Universally Speaking
Rahim Islam
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)
Malcom X once said “the oppressor will never feel the pain of the oppressed.” The question becomes who are the oppressors and who are the oppressed.
The state of Black America is in a serious state of crisis.
Despite our best efforts, to date, the general conditions within many Black neighborhoods and our schools continue to deteriorate for way too many Black families and their children.
Blacks continue to lose ground in nearly every category with “positive” demographics decreasing and nearly every “negative” demographic increasing.
This dynamic has created alarming, nearly catastrophic disparities and multiple “risk” factors amongst a large population of the Black community (this is a key issue that gets no traction).
It is clear that the Black community in America is “oppressed” and has been since the enslavement of Black people ending in 1865 after nearly 300 years. It is also equally clear that the oppressor, at least during slavery (approximately 400 years), have been white people and their white establishment.
With the passing of landmark civil rights legislation in the ’60s and the general racial growth of White people, public displays of outright racism are seldom tolerated at any level any more, but structural racism is alive and well.
While there are no more white slave owners and the barbaric and criminal chattel enslavement of Black people no longer exists, Black people are still suffering significantly.
The American institution of slavery represents one of the saddest commentaries on man’s inhumanity to man in modern history.
The history of this period is so brutal and morbid that they will arouse hostilities at thought that these things occurred.
As cruel and painful as chattel slavery was, it was exceeded by the capturing of a people’s mind by imprisoning the motivation, perception, aspiration and identity in a web of antiself- images, language, art, etc.
Also gone are Jim Crow laws that supported terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and sometimes perpetuated the physical and psychological abuse of Black people for nearly 75 years after slavery.
Today, nearly 50 years after civil rights legislation, the economic conditions and structural poverty for too many Black people threatens every aspect of life that will continue for untold generations.
I contend, like wealth, poverty is inherited and where one starts in life is extremely important and Black people have never had the opportunity to not only inherit wealth but to create wealth because they were enslaved and their labor was never compensated.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once stated that the worst form of oppression is poverty and by this definition the Black community in America is being oppressed.
The more I study the conditions facing the Black man in America, the more Malcolm X’s quote rings louder and louder in my head “the oppressor will never feel the pain of the oppressed.” My problem now is,what do we do?
Do we just give up trying to get people to understand how the current white generations have benefited and are “privileged” as the result of the massive disadvantage (oppression) orchestrated against a whole people. Does the truth matter anymore?
I can’t believe that, at the end of the day, the truth will not prevail.
There is a natural disposition to argue the truth with the hope that everyone would come to the same conclusion .
It’s time for the white community to stop denying that this even happened, and to recognize who the oppressors and who the oppressed were.
It’s also time that the white community accept the benefit and privilege this afforded them.
I liken the current benefits of slavery to the person who is criminally charged in a theft even though they didn’t “directly” participate (i.e. they didn’t do the actual stealing).
What they did was receive and currently use the stolen property and therefore they are “conspirators” in the crime.
After countless struggles, marches, riots, demonstrations, and the passing of civil and voting rights legislation, Black Americans have entered the new millennium the same way they entered the previous four centuries – impoverished.
Blacks still bear nearly 10 times their proportional share of poverty and all of its nasty derivatives (i.e. broken homes, drug abuse, incarceration, unemployment, etc.).
The redistribution of wealth and power has never been achieved nor has any compensation been given to Blacks for nearly 300 years of free labor – what we really have seen in America is social integration not economic integration. As Dr. Claude Anderson stated, “It is extremely difficult for Black people to progress when the same hands that held the whip still holds all of the wealth and power.” Maybe this is why the oppressor will never feel the pain of the oppressed.
One must look at the challenges when you argue how the state of the Black man in America is connected to the role that the white ancestors played and the overwhelming “stacking” of deck that confronts most Black people today.
During this period that most white people want to forget or try to downplay, they secured and amassed trillions of dollars in wealth and an economic system that is second to none in the world that will ensure prosperity for its owners for generations to come.
Whites control nearly 100 percent of America’s wealth (est. $9 Trillion), its values as well as a system that supports the protection and growth of their wealth.
THAT WEALTH, POWER, AND REAL ADVANTAGES HAVE BEEN PASSED DOWN TO THE CURRENT WHITE GENERATION, WHILE BLACKS, FOR THE MOST PART, HAVE INHERITED POVERTY AND A WHOLE HOST OF DISADVANTAGES INLCUDING THOSE THAT ENGROSS AND FINALIZE BLACK INFERIORITY.
Whites must come to understand the economic disadvantage that today’s Blacks have inherited within our capitalistic economy. I liken this to being in a gun fight with, not only no gun, but the competition is armed with high quality and high powered weaponry.
How can the Black man truly compete in America’s economic race when the competition has been given a 400 year head start?
I recognize that white people do compete amongst each other and with other groups and this should not be overlooked.
