South of the James

by Webster Brooks III

September 24, 2004

Introduction

For the past three decades the debate over “The Crisis of Black Leadership” has cast a long shadow over the African-American body politic. Black liberals, conservatives, nationalists and even hip-hop musicians have weighed in on the issue, yet we stand no closer to resolving the matter today than when the dilemma calcified in the 1970’s. Irrespective of ideology, political persuasion and class, African-Americans agree on one thing; Black America has an unfinished agenda. Thus, we are confronted with a basic question; can a new force emerge that is armed with the political software, energy and vision to complete our unfinished agenda in the 21st century?

Despite the fog that blankets Black America’s struggle for full incorporation into the estate of American democracy, a new political movement is gathering force on the black street. Accordingly, the Low Country & Chesapeake Society is releasing this three-part series “Ending the Crisis of Black Leadership” to provide the framework for a new leadership model.

This series is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis of the crisis of black leadership, but an outline that identifies the fault lines that must be navigated to unleash the political genius lying dormant in the black community. In Black Paper No. 1, “Parting Company With the Civil Rights Establishment,” Low Country examines the political underpinnings that necessitate an independent breakaway movement from civil rights orthodoxy. Black Paper No. 2, “The Politics of Surrendering Political Power” provides a historical analysis of the mistakes made in the post-Black Power era that have significantly diminished African-Americans political influence. The series concludes with Black Paper No. 3, “Completing Black America’s Unfinished Agenda,” which sets forth the rational why black independents must contend for leadership and the transformation of the black electorate into the balance of power in American politics.

As a new independent think tank the Low-country and Chesapeake Society harbors no

illusions that the calculus of re-aligning the black body-politic will be an arduous and most difficult task. It not only demands a radical rupture with the thinking and political culture of the past, but a frontal assault against the fortress of the civil rights establishment. As Frederick Douglass so aptly stated “Power concedes nothing without a struggle.” It must also be said that the failure of black Republicans and black nationalists to offer our community a viable political alternative has contributed just as much, if not more to the crisis of leadership. The opportunity to provide new leadership in the black community now falls to free-thinking independents.

What is required of those who desire to advance Black America’s cause is a candid and far reaching discussion about the state of our entire community. The point of departure and the destination of this discourse is one and the same; the creation of a new politics of truth in the post civil rights era.

On the Racial Fault Line

In 1992, centrist white southern Democrats calling themselves “New Democrats” took control of the party and catapulted Bill Clinton to the presidency after 12 years of being locked out of the Oval Office. In the same year, disgruntled moderates angry at skyrocketing government deficits and economic recession shook up the two party system with Ross Perot’s independent presidential run. Since Perot’s first campaign, a significant independent presidential contender has run in every presidential election, including the upcoming 2004 campaign. Two years later in 1994, the Republican Revolution, led by Nute Gingrich offered the electorate “A Contract With America” that swept the GOP into control of Congress—control they haven’t relinquished for the past ten years.

While the entire American body-politic was being turned upside down, one has to ask where were Black America’s leaders? Where was the black agenda for change? The civil rights establishment was standing on the sidelines shouting “racism,” and trotting out the same political rhetoric and demands reminiscent of the political prose of the 1960’s.

Herein lays the nexus of the contemporary crisis of black leadership. The civil rights establishment is still attempting to lead Black America with a political framework that no longer corresponds to the realities of our times. The only thing more distressing than their inept leadership is the reluctance of Black America to throw them overboard. The political quagmire of the civil rights establishment centers on two tendencies that Black America must divest itself of—and the sooner the better. First, is the civil rights movement’s insistence that fighting racism continues to be the lynchpin of our political struggle for progress. Second, is their refusal to recognize the profound changes Black America has undergone since the civil rights movement reached its zenith in the 1960’s.

Rethinking the role racism plays in Black America and acknowledging the new class configuration of Black America are the central features marking the transition to the post-civil rights era. In short, Black America’s class structure and political DNA have undergone a fundamental change. Black America’s leadership and its political agenda have not.

The term post-civil rights era does not suggest that racism and race-based inequalities no longer exist. They do. Affirmative action and racial profiling continue to be real-time issues. Rather the post-civil rights era is characterized by the fact that legally sanctioned discrimination spawned by segregation in education and public facilities, the lack of voting rights and unfair housing practices have largely been overturned. These issues were solely about race and their manipulation to maintain blacks in a caste system. The seminal question in the post-civil rights era is not whether racism exists, but if it remains the dominant factor impeding black progress? In Low Country’s view the answer is no. The problem of the 21st Century in America will not be the “color line.”

The Color Line

Despite substantial progress made by African-Americans over the last thirty years, the black establishment still portrays Black America as an oppressed subgroup relegated to second-class citizenship by the effects of racism. They continue to lead Black America with an agenda that pre-supposes if racism were eradicated Black America would thrive in the mainstream of society. But just as the Brown vs. Board of Education decision eliminated segregation in public schools, it did not solve the problem of blacks receiving quality public education.

