Racism
or
The Only Possible Choices
In a past essay I discussed Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Motivation and pointed out that the mainstream, by its rejection and disruption of Black people's most fundamental social requirements (on which the required behavior is based), make achieving the stated requirements for full acceptance placed on Black people is made much more difficult.
In this essay I want to discuss the human response to this condition. Being human, our responses must fall within the range of what is possible-a requirement that is easy to miss.
In "Social Structures and Anomie," Robert K. Merton explained that a society presents people with a definition of success (the end) and acceptable methods of attaining success (the means). According to Robert K. Merton's "Dream Machine," an excellent exposition of Merton's ideas:
In American society, argues Merton, the "goal" guiding it all is a vision of how life ought to be: the so-called American Dream. On the one hand, this dream is a particular vision of what constitutes success: wealth, respect, a good job and family, a house in the suburbs. On the other hand, this vision also instructs us that through hard work, anyone can make it. If someone fails to succeed, therefore, the American Dream informs them that they simply need to work harder and be patient.
Stripped of specifics, the end, the goal set by the American Dream is to become independently wealthy, to be able to do nothing and have everything. The means, according to the American Dream is personal effort, particularly in the areas of education and employment. That these means were for the most part unavailable to Black people for most almost 400 years needs no support or explanation.
What may need explanation is the idea that there is a pattern to the possible reactions to this situation. As explained in "Cool Pose: The Dilemma Of Black Manhood In America" by Richard Majors and Janet Mancini Billson:
"Merton identifies individual modes of adaptation that can be used in pursuing societally valued goals: conformity, innovation, retreatism, ritualism, and rebellion. Success in achieving goals by conforming to legitimate, conventional means is possible only in the absence of institutionalized barriers, such as racism, or by chance. For the black male, then, conformity is not as effective an adaptation as innovation (creating illegitimate or unconventional means to achieve the same goals). Retreatism, in which both the culturally mandated goals and the conventional means are rejected, is also attractive to black males who have given up on the system. Giving up, withdrawing, or refusing to play the game may seem more sensible than continually beating one's head against the wall. Rebellion, in which both goals and means are replaced by new, subcultural goals and means, is also a popular strategy, as indicated by the Black Power Movement. Being tough and substituting a violent life style for more conventional adaptations are also forms of rebellion. Thus, blocked opportunities can result in criminal behavior and antisocial personalities."
So, conformity being (to put it charitably) a less than optimal approach, Black people had only innovation, retreatism, ritualism, and rebellion as possible approaches to living in the USofA. Of ritualism, which isn't mentioned in the quote from "Cool Pose," probably because it's pretty hard to defend from a mainstream perspective, is:
But not everyone in society remains committed the American Dream. Many, in fact, resign themselves to the fact that they will never reach their goal. Just as Merton argues that those who are remain committed to society's goals can take two paths, so too does he theorize the rejection of society's goals can be of two sorts.
First, individuals may reject society's goals, but remain committed to society's institutions of advancement. Rather than value education or work as means to success, such individuals come to see the "means" as ends in themselves! For example:
"I may not be wealthy, but education is good for its own sake"
"Hard work is good in itself, not for where it gets you"
Both are examples of Merton's path of ritualism.
Ritualism is the response the mainstream prefers without realizing it represents a fundamental rejection of the American Dream. It is also the approach promoted by the incarnation of Christianity most practiced by Black people. Humans who choose this approach are at least a bit out of step with the mainstream because their valued end� work� is different than that of the mainstream� retirement.
Ritualism as a valid response is losing traction in the Black community. Partly due to our absorbing the commercialism that saturates pop culture Black people pursue the end presented by the American Dream to an unprecedented degree. If nothing else changes-if a ritualist accepts the goal of the American Dream and retains his methods, which are already compatible with the American Dream, he becomes by definition a conformist.
Ritualism being the acceptance of the means and rejection of the ends of the mainstream, innovation is the rejection of the means and acceptance of the ends. An innovator wants the same things the conformer wants, she just sets about getting them differently. This is only a workable response where a society values the end more than the means to it (another reason ritualism is out of vogue in the Black community-we see it simply doesn't match the reality of day to day life in the USofA):
While innovation occurs in part as a response to blocked opportunities, Merton also stresses that it requires a society in which the "ends" of material success are valued far more than the "means" or rules of getting there. As an example, he cites the mainstream example of competitive athletics, arguing that in America, "winning the game" is often more important than "playing with the rules." This leads to subtle and not-so-subtle forms of cheating, both on the field (hurting one's competitor) and off the field (colleges subtly breaking rules to attract strong athletes).
This, of course, isn't limited to athletics. National and cultural rhetoric aside, the actual operating procedure seems to be
Well it's not the plan
And it's not the thought
It's not the kickback
It's if you get caught
You get to keep what you gain as long as no one asks how you got it or you can convince all challengers your actions fell within the rules. Innovation is the response of both creators and criminals. An argument could be made that innovation rather than conformity is the response preferred by the mainstream by taking Progress� another Defined Good of Western society� into account.
The path of innovation can be blocked in any number of ways, most pertaining to knowledge and opportunity. One may also be an innovator in the space in which one is free to do so and find that one's innovations are of little to no assistance in physically surviving. This would still be of used in maintaining one's mental and emotional balance though, and many people find the combination of minimally assured physical survival plus personal innovation sufficient.
Of the remaining possible responses, retreating and rebelling, retreating may be physically impossible for a healthy growing human to accept. Growth and expansion strike me as biological imperatives of the early stages of our lives.
posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 11:45:02 AM |
Posted by P6 at July 13, 2003 11:45 AM
| Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1244
