United as Blacks (I apologize upfront for any feelings I step on)

Last night I attended one of the most interesting, and probably the most thought provoking seminars I have seen in a long time. It was a discussion on the cultural differences between Carribbean Blacks and African Americans. Although a lot of the comments I heard last night, in my opinion, were either shallow attempts to sugarcoat real feelings or major appeals to emotion, I found a lot of useful information in the process, so I enjoyed it overall.

There was one particular statement that bothered me, and it kept being repeated over and over again by the students that were in the room. They all kept comparing Black Unity, or the lack thereof, to the perceived "unity" of majority society. And it was said in a variety of ways. One person said," You never hear white Germans beefing with Polish Whites." Another person said, "White people never have this problem." I heard one student whisper, "Neither do Asians." No matter how it was presented, it came off to me as "Other groups have it together, why don't we?"

I have a MAJOR problem with that notion, and I will tell you why...

Historically, any group of people that have arrived in America, be it by force or by choice, have had internal strife in some way, shape or form. The Chinese and the Japanese, as history will tell you, fought each other for land and conquered many lands in Asia. The Mongols of upper Asia did as well. A lot of that has carried over to America, though Blacks may rarely see it. The people of India still participate in active slavery of its own people. Italian Americans beef heavily with Sicilians, even though they are from the same basic region of the world. White Americans (some, not all) dislike White Canadians, Irish, etc.

Which leads me to the following conclusion...

ALL RACIAL GROUPS ARE DIVIDED. PERIOD. You wanna know why majority society doesn't seem have the same problems we as Blacks think we have? You know why they don't have forums on how to be unified? It isn't because they have it together and are unified...it's because they don't give a damn about being unified. Same goes for Asian Americans to some extent, although they do tend to bond a little more than the majority. Since Blacks are actively seeking unity, and constantly keep this as a forerunning thought in our existence, we tend to be critical about how this gets accomplished. That manifests itself in different ways, but the reality is, we are the ONLY group that cares about being unified as a whole people. That is what makes us SEEM as though we are fighting to be unified...cause we are the only group that cares.

I think this point, if valid to you, needs to be internalized for several reasons:

1. If we constantly think we are behind, then we will never get ahead. So many of us dog ourselves when we talk about our lack of unity, not realizing that we are actually the only group that could possibly achieve it, if we keep actively seeking it. And I think we should embrace that distinction, since ultimately, it will be our strength once we are faced with another crisis against our own.

2. Once we get on one accord, we can see where the real problem is...and that is money. Race relations is a by-product of a class/economic issue that plagues EVERY group. When we look at the White race, all we really see are the iconic members of their race. The wealthy and the affluent. But to be honest, there are Whites that have the exact same struggles that we have, and I submit to you that most of the hate Blacks receive from White America is perpetuated by the middle and lower class whites who feel we are a threat to their entitled legacy. Affirmative action, for example. doesn't matter to the super-rich...their children will probably get into whatever school they choose because they can afford it. But the people who are fighting it are the ones who are in the same position as most of us are in terms of class. (And I don't mean all Whites, but those select ones that do feel this way, it applies to them. No offense to anyone reading this.) Unity, for us, will allow us to start becoming forerunners in progression in America, and if we realize that we are on the cusp of this, then we would feel more empowered.

3. America thrives on the fact that we are all different, and cohesion of similar groups could be detrimental to the fabric of this country, at least in the eyes of those in power. So as Black people, if we understand that we could be the first to break through that, we would actually be elevating ourselves past many other racial groups in terms of forward progression of the whole, instead of forward progression of individuals. (It was happening with Black Wall Street, and we see how that turned out. )

I guess my whole point in this blog is to point out the inherent self-loathing that we do in an attempt to catch up with others. Once we assess where others are in their movement towards unity, we will see that we may be setting the trends, instead of catching up to the pack in terms of our oneness.