[This post is the latest installment in our monthlong series on race and education.]
written by Anti-Racist Parent contributor Max Reddick; originally posted at soulbrother v.2
I spent Sunday afternoon at Vanderbilt University in Nashville getting young Aaron Beaste checked in and helping him get his dormitory room all set up. In fact, that’s what I am doing in this part of the country. Young Aaron Beaste was selected to participate in a special program for talented youth at Vanderbilt, and I opted to stay close by (Memphis) until he’s done rather than dropping him off, driving back to Florida, then having to turn around and make that long drive again at the end of two weeks to retrieve him.
Anyway, Aaron Beaste and his sister Little Moni Beaste have participated in a number of programs similar to this one over the course of the last few years, and as I sat in the orientation listening to the very impressive resumes of the young people participating in this program, it dawned on me that my children are children of privilege, more specifically, colored children of privilege.
Allow me to briefly qualify my categorization of my children as “colored children of privilege.” In my categorization, I’m not attempting to claim baller status; my wife and I work two jobs most of the year and take any and all free lance assignments to afford our children such opportunities. But what I mean is African American children who gain access to prestigious institutions and special enrichment programs not available to their peers by virtue of their unique talents and gifts.
These students I see as tantamount to a modern incarnation of W.E.B. Dubois’s concept of the talented tenth, that top ten percent of African Americans who were expected to use their unique talents and gifts as part of a program of uplift to improve the lives of all African Americans. But does this new generation of the young, gifted, and black realize or even understand this responsibility? Or better still, do they even have any responsibility toward the African American community at all?
I was perhaps part of the first generation of young, gifted, and black to directly benefit from the Civil Rights Movement. I grew up poor and black, but early on my intellectual ability afforded me opportunities not available to my peers and allowed me access to places of privilege others of my hue were shut out of. And because in our culture privilege is usually synonymous to whiteness, just like the handful of African American young people I encountered Sunday, I invariably always found myself one of the very few African Americans in the institutions and classes I became a part of.
But we understood who we were and what we were there for. We were never allowed to forget. On a daily basis, our parents and grandparents reminded us. Our aunts and uncles reminded us. The adult members of our community reminded us.
We knew that our fate was inextricably intertwined with the fate of the African American community. We knew that if we achieved any measure of success, that success would be accorded to our singular greatness. However, if we failed, our failure would serve as an indication of the intellectual inferiority inherent of the race.
So, we clung desperately to one another, urging and exhorting each other even as we discussed our plans for transforming our community and the nation.
But in that handful of African American children present on Sunday, the new generation of the young gifted and black, I didn’t see that same urgency and affinity to the African American community. While during my generation, we few African American children sought each other out, this new generation barely acknowledged the presence of the other African American students.
While we were usually found huddled together in a group, this new generation made their already small number seem even smaller and less efficacious by inserting themselves individually in the various racially diverse groups that popped up along lines of personal interest and talents as opposed to race.
And in their personal statements, they mentioned nothing of desiring to give back to their community. They simply catalogued their accomplishments in an almost braggadocios manner, and expressed their lofty goals in the Eurocentric terms of “I” as opposed to the Afrocentric terms of “WE.”
The implications are two-fold. One the one hand, maybe this new generation of young, gifted, and black have freed themselves from the onus of race. Maybe they have learned to define themselves outside the bounds of race. And this could potentially be a good thing. For a young person, the weight of carrying the full weight of a race on your back is a heavy weight to bear indeed. But if this is indeed the case, if they believe themselves truly free from the fetters of race and the concomitant exigencies thereof, I’m afraid they are deluding themselves and setting themselves up for a rude awakening.
Also, if they no longer see their connection to the African American community, a serious schism, a naked declivity, is developing, or better still continuing in its development, in the African American community. In the future, there threatens to be one narrow group of upwardly mobile African Americans and another group of society’s throw-aways perpetually mired in the muck of ignorance and poverty.
I wish young Aaron and Moni Beaste and those talented and gifted children like them all the best, but I caution them not to forget their roots, not to forget their race bacause if you do, something will invariably arise to remind you of it, and remember to reach for success not just for you or even your family, but for something much bigger than yourself.
Does the new generation of the young, gifted, and black have any responsibility toward the African American community, and if so, what is that responsibility?
