Rap on Race in America

by C. Gerald Fraser

This article goes beyond the conventions that dominate any discussion of racial issues, the author shows not only the enormity and nuances of the problem but also his deep concern for one of the most talked about, but least honestly discussed topics of modern society.

Striking images abound: he takes us back to the coast of Africa, the prison slave ships, the betrayals of the Civil War, the traditions of hope and resistance to the 20th century colour-line, he reminds us of the revolutionary post-war testimonies of Martin Luther King ("I Have A Dream") and Malcolm X ("Message to the Grassroots"), and reveals the brutal truths that must be faced in the cause of freedom, democracy and justice.
The editor

The 21st century looks bleak for most black Americans
On one hand, the white power structure--to resurrect a 60s expression--appears determined that black Americans as a group will never rival the mass of white Americans in achievement, broadly conceived.

On the other hand, black Americans remain mired in the legacy of 18th and 19th century slavery, incapable of coalescing by themselves and for themselves, at the mercy of elements over which they have no control and pitifully little influence. Black Americans have not even had the sense to present a rational claim for some structured form of compensation for the 200 years of slavery during which time their forbears, brought to the United States in chains, worked for no wages but enriched America.

Observation
After observing white Americans for decades, one is compelled to comment that most of them look down on black Americans. These white people--not all, of course, but most--have no respect for black Americans. They do have some regard for Haitians, for Africans; and, grudgingly, West Indians. But the black American is despised and oppressed. Is it because black Americans represent people enslaved on U.S. soil? Or, because these white men and women are, paradoxically, manifesting guilt for this nation's slavocracy? Most white Americans say they would not live with black Americans' situation; do they despise black people because black people have not corrected the situation? I don't know.

Power
I do know that the American establishment does all in its power to eliminate black Americans. This century begins with the U.S. Supreme Court continuing to give police more and more power to choke, and criminalize, black people. (The number of black men and women imprisoned between 1986 and 1996 doubled.)

At this writing the court ruled that a person walking away from an occurrence where police are present is legally subject to arrest. As the New York Times put it in its leading front page story: "The Supreme Court ruled today [Jan. 12] that flight at the mere sight of a police officer could often, in the context of other suspicious factors, be suspicious enough to justify the police in conducting a stop-and-frisk search."

This latest legal travesty will add to the 548,00 black men and women in American prisons.(the figure for white men and women is 541,000) The strategy now is to label as many black people as possible as felons. (Felons, even after being released from prison, can never vote in elections to fill public offices.)

Punishment industry
Incarceration now is not just punishment. It is an industry, referred to as the prison-industrial complex. American prisons are operating at over-capacity; more people are in jail than in college. And communities eagerly rush to build prisons in order to provide employment for their citizens. Many prisons are "privatized," operated as a profit-making business. Name brand products are manufactured in many prisons with little or no profits going to the inmates.

For those outside the walls, the "system" aims to insure that the mass of black Americans attain no success. Of course the country parades its Colin Powells, its Michael Jordans, its Oprahs. But it relegates most black children to the nation's worst educational facilities. There are more all-black schools in existence today than there were in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court "outlawed" school segregation. White people, not "most" this time, do not send their children to schools with predominantly black pupils. And most black parents with the capability send their children to private schools or parochial schools, at least for the first eight years. These parents pay to start their children off in "a good school," hoping that the children will at the very least win admission to various cities' specialized and elite free public secondary schools.

Reaction
This so far successful attempt to dumb down black Americans may well be a reaction to affirmative action programs that came out of the civil rights and anti-poverty movements of the 60s and 70s. The response of most white Americans to affirmative action policies revealed their fundamental prejudice. Most Americans believe and say they believe that they and only they have a right to a job. Many white people reason that to give a job to a black American means that a white person is being denied his or her inherent right. At the same time, black Americans admitted to the nation's elite colleges and universities or holding decent jobs are considered "affirmative action babies"meaning, in reality, undeserving.

Another indication of black Americans' perilous position is their health status. Black Americans suffer high infant mortality rates, do not live as long as their white counterparts, and exhibit alarming statistics that reflect their "nation within a nation" existence. Black children, for example, are rife with asthma; as a result, they miss more school days, and are hospitalized more than white children.

Black mayors Some black Americans thought that with the election of black mayors in the nation's biggest cities, things would get better. But black mayors, for the most part, failed. Some catered to their white constituents, lest they be viewed as "racist." Others couldn't muster the power necessary to offset long-entrenched white political power. Some, like New York's David N. Dinkins, were out and out political hacks. One good mayor, Chicago's Harold Washington, dropped dead. No city today with a black mayor is considered a black Mecca, most favoured by blacks. White mayor, black mayor, very little difference.

Diversity, change and competition
What then, is ahead for black Americans? For one thing, "competition." Other groups, Latinos and Native Americans, specifically, will demand their "share of the pie." This was evidenced in recent agreements between the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (representing Black Americans), and two television broadcast networks, NBC and ABC. Newspapers reported that both broadcasters agreed to provide more jobs to black Americans. Immediately, Latinos and Native Americans cried foul. They said they were part of the coalition that negotiated for more "minority" hiring. And, they said they deserved a place at the table when the goodies were handed out. In the end, they will be. The incident reflects a difficulty black Americans face.

Diversity is the buzzword of the day. And if anyone is looking for "people of color" to make their company diverse there are at the head of the line, Asians, the "model minority"--Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. Light-skinned Latinos come next. The Native American is often scarce. The history of America, from 1620 to 2000, provides black American with the data. There will never be a real opportunity in the United States for collective achievement by black people as long as it is a majority white nation. And, if people of color predominate? Wait and see.

C. Gerald Fraser observed events shaping America's racial affairs during a quarter of a century of reporting for The New York Times. He helped found the National Association of Black Journalists and was a senior tutor of trainee journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Quotable Quotes from the past

"Common sense affirms and only folly denies, that the man who has suffered the wrong is the man to demand redress - that the man struck is the man to cry out - and that he who has endured the cruel pangs of Slavery is the man to advocate Liberty."

"This generation knows. It has seen it with its own eyes: the nature of the lies the white people told black people for generations. And it understands the reasons for these lies."

A Rap on Race, James Baldwin and Margaret Mead (1971)