divide and conquer". I'm a Marxist at heart --let's talk about superstructural problems; not just race.
Have you've been to the Poconos recently? I mean, I don't have to go to far! East New York, Ocean Parkway, Far Rockaway, Staten Island. Lots and lots of poverty --and these are not traditionally "black" communities, if you catch my drift.
It's the same with race --the only negroes that count are American negroes. A Puerto Rican negra? You don't count because you are Puerto Rican. WTF?!?!?
Sincerely, I've been told this by black American folk. It's just crazy. Then again, who calls themselves American in his hemisphere and equates that with their nationality? Only US people.
It's a cultural thing then, that both black and white US folk use words so arrogantly.
Posted by liza at August 1, 2004 08:36 PMFact is, I don't limit myself to racial issues. You can see that without leaving the front page of the site. if you hang around a day or two you'll even see stuff on issues specific to many other communities. Being Black, I'll continue writing about things from my perspective. Being me, I'll continue to be accepting of whatever doesn't obstruct or try to damage me.
Good enough?
Oh, yeah. Whoever said you don't count because you're Puerto Rican is an idiot.
Posted by P6 at August 1, 2004 09:23 PMThen again, who calls themselves American in his hemisphere and equates that with their nationality? Only US people.
Well, Frank Lloyd Wright tried to introduce "Usonian" as a substitute, but no one--including people of other American countries--adopted the word. I believe Spanish speakers normally use "norteamericano" to refer to US nationals, so there's already a custom of using a different word than the one used in Europe or North America. Is it possible your etymology is incorrect?
P6: he actually does begin with the line, "Americans suffer from anti-intellectualism, starting in the White House"; he correctly identifies this as a problem affecting the dominant national culture/discourse, not merely that of African Usonians. I get the impression, Liza, that arrogance is the thing he's attempting to avoid. Suppose the Secretary of Orthography and Linguistics (SOL) made an announcement, to the effect that hereafter the correct designation was "Usonian" rather than "American"; that "American" would now identify all persons and things from N&S America; would you approve? Or would you think this was a new form of arrogance?
Posted by James R MacLean at August 2, 2004 08:16 PMYou haven't seen my last word on Obama, but the "he" I was talking about is Gates.
Posted by P6 at August 3, 2004 01:03 AMIndeed. My mistake!
"Go into any inner-city neighborhood," Barack Obama said in his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention, "and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to learn.
Amen. But the government does have a place. Nowadays, that's the thing that's hard to say in public.
Posted by James R MacLean at August 3, 2004 02:55 AM