Rahim Islam is a National Speaker and Writer, Convener of Philadelphia Community of Leaders, and President/CEO of Universal Companies, a community development and education management company headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Follow Rahim Islam on FaceBook(Rahim Islam) & Twitter (@RahimIslamUC)
Given the downward spiraling out of control in every negative demographic facing the Black community, it is obvious that that our community seems unwilling or unable to mount a collective offense. The question must be raised, who amongst us should be leading this effort? You have to conclude, if you’re honest, something is wrong, seriously wrong with our community. When nothing is being done, our children and many of those less fortunate begin to believe in the misrepresentation that Blacks are inherently inferior – which is preposterous but is getting significant traction in both the white and black community. Did our ancestors bargain for this? Our ancestors are rolling over in their graves because, not only do we have to contend with structural issues that prevent the self determination of Black people, now, we must face what we are doing to each other – I contend that “it’s not what they’re doing to us, it’s what we’re not doing.”
While, I fundamentally believe that we could do so much more, I will never take America off the hook for the damage done to our people. Most of our issues point back to where and how Blacks have been structurally and systemically denied the full rights of citizenship, and all of its benefits as equal members of America. And for those of you who believe in the so-called “post-racial society” and that the “past is the past;” I reprimand you stridently and ask you to rethink your position because you’re dead wrong and depending on the person, you’re either completely brainwashed, a traitor to your people, or both. In spite of all of our problems – I love our people and we, when you really examine, represent the one of the greatest groups of people in modern history. Just think what we would be if we could rid ourselves the self-hate and inferiority that has and continues to be branded into our minds on a daily basis.
It absolutely matters where you start, and every fight waged by our ancestors to be treated fair and equal, like other Americans, was met with the most devious, hated, and mean-spirited resistance ever organized. Don’t get it twisted! You should ask yourself why? If you don’t know, you should do a little studying because you’re lacking some very basic information. The enslavement of our ancestors was a brutal and vicious institution that hurt us, I believe, permanently and it continues to haunt us today in every way. Slavery was a very profitable American institution. While the institution of slavery doesn’t exist today, its infrastructure (ideas, beliefs, values, and policies) has morphed into other American institutions. If you’re one of those Black individuals that actually believes where you start is not important, I can show ten million ways why it does matter.
What do you think the white community was doing while our ancestors slaved for nothing for 300 years – they were building, on our ancestor’s backs, the strongest and most powerful country in modern history. today America represents the leader of the world? America is the world’s leader in finance, management, education, medicine, transportation, global trade, agriculture, manufacturing, technology, innovation, media, culture, and law government – where you start matters. When we were finally freed from this vicious and barbaric system, most of America’s institutions were already built (i.e. law and government, finance and banking, health and education, etc.) – some say, we were freed from bondage because we were no longer needed.
When we were freed, we were penniless, uneducated, and stigmatized not just by white people, but by our own as well. How many times have you heard that there are limits to what a Black person can/should be able to do and to question this is, many times, considered to be uppity? Many Black people bought into (hook, line, and sinker) the concept of BLACK INFERIORITY. We were indoctrinated in numerous ways in the belief of BLACK INFERIORITY. Like many victims, we bore the burden that this was our fault and we were deserving of it (self-guilt). How many times have we heard how the victim is made to believe that they were deserving of the mistreatment – Black man and woman, we must study how this happened to us. I believe this is one of the reasons why the issue has been allowed to be tabled. Brothers and sisters, I don’t care what people are saying – we must take a page out of the Jewish community’s mantra “Never Again and Never Forget.” We must never forget nor let anyone else forget what was done to us, and we must begin to develop solutions that are truly designed to address both the structural and emotional damage done to our people.
For those who just don’t get it (black or white) or just refuse to accept the truth, I liken our situation to a 100-meter track race where the competition has a 99.9- meter advantage (300+ years advantage) and the winner takes a multi-trillion economy. When the whistle is blown, who do you think will win? Especially, if you consider that our opponent not only has an insurmountable lead, but we have been physically and emotionally damaged. We have been damaged by inferior housing, inferior education, inferior food and inferior thinking. And then like magic, and in a twinkle of the eye, our competition, which owns mass media, higher education institution, and the Hollywood, has convinced everyone that this race is fair and competitive. How insane – but we lay down and take it. Today we hear from many “right-wing” conservatives (keepers of the American way) telling the Black community stop playing the “race” card and stop bringing up the past (the past doesn’t matter). They say “the past is the past and I didn’t enslave anyone.” They also say “my people endure hardships too,” so if Black people can’t compete under the concept of “free competition,” something is wrong with Black people and nothing is wrong with the system, America is about free enterprise. With little to no institutional memory and the real truth a million miles away; our children grow up believing in this myth, which becomes the core of hopelessness. This is how it is, and this is how it will always be.