However, this should not be confused with white people being in competition with Black people – it’s absolutely no contest, white people have a very clear and lopsided advantage.
The American institution of slavery was not only a crime against Africa, Africans, and all of humanity but when expressed in economic terms, slavery was the largest and most sustained economic windfalls the world has ever witness – slavery was the catalyst for a global economy creating wealth beyond anyone’s comprehension.
Not only did Americans become extremely wealthy, but nearly all the countries of Europe were direct participants and beneficiaries of slavery on the backs of free black labor.
When you consider the following two key facts (there are so many more): 1) Black ownership of the nation’s wealth remain where it was in 1860 near the end of slavery (pre-emancipation) at one half of one percent . After 150 years and 100% physical freedom; America’s token addressing of social issues, Blacks still only own one half of one percent of the nation’s wealth. Why is this? Wealth inheritance is the passing of past benefits and gains from previous generations and ultimately passed to future generations. Currently, nearly 90% of all of the nation’s wealth was passed from one generation to another – this wealth is forever locked up (i.e. cash, stocks, bonds, land, business, trust accounts, endowments, foundations, etc.).
While not all white people are rich, there is a massive disparity between the net assets of the average white family versus the average Black family ($100k+ vs $6-8k).
This plays out in education opportunities, housing and neighborhood selection, capitalization of entrepreneurial aspirations, and a genuine ability for self-determination for Black people.
When I was developing “market” rate housing at price points at a million dollars there was no limitation of white buyers who could make nearly 90% deposits ($900,000 cash) to outright cash purchases (100 percent).
In all my adult life, I’ve only known one Black person who could do this. In making inquiries to very successful white businessmen on how they became successful especially when everyone of them were born poor (rags to riches), every one of them had a family member or friend that made a substantial investment into the “startup” of their business.
Many times this was done several times before the entrepreneur got it right (millions of dollars were lost in the process) – patient capital.
This capital relationship would continue and going forward these entrepreneurs had access to capital that helped to expand their business along the way.
Again, I know of no Black person that provided seed capital for a startup business and if this did happen, no way do we have Black people able to “loose” on their investment if they actually made an investment – our community doesn’t have these type of resources.
The disadvantages of not having capital shows in multiple ways all have devastating ramifications on the suitability of a family and a people (i.e. education, health, travel, exposure and creativity, etc.).
Capital resources (wealth) and access to quality education are key factors that predestined the Black community to becoming a permanent underclass trapped in poverty unless Blacks break this cycle.
Black people are still discussing reform goals that Brown vs Board of Education has yet to resolve nearly 60 years ago.
In America it’s understood if you get a good education, there are no limits to how high you can succeed – education, while not alone, can fundamentally change the trajectory of a people.
Let’s examine the Black man’s relationship with America and education.
We recently acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court Ruling of Brown v. Board of Education which proves less a cause for celebration and grounds for questioning the current education inequities.
The ruling was historic because it declared “separate but equal” not only is an impossibility, but unconstitutional.
During the enslavement of Black people, there were numerous states that had laws on their books that forbid Blacks to read and/or to be educated (it was a crime) – upon the end of slavery; the majority of Black people were illiterate.
Blacks continue to fight for equality in education. With Blacks lagging behind in every key educational indicator (i.e. literacy, academic achievement, reading, math, and science, high school graduation, college graduation, etc.), the current failing public school system will dictate that these numbers remain and/or worsen.
With a funding formula that funds nearly half of public education coming from the taxes derived from the valuation of real estate values.
With majority of Black people living in sub-standard neighborhoods where real estate values are either stagnate or in decline (the housing stock is fair to poor), it’s no wonder that public education can’t get up off its knees – it’s financially impossible.
Contrary to this dilemma is that white neighborhoods have appreciating real estate values and therefore are able to derived far more (up to 50 percent more) local funds for the education of white children, who have had education from its inception.
The funding issue continues to undermine the delivery of quality public education and therefore significantly underserves Black children.
Public education for Black children is still separate and still very much unequal.
According to the U.S. Department of Education in 2009-2010 school years, there were nearly 8.2 million Blacks attending public schools and approximately 400,000 attend private school (nearly 80 percent attending religious schools with the majority Catholic Schools).
What’s most astonishing is that nearly 77 percent of all Black students attended predominantly all black schools within urban cities with nearly 30 percent of white students leaving public schools all together.
The academic disparities are so alarming and none greater than what is happening to Black boys – the school to prison pipeline is alive and strong.
Not only are our school facilities unequal and inferior, many of our schools lack the very essentials to educate our children (i.e. books, equipment, facilities, educational programs, summer school, etc.).
Given the struggles that Blacks have had in this country from the beginning, you would’ve thought that at least one commitment would be fulfilled for Black people – equitable schools. Lest we forget.
In my upcoming article we will explore more critical legacies of slavery that fundamentally cripple the Black community, and white privilege.