A Look at How Class, Politics and White Approval Shaped Parts of Black Leadership in America
There are plenty of critical thoughts that go into an analysis of why many, not all, in the Black and Brown middle class are always seeking ways to make themselves the sole leaders in the Black and Brown community by carrying the water of white supremacists. It surely goes back to slavery when some masters granted limited freedom to house slaves, and later on more “freedom” as long as racist-minded Whites controlled any opposition to their system of white supremacy.
This meant funding Black schools in order to control the curriculum and any protest that might arise. Many Black middle-class leaders were told not to ask for too much and do it behind closed doors. In this way, a select group of middle-class Blacks, or Browns, were empowered to represent the entire Black or Brown community. Those days are about to disappear.
Respectability and Control
Blacks were told to speak “perfect” English and speak in such a way as to mimic the diction of Whites. Blacks were expected to praise Whites for funding Black schools even though they did so as to dumb down the curriculum; teaching vocational education only and not letting Blacks into the academic areas to compete with White employment.
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This is why Robert E. Lee, James Steptoe Johnston, profound racists and slave owners, supported Black colleges. As long as those people of color appointed to such institutions toed the line of white paternalism, they could keep their jobs and be elevated by White power.
The Divide Between Class and Activism
Some bourgeoise leaders became voices for the racists by routinely attacking poor people, going so far as to attack Black parents that named their children in unique ways. Blacks were told and made to think that by naming their children after England’s aristocracy they had a better chance of being accepted by a white supremacist-controlled society. This would not work.
Blacks and others were made to believe that wealth, style and status were the ways to make racism go away. This put middle-class Blacks at odds with social activists who understood that the joysticks of power would not ever be handed over to the community. Give them a few crumbs and they will protect their pretend status against those who honestly question those in power.
Black leaders that move away from the established order of selected “Negroes,” will find out that they are hated by this “Afritocracy” as Dr. Eric Dyson called them. Black middle-class leaders were expected to rope in Blacks that would not follow their position and leadership.
Some Black leaders even allowed White racists to control political arguments and lead discussions about Black culture when they never lived in Black skin and never grew in a diverse culture. Many in the Black middle class, the bourgeoise, sought and still seek to win acceptance from the declining White majority.
Blacks had to prove they accepted “white morality” and “white logic,” while many White leaders were, and are, pedophiles, rapists, criminals and fascists.
“Racial Uplift” in Modern Politics
Many Black leaders made the fatal mistake of following the false concept of “racial uplift.” Nowadays, “racial uplift” has drifted into praising Trump and his followers, even going so far as to get a Black preacher to pray over a gold statue of Trump.
This new “Mr. Goldfinger” statue has been referred to by progressive Christians as “worshiping the golden calf.” We see a few Blacks and Browns drift into the orbit of Trump as these Sambos and Uncle Toms see themselves as “leaders,” and as a way to mistakenly think that this will make their skin color go away.
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