Not knowing just a little of our history, one might conclude that the idea of “fair” competition is not fair, but instead a myth. This is why we must recommit to learning and teaching about our history, especially the last 400 years in America. Having it all isn’t enough for many White Americans – they wanted it all now and FOREVER. WHY IS IT that every fight Blacks have fought for freedom and civil rights in the country has been absolutely rejected and defended against by the white establishment? Not one gain that we’ve achieved in this country was a gift – all of them were hard fought wins. During those struggles, we lost time, wealth, dignity, and many times our lives for these very basic gains. Even today, instead of achieving more gains, many of our previous gains are being rolled back. I can show that every issue facing the Black man in America has its roots in this absolutely, unbashful, idiotic, ridiculous, insane, and unfair start. Our disconnection from our past has significantly contributed to our hopelessness, which currently paralyzed us.
I will address the damage that has been done to our people in another article but we must ask ourselves why the needle isn’t moving. Why are our problems are getting worst, and most importantly, where is the fight? Where is the struggle? In my humble opinion, the last big win for Black people was the in the 1960’s nearly 50 years ago, specifically the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ending discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 that prohibited racial discrimination in voting; and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act) that provided for equal housing regardless of race, creed, or national origin. I recently wrote about the 60-year anniversary of Brown versus the Board of Education, a landmark case that finally recognized segregated white and black schools were not equal. Most of those landmark cases were challenged for a number of years before we could claim victory. The problem is that we should have had more gains over the past 50 years because none of these gains were perfect – in fact, far from it. They were to be perfected over time with additional challenges and fights. Given the loss of many of our gains along with the mounting of our problems, why are we unable to mount a serious offense? Let me ask, “Do you believe that we are inherently inferior as a people???” If you believe were inherently inferior – you’re a victim of the Black Inferiority propaganda campaign. We’re just the opposite, we’re a GREAT PEOPLE. We’ve faced odds and beaten them worse than any other group known to man, but today WE’RE PARALYSED DUE OUR HOPELESSNESS.
However, as a group, we’ve taken our eyes off the prize, especially our most educated and most successful over the past 50 years. As I stated at the beginning of this article, given the downward spiraling out of control of every negative demographic facing the Black community, it is obvious that that our community seems unwilling or unable to mount a collective offense. You have to conclude, if you’re honest, that something is seriously wrong with our community. I would suggest the latter. I believe that most Black Americans care about our future and are prepared to do something – but what? I say the first thing that we must all do – restore hope. It appears that we are paralyzed. Our paralysis can be seen in our belief that it’s hopeless, especially by our elite and the most economically mobile amongst us (my position is if we’re to make progress, this group is going to have to play a very significant role).
Today, Blacks are being urged to forget about our history in this country (i.e. trans-Atlantic passage, chattel slavery, Jim Crow and KKK, etc.) and the sustained terrorism inflicted on our ancestors. While many Blacks have been able to preserve family and a sense of culture, too many have been hurt by this horrific experience – trauma inflicted at levels unknown to modern history. I ask you what does generation after generation of repeated trauma produce. We don’t know our history and we don’t truly understand the damage that has been done to us. We also don’t know how we carry generation to generation many of the psychological traits from being enslaved for more than 300 years. Post Traumatic Syndrome coupled with the social pathologies tied to slavery, make it nearly impossible for the masses of our people to break this cycle (their overwhelmed on a daily basis) – we must seek help from those amongst us that have a clear understanding of our problems (structural and cultural) along with the systems that are now keeping the Black community on its knees.
Did emancipation make everything even? Are we like an “etch a sketch,” where we can just shake and restart with a new and blank page? Unfortunately, as humans, this is not possible. Over the past several years there have been a number of examples when America acknowledges the ramifications of trauma on a group of people, specifically the rash of mass murders (i.e. Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Columbine, etc.). Immediately after these horrific events, resources were allocated to provide counseling to family members, relatives and fellow classmates, and the community at large – the reason was that these events create emotional scars and if go unchecked, the scars become permanent and recovery is nearly impossible.
The problems just don’t stop with those victims, many times these scars are passed down to the next generation in the form of social and emotional dysfunction. My question to Black people, especially our most educated, if this type of response is done for one isolated event incurred by only a very few number of people, what should the response be for the trauma inflicted to millions of people for more than a 300+ year????