If racism were eliminated tomorrow, rebuilding our families, making quality healthcare affordable, reducing crime, bridging the digital divide and host of other maladies would still cry out for resolution. These problems are not purely or mainly race based. Indeed, many of them are embedded in class contradictions, changing cultural attitudes among our youth and social expectations within our communities. Blaming racism, white people and the lack of government action as the source of our problems has excused our community from taking responsibility for its own actions, while at the same time effectively discouraging blacks from finding solutions to our problems. For years the black establishment dismissed charges that the corrosion of family values contributed directly to the escalation of social ills in our community like drug abuse, teen pregnancy and the rise of single family households led by women. For them, the family values debate was a racist Republican Party ploy designed to appeal to white voters while shifting the blame to blacks for the declining social order in our neighborhoods.

Recently, Bill Cosby’s remarks about low-income blacks not holding up their end of the bargain and black parents’ failure to supervise their children provoked a firestorm among the black establishment. Unable to dismiss Cosby’s statements as conservative invective, the black establishment demanded that Cosby recant or at least tone down his commentary. When he refused, the black establishment appealed to him to not air “our dirty laundry” on the public square, i.e. white people. Cosby responded by going to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition convention in Chicago and saying “Hey, let me tell you something, your dirty laundry is getting out of school everyday at two-thirty, cursing and calling each other niggahs…. and their book bags are very thin.” The Cosby incident provides a case study that is illustrative of the civil rights establishment’s leadership style; denial of the problem, blaming others for the problem, and then attempting to cover up the problem by insisting that open discussion will be self-destructive. With a leadership model like this, how can Black America entertain any hope of moving forward?

The New Black America

The black establishment’s focus on racism as the compelling factor of black life has led them to deny or ignore the far-reaching changes that have occurred in Black America. Having made that assertion, Low Country argues that the most significant and transformational feature of the New Black America is the change in our position within the nations’ economy and workforce. We are passing through a period of unprecedented prosperity in which more Black Americans are attending college, investing in mutual funds, purchasing their own homes and running their own businesses than at any time in our history. Largely relegated to the periphery of the economy in the 1960’s, the New Black America has grown into an economic colossus whose aggregate purchasing power is equivalent to the tenth largest nation in the world. From corporate boardrooms to the National Security Advisors chair, blacks have penetrated every sphere of economic life in America. This new prosperity has also created a level of class stratification that is new to the black experience.

In fairness to the civil rights establishment, their reticence, if not fear to deal with the implications of class within Black America has been shared by Black Republicans, nationalists, and the black intelligentsia in general. In Black America, class is a subject that is taboo. It is time to break the silence. Class structure within Black America has never been more pronounced than it is today. While the civil rights establishment loves to talk about the disparity in wealth between blacks and whites, the wealth gap between the black middle class and low-income Black America is expanding faster than the gap between blacks and whites. There is an assumption that to acknowledge the existence of class in Black America is to admit that the relationship between these classes is antagonistic. Low Country does not share that view. The first step in opening up the discussion about class in Black America is to admit they exist and begin to examine their inner workings.

The Black Upper Class

Today’s Black America has a legitimate and expanding upper class whose wealth runs in the millions and clearly exceeds that of upper middle class families regardless of race. From directing their own business conglomerates to owning multi-million dollar sports franchises, the black upper class is here to stay. Some would argue that the Black upper class is too small to be significant. The issue is not the numerical size, but recognizing the dynamic role the Black upper class can play in lifting middle and low-income African-Americans to a higher economic station.

In 2001, three-dozen Black businessmen led by tycoon Robert Johnson took out ads in several mainstream newspapers supporting passage of President Bush’s proposal to eliminate the estate or inheritance tax. They argued that as African-Americans they were being deprived of the opportunity to transfer a substantial portion of their wealth to their offspring and limiting future opportunities to perpetuate job creation and wealth for other African-Americans. This joint action suggests that the black upper class is increasingly coordinating their economic activity and working through various networks. The mere fact that they swam against the tide to endorse a Republican tax initiative demonstrates they are prepared to pursue their class interest at a higher level than in the past. These business leaders received no support from the traditional black leadership who blasted the Bush’s tax cuts as a windfall for the wealthy, especially the inheritance tax.

Historically, the black upper class has not always been regarded as an ally to the mass political movements of the past. Often referred to as the black bourgeoisie, they were viewed with some justification as a group of wealthy blacks who didn’t want to soil their hands in political struggles that had little to do with improving the bottom line of their enterprises. They were also more vulnerable to political repercussions to their business interest. Today, many black millionaires maintain intimate ties with our community and participate in funding neighborhood initiatives and community-based institutions serving African-Americans and others. In the new black leadership model, we must develop the political sophistication to recognize and support the needs of the Black upper class.

