Black People + Classism

Another intellectual media videos I’ve discussed the factors that make black people a disproportionate part of America’s poor in this video I want to explore the theme of black excellence being conflated with black elitism wealth and classism I also want to address how the black upper-class has historically helped or hindered black

Progress and white supremacy to start this conversation we have to go back the class dichotomy in the black community of the haves and the have-nots the broke ease and the back secures has roots and slavery the first division were the free blacks in the slaves then among the

Slaves there were outside slaves and house slaves a caste system that came with privileges for the latter group these privileges were usually in the form of better food and less physical labor better clothing and better access to education as some slave owners believe smarter house slaves meant a

More efficient house being in the house also meant more frequent interactions with rights which often included sexual harassment and assault but it also meant something else the rape of black women began light-skinned children with superiority complexes and even resulted in inheritances of money or land along

With some free blacks who had managed to work for wages before emancipation and save up for their coins the children of rape and the privileges they received were the initial seeds of wealth in the black community after emancipation the emergence of what would come to be known as HBCUs or historically black

Colleges and universities in the 1860s created a stepping-stone and status symbol for those few blacks who could afford to attend because of their money and often their proximity to whiteness they were able to begin careers in medicine dentistry and law they would start funeral homes banks insurance companies and newspapers all of these

Professions were highly necessary especially because of the rigid segregation of the era and these doctors lawyers and entrepreneurs would become the upper black class they move close to progressive cities and black universities away from most of the poor Negroes in rural southern on clays these newly Black’s made their homes in Chicago

Detroit New York Philly Tuskegee and later Atlanta they attended black Episcopal or Congregational churches where the vibes were formal with well-educated clergy and small and exclusive membership lists they donated funds to various philanthropic efforts and supported civil rights efforts through organizations like the n-double-a-cp but for a long time they also kept their

Vast wealth and minimal political power concentrated amongst themselves they establish still surviving societies and social clubs that many blacks today still haven’t heard of let alone know how to join like boule Lynx and Jack & Jill boule is an all-male Society that greatly influences black politics and most of its members are historically

Wealthy and well-connected Jack & Jill is a Children’s Society founded in 1938 by a small group of upper-class black women who wanted to create a playgroup where their kids can mingle with the right kind of people through this highly privileged program children are introduced to educational social and cultural experiences the average black

Child from the hood can only dream of they get early exposure to professional careers and are provided a network of friends and opportunities that help them get extra help to the top these kids and teens nurtured lifelong bonds and throughout the 20th century it was common for them to find their marriage

Partners at monthly Jack and Jill meetings limiting the possibility of inter class dating or more bluntly dating down because Jack and Jill has historically extended memberships by invitation only with no application fees and you get in by knowing someone who already belongs those with wealth professional circles and private school credentials make up

The bulk of the membership but to be clear it was reported that membership grew in the 70s and 80s as more black Americans moved into the suburbs than ever before and the organization changed its mission to quote reflect the isolation felt by many blacks living in predominantly white suburbs instead of

Helping blacks assimilate in the white culture the organization is seeking to instill a sense of ethnic pride and suburban black children but they still left out a large chunk of black children who would have benefited this kind of class based privilege was probably what W EBD

Boys had in mind when he first began promoting the talented tenth but before addressing him let’s run it back to Booker T Washington who adamantly promoted industrial education in the concept of the black community focusing on economic progress in betterment rather than acquiring political and

Civil rights the only way to do this was of course by sacrificing black lies to white supremacy as Washington lived during the navier– of American race relations when anti black violence was especially harsh and frequent while most inaugural members of the black upper class began purchasing nice clothes cars and homes

To fit in with the white America rapidly becoming obsessed with consumerism mass lynchings voter suppression and discrimination raged across the country for the average black person but that’s not to say the black upper class didn’t face their own discrimination nor were they not doing anything for progress in addition to charitable donations in

Their view by showcasing the elite black community in demonstrating their wealth and pedigree they weren’t only proving their humanity to white people but lifting up the lower black classes as shining examples for how to attain wealth and behave the whole thing reeks of class’s respectability politics insinuating that poor blacks were stuck

In their positions because of behavior not systemic race and class issues this ideology known as the talented tenth was crafted by white liberal philanthropists who wanted to train a class of black elites to support white liberal interests and teach other blacks w e– b de bois publicized the term the talented

Tenth as a leadership class of one in ten black men who could best serve the community by getting classical education Zinn attaining wealth black children of the upper class as described by Lawrence Otis Graham in his book our kind of people and Margo Jefferson in her book negro

Land were encouraged to think of themselves as elite members of their race who were to serve as examples for the rest of the community at black college campuses like howard students were subjected to the elitist status quo howard was founded in 1867 but didn’t see its first black president until 1926

And he was extremely light skin color is immed in all corners of the black upper-class with members encouraged to lighten skin press unruly hair and even obtain facial surgery in the later half of the 20th century when operations were more accessible at Howard in 1928 a fresh-grated student

Wrote about the colorism in the school’s Greek community saying we are not so surprised when we hear such rumors and reports about institutions of learning owned controlled and attended by white people but it certainly comes as a great shock and causes a feeling of shame when we hear such news about Negro colleges

