This is a concept that troubles me.

Is guilt the sole reason for white folks being concerned over the issues facing the Black communities? I don't think so…I don't want to think so. I'd like to think ethics and morality is in the mix. That, and a smidgen of rational self-interest.

You see, all the latest problems in the mainstream communities are old hat to us.

You should look at the point where your ills arose. You'll see they're very similar to the problems the Black communities faced when they were as the mainstream is now; when our unemployment rate was similar to the current mainstream rate, when our school dropout rate was similar to the current mainstream rate, when the rate at which Black kids were shunted into special ed programs matched the current rate at which mainstream kids are prescribed a couple of doses of ritalin.

We're your canary in the coal mine. And the mainstream should be alert enough to recognize that where we go they will follow in hard times.

But my major problem with white liberal guilt isn't the lack of rational self-interest, or even the lack of ethics. It's that everyone eventually gets tired of feeling guilty.

When that happens, there's only two possible cures for the guilt:

1. Convert it into white mainstream anger
2. Give up membership in the racially defined group whose actions make you feel guilty

Number 1 just compounds the problems. And number 2 just ain't gonna happen. And that doesn't leave us in a very happy situation, does it?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 8/19/2003 11:43:34 AM |