Implicit in this line of thinking is the notion that Blacks are at the bottom because they have not been trying hard enough to move up – which is also the assumption of white racists, whether they call themselves conservatives or liberals. The most fatal flaw in the Black capitalist world view is the assumption that Black people actually have the wealth and discretionary income to build an internal economy that could insulate them from the general capitalist crisis. We know different, because all the data tell us that Black household income is stuck at the same level relative to whites as back in 1979, and Black comparative wealth was steadily eroding even before the last decade’s recessions. And we know that Black wealth has been further diminished relative to whites in the ongoing housing meltdown, in which Blacks are twice as likely to face foreclosure. And we know that Blacks, a majority of whom are renters, bear the brunt of the dislocations caused by rampant gentrification, which in some urban areas forces families to spend more than half their income on rent.
“The most fatal flaw in the Black capitalist world view is the assumption that Black people actually have the wealth and discretionary income to build an internal economy that could insulate them from the general capitalist crisis.”
Simply put, there ain’t no damn money for these bootstrap capitalism dreams, and there never was. There was never the possibility of building a Black General Motors – and now General Motors requires billions of dollars in federal infusions to survive.
What a great distraction this nonsense about bootstrap racial upward mobility has been – so much wasted time and misdirected dreams over the generations. Worse than that, the bootstraps mythology – sometimes under the shorthand, “Do for Self” – implicitly or explicitly urges Black people to forego making demands of government, as if that amounts to “begging the white man” for something. This attitude surrenders all Black claims to any of the society’s resources except those we currently hold in our own pockets – which is the equivalent of social death. President Obama also warns Blacks to expect no redress from their government. At a recent press conference, he once again urged Blacks to be patient, that when the economy grows, everybody will be “swept up into that virtuous circle.”
It never happened before, and it never will. Blacks need to “Do for Self,” but not as aspiring capitalists. We have always made our greatest progress in political struggle. That’s the Promised Land that we make, together.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com
Article Submission: Bobby Ward
This Article Appeared in The Black Truth News Volume 3 Issue 12.0 Dec. 31 2012