Honestly, I think it would be much healthier for them and for the country in general not to feel tied to that sort of responsibility. I strongly favor private and government programs that provide assistance to people so they can get education — grants and tuition assistance, child care assistance, housing assistance, health care assistance. I think programs that encourage young blacks or other minority groups to go into specific fields are laudable. Internships, educational cohorts, individual mentors are all ways to do that. But that’s not the same thing as telling a specific kid who happens to be black that he is personally obligated to do all of those things because he is a credit to his race and must bring up the people who happen to look like him. Those are things that people do because of their own personal inclinations and values. It may well be that many of those kids will be moved to assist other black kids because of their personal value systems, instilled by their parents and communities, but I’m certainly not going to demand it of them. Too much pressure. Let them be responsible only for themselves.
@ Andrea
“Too much pressure. Let them be responsible only for themselves.”
I agree with you one hundred percent. I did not like it when I was asked to “be a credit to my race,” and I certainly do not want to place that onus on my own children.
But in this country the fate of minorities, and perhaps especially African Americans, are intertwined. Not matter what one achieves or how successful one becomes, he or she will be judged by the images or stereotypes of that minority group currently occupying the cultural imagination of the nation.
So, in summation, perhaps there is no way of escaping the onus of race in one way or another. So, it then becomes in ones best interest to lift even as they climb.
Is it a lot of pressure? Yes. Will that pressure hurt them? I don’t think so.
I was one of those gifted and talented kids too. Summer workshops at a far away college was the norm for me. I did feel an incredible sense of responsibility to perform well, not just for me, but for the people coming behind me.
Even now, I could be responsible only to myself. At work, I have young people, just out of college, many of whom feel no sense of responsibility towards anyone but themselves. I think its selfish and it breeds this sort of self centered and entitlement that drives me up a wall.
I got to a certain place in life because the people before me weren’t selfish. Then and now, I owe it to those behind me to achieve, so that doors stay open for them.
…and I don’t think being a ‘credit to the race’ is the same as what the author was talking about. To me, being a ‘credit’ is akin to being the ‘special’ one the one ‘not like the others’. Both of which are insults.
really interesting and well written article.
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I don’t look at giving back as pressure. If it were not for those that went before us and gave back in all arenas, races and institutions, etc… many may not have certain opportunities.
Many others of ALL races come from other countries(from Ireland to Africa) come to lay the foundation for other family members and friends to come and take advantage of opportunities and new starts.
I think the fact that this society has moved from interdependence to narcissism has greatly slowed down the process of building genuine connections among humanity.
1)Take care of self first
2)Help family second
3)Give back to community third
This is not hard nor is it pressure it is the price of success. “To whom much is given, much is required.”
Racism is here, and will always be here as long
as there are people on this earth. It is not re-
stricted to black and white. This can be attested
to by todays headlines stating about conflicts
between Hispanics and Blacks.
I encountered this situation over 40 years ago.
A hispanic I employed told me he had to quit
as he could not work for or take orders from
a black. This same situation repeated itself in
less then 4 weeks. But this was just the tip of the
whole picture. My business was advertising
that serviced major corporations nationally.
There were purchasing agents in these com-
panies who resented placing any meaningful
monetary orders with non white concerns.
This in addition to doing business for over
3years having never met the owner in person.
When I was forced to, is when I lost the cus-
tomer. Or a major city utility firm that advo-
cated being an equal ect. concern stated I
would be considered when they had some-
thing they thought I could handle.
My question as to what they thought I could
not handle was not answered.
This was just a minor part of what racsist acts
one had to deal with in business. On a social
level today, there still exist those who wants
to either stop advancement for the better of
all, or would like to turn back the clock to
yesterday.
For example, My residence is in a so-called
alfluent area, Riverdale. In a conversation in
a supermarket with a neighbor about how life
has it’s many twist and turns. I did not know
that the person I was having the conversation
with was of jewish faith until I had mention
that my grand children were all white and of
German decent.
I was told then that he could not forget or
forgive what the Germans had did. At this
point, I stated that number one you could not
blame the children for sins of the father.
But more important, I asked him what if I
went around hating all white people for the
Slavery action.
It seems like this younger generation of african americans are educated to think of self.
The older generation where more unified in the sence they looked out for each other and encouraged each other to do better, and that sometimes would make a difference in a kids life. Judging from the kind of person that i’am, I would encourage it.
When people in the community work together it becomes more prosperous. I always say 10 hands are better than 2.
I also think when people in the community bond together, you can improve the economic conditions and race relations of the community. If a kid graduates from college and gives back to the community i see that as no more pressure than receiving pressure from your parents to excell in school or in life. It should make you feel elated,especially if you have a love for people and humannity.