How do we view ourselves? How do we relate to each other? How do we see today and our challenges? Do we believe that we are equal? Do we think that we are inferior? Do we believe that we are free? The answers to these questions and many more are fundamentality tied our past and our present – both are not too encouraging. If we look at our past, we must look at the physical slavery. If we look at today, we must accept that many of us exhibit a type of mental slavery (paralysis), which is tied to hopelessness. Much has been written in recent years about hopelessness amongst the Black community, but little research has been conducted on the origins of social disorganization and hopelessness. There is enough data to suggest the cause of hopelessness between our youth, and the disruptive events and lack of connectedness to people and institutions.
A number of studies show that over time several variables associated with disruption and disorganization (change in mother figure, exposure to violence, traumatic stress, worry) and connectedness (sense of community, warmth toward mother, religiosity) are positively or negatively associated with increased feelings of hopelessness. Poverty and feelings of hopelessness are linked together with some even suggesting that feelings of hopelessness are a defining characteristic of an “underclass personality” – stated differently, feelings of hopelessness are a part of growing up poor. There is a direct relationship to poverty and hopelessness, and there is a direct relationship to poverty and the enslavement of our people. Too many of our children are born in impoverished families and neighborhoods, and have lagged behind developmentally.
Research indicates that poverty is related to perceived feelings of failure and predicts hopelessness. In addition, the data also attributes the increased levels of violence and violent behavior.
Hopelessness, especially amongst our youth, suggest that failure is a part of their future, and they are more likely to engage in risk behaviors including increased substance use, high risk sexual activity and accidental injury. I’m not a psychologist or a doctor, but I don’t believe the hype and the myth that Black people are born inferior. With only five to six generations removed from slavery, I’m wise enough to know that in order to fully grasp the magnitude of our current problems; we must examine the role slavery has played.
For those of you who don’t accept slavery as significant and current damaging theme, you must accept the role that poverty has played in the life of Black people. A large and growing population of Black people has less hope of escaping poverty, and the dysfunction and the consequences of poverty than at time since emancipation.
So given these very humbling conditions, what do we do? Most of our people can do nothing – they are in the survival mode. But there is a group that has some capacity and have to provide leadership to our people, but they too are paralyzed because many of them are too busy trying to assimilate into a white America – class has now divided Blacks. Many in our middle class have been unconsciously co-opted by the lure of full participation in the American dream. Since the loss of manufacturing in most of the cities where we live, the biggest employer of the Black middle class has been within public and non-profit sector – today, we find ourselves not participating in the private sector in any meaningful way.
There has been several unintended ramifications of this lopsided imbalance (public vs. private sector), including, but not limited to: not being able to fully utilize government for the self-determination of our people and subservient to a skewed political process – this was the intention of the struggle; participation in union activity and our alignment with building trade unions (these unions have systematically shut Blacks out); the decrease in our independent and entrepreneur skills, which are needed to run effective business (during this growth our weak business infrastructure has been weakened further); and politically we’ve compromised our personal agenda with the agenda of the people. In addition to being at the mercy of elected officials, the truth is when the black middle class is compared to the white middle class there are numerous disparities, including but not limited to: assets, savings, generational wealth, neighborhoods and percentage of segregation, etc.).
Our upper and economic elite group, for the most part have completely abandon our community and many even champion despairing ideas and support racist stereotypes against our people.
Even though many succeeded on the backs of the sacrifices of our ancestors, they have forgotten the most important fact. Many are not only physically apart from their poorer brothers and sisters, they have emotionally detached from themselves from the struggles of our people.
They get into position, many as the first Black person, only to carry out the previous discriminating policies of their predecessors. To our elite – do you think you’ve gotten your gains on your own? I hope you’re not that dumb or conceded and your answer is “NO” because you know you stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.
To do that, you must begin to understand how we got here – much of our hopelessness is captured in the fear we inherited which is part of the problems. While worst, have always been structurally bad – you must know your history. We’re not guilty for what has been done to us.
The problems, while worst, have always been structurally bad – you must know your history.
• Class Issue-to whom much is given when much is required. Are you doing enough?
• Effects of Generational Failures – This is a Vicious Cycle that our children are being born into.
• The Male/Female Relationship is almost irreparable with economic and educational disparities growing.
• The Success of Individuals versus the Group – Many African American live through some media image (movie star, athlete, or entertainer).
• Majority prevails and abnormal social behavior has become normal-Examine Existing Stereo-types (i.e. Fatherhood, Working, Property, Ownership, Credit, etc.)
• General Lack of Hope and Despair – Our people have learned to adjust and just get by – Our reality has produced our expectations
• We are extremely hard on each other, which some describe as self-hate.
We’re not guilty for what has been done to us. What looks impossible can be addressed, even though we have structural racism, discrimination, and bias, we can do better when we come together. We must do for self.