The Black Middle Class

Since the 1960’s the largest change in the class composition of Black America has been the explosive growth of its middle class. More than one-third of all Black Americans are now part of the middle class. As small business owners, administrators, educators, legal and medical professionals, entertainers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors, the black middle class is now firmly entrenched in the nation’s economic mainstream.

They are a propertied class of homeowners and increasingly accumulate wealth through investments in property, stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The rising number of African-Americans investing in the financial arena is a sign of the growing maturity of the black middle class and has tremendous implications for the future. The black middle class has become increasing competitive with its white counterparts in the earnings category. However, when comparing financial net worth, the gap between blacks and whites is much wider. This gap is primarily a function of blacks lacking the experience of participating in the financial investment and asset management universe. As more African-Americans engage in the financial market, the wealth gap will narrow and the absolute accumulation of wealth in the Black community will begin to rise. Compared to whites, the black middle class tends to be more heavily employed in the public sector than the private sector. Similarly, as more blacks tilt towards business ownership and entrepreneurship the index of black wealth will begin to rise as well.

The key factor powering the surge of the black middle and upper classes is education. Today the average income for black women and white women with four-year degrees from college is virtually the same. This parity highlights the pivotal role education occupies in leveling the playing field. Education is also the critical factor when looking at income differential between black middle and low-income blacks.

As the black middle class has grown, so too has its collateral impact on the social and cultural fabric of the black community. Unlike the sixties and seventies when the black middle class lived in close proximity to working class and low-income blacks, today one out of every three African-Americans now lives in the suburbs. Another significant change that has surfaced since the sixties is that the black middle class has a disproportionately higher marriage rate compared to low-income blacks. Stable marriages have allowed black middle class couples to pool resources and accumulate more wealth—wealth that increasingly will be transferred to their offspring.

Not surprisingly the expansion of the black middle and upper classes has generated a need for more political options. For them, tax policy, mortgage rates, interest rates, trade policy and capital gains cuts are no longer peripheral issues. They matter. But the black establishment has offered them precious little political support. What is most astonishing about the black middle class is that they have grown despite their interests being underrepresented by black Democrats, especially in the legislative arena. The black middle class has been waiting for a political voice to surface and articulate a moral vision and policies that correspond to their interest. In large measure the success of a new black leadership model will hinge on their ability to be a spokesperson on behalf of the black middle class.

The Black Underclass

Few things in the political universe of our struggle are more tragic than the problems that continue to beset the low-income and impoverished strata of African-Americans. In many respects low-income Black America is tottering on the brink of evolving into a permanent underclass. The most current census data indicates that one-fifth or twenty percent of all African-Americans continue to live below the poverty line. While the percentage of blacks still languishing in poverty has actually decreased over the last 30 years, their conditions of life are more desperate. The irony of it all is that the plight of the black poor has been the singular focus of the civil rights establishment’s political agenda. Yet their efforts have achieved little since the 1960’s and arguably in the minds of many their doctrine has been counterproductive.

The problems vexing our low-income communities like drugs, crime, poor housing and dysfunctional schools have been with us for some time. However, the most critical development since the sixties is the destruction rent on the structure of the black family. Marriage rates among low-income blacks have plummeted. Almost 70 percent of all black children are born to unwed parents and 86 percent of young black women are single when they have their first baby. According to noted researcher Leah Latimer, 47 percent of children in single-family black homes live in poverty compared to 10 percent of black children who live with both parents. Considering that in 1965, only 25 percent of black children lived with single parents, this exponential growth suggests the dimension of the crisis of the black family is enormous.

This dilemma raises a fundamental question about how the cycle of generational poverty can be broken since all the data clearly indicates black children growing up in two-parent homes perform better in school, and aren’t as likely to become involved with alcohol, drugs and crime. Although the problems of the black underclass are seemingly intractable, Low Country is confident the bottom 20 percent of our community can be moved from the margins to the mainstream of American society. Black America has the talent and the resources to complete this enterprise. What we don’t have is a leadership that can build consensus around an effective approach and policy framework to attack the problem.

The essence of “Completing Black America’s Unfinished Agenda” is the business of making the bottom one-fifth of our people whole. It represents the final hurdle we must clear to fully incorporate all of Black America into American society. In Part 3 of this series, Low Country will begin to explore a political baseline for a national discussion on the issue.

Summary

It is a basic truth that since the historic civil rights movement of the sixties altered the course of American history, Black America has undergone a profound change. However, the civil rights establishment has demonstrated that after 40 years it is unable to keep pace with the forward march of events and reached a point of diminishing returns. Compelled by these circumstances, the Low-country and Chesapeake Society is calling for a breakaway movement of independents and free-thinkers to carry Black America’s banner to the finish line. It is the uplift of the black underclass in the 21st Century that constitutes the final chapter in Black America’s epic journey to full citizenship.