At first glance it would seem incredible that Negroes themselves the victims of ignorant prejudice and discrimination because of color should follow the lead of the Nordics Howard itself was apolitical from the first half of its existence as it wanted to be seen as a black Harvard or Yale initially students

Were concerned with being respectable members of the upper class but by the late 60s more students have become aligned with the civil rights and black power movements elitism and classism could still be found lurking in the fraternities and sororities however as belonging to these exclusive organizations meant not only being able

To afford college but membership dues as well hopefully you’ve noticed that a recurring theme in the creation and sustaining of the black upper class is access to resources most predominantly education while many members of the black upper class who make up most black Republicans will champion personal responsibility in bootstrap narratives

As the keys to lifting unfortunate Negroes out of poverty this clashes directly with their history it started with black people who were freed from bondage early and allowed to work while others toiled away in slavery it continued with those blacks who were gifted money land or education while the

Rest were locked in subservience are living under the worst conditions of Jim Crow since the beginning of the 20th century these upper-class blacks were not always self-reliant as they had networks of wealthy family members and friends access to the right clubs and opportunities and money in time for

Enrollment at good grade schools and colleges they had resources they had each other and more than that they had a lower class of blacks who contributed to their wealth madam CJ Walker the first quote-unquote self-made black million sold her hair products to black people when she was building her 20,000 square

Foot house in Irvington New York in 1917 a white woman remarked to New York Times and possible no woman of a race could afford such a place the various black men who amassed fortune by selling life insurance policies did so through the wallets of black clients I can list out

Every entrepreneur and how they made their money similarly through black customers but instead I’ll drive home the point just like today there was no room for everybody to be black beauty suppliers or black insurers or black newspaper owners this is why I really hate it when certain people act like

Everyone in the black community is one eyelash or t-shirt company away from being a millionaire for capitalism to remain super lucrative for the few they must concentrate ownership and resources among themselves otherwise they’d have nobody to sell to nobody to serve nobody to profit from so ultimately there’s

Always a group of impoverished people being bombarded with both consumers fantasies of status symbols like fancy cars and clothes and accusations of laziness lack of determination and government mooching speaking of alleged government mooching since at least the late 70s many members of the black upper class have advocated politically against

Welfare and government aid in a few ways and there are definitely reasons to be concerned about the black elites impact on the rest of us nowadays the black elite includes more than just old moneyed families and professionals it includes celebs athletes and politicians three occupations of black people have

Only seen ride success in in the past few decades these are some of the same people who don’t feel the full burden of racial oppression because they’re not only wealthy but also have greater access to resources and people with power the class’s attitudes they have about poor blacks carries over into

Their politics they’re devastatingly influential public personas and their personal actions of course you’ve got the obvious black Republicans who buy into myths about welfare queens and lazy hoodlums squandering opportunities for fun vacations to prison but then they’re aided by centrist voices like the now disgraced Bill Cosby who in-between

Rapes spent years pouring money into HBCUs and ships but at the same time this berating poor blacks for wearing baggy pants or being ghetto as if those were the reasons for their circumstances even going so far as to suggest that racism was used as a crutch for poverty

It was classist and elitist blacks like Cosby who endorsed ordinances that would ban baggy pants in the 2000s and who went along with racist dog whistles about thugs when Trayvon Martin Mike Brown and others lost their lives in the years to come classic respectability politics do more than just concentrate

Wealth and power or lead the black people being shot in the streets by cops who never face punishments respectability politics approve state sanctioned violence against black people in prison as it here it’s love to point out if you don’t want to go to prison don’t commit a crime like this country

Doesn’t systematically and snare people of color into the mass industrial complex through poverty and neglect congressman Charles Rangel a Democrat was a supporter in Nixon’s White House of revving up the war on drugs he founded the non partisan but still mostly Democrat Congressional Black Caucus which voted to defund

Rehabilitation centers fund more prisons and agreed with harsh legislation for drug offenders this wasn’t the first or last time a democratic black member of the upper class would ignore class and race realities to make judgment calls on the poor black community in 2008 Obama made a speech about absentee black

Fathers in its connection to black progress a typical talking point from people looking down on ghetto blacks that neglects mass incarceration in the less than stellar track record of white parents and then along with all of the black politicians reeking of classism you’ve got it permeating hip-hop and

Black culture if you listen to the music watch the interviews and check out the type of viral content that gets black Twitter riled up you see it’s all loaded with insults about broke [ __ ] flexing on others and giving up certain vacation spots or designer labels when too many

Negroes start acquiring it to be clear the classism that exists in hip-hop and black culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum America is classist at its very roots something were reminded when we think about this country’s ultra defining Constitution being pinned by wealthy male landowners and slave owners the only people allowed

To do something so important we’re a society obsessed with acquisition acquiring power acquiring real estate acquiring wealth and boy is that third one crucial for the other two don’t believe me it takes damn near ten million dollars to run for Congress and nearly 1 million to run for president in

The midst of all of this acquiring there’s a sacrificial class of blacks left to bear the consequences like those scores of black people murdered during the Navy era of American race relations while Booker T Washington advocated for the continuance of white social and political dominance black victims of classism are real casualties while

Blacks will continue climbing their way to the top stepping on the backs of others and claiming to be self-reliant like the wealthy white descendants of slave owners they might want to remember that arriving doesn’t guarantee security they’re still just Negroes and a white supremacist world want to see more great

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