Today’s Guest Column
Race is everyone’s favorite hot-button issue. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? We attempt at various points in our daily lives to both discuss it and not discuss it.
When we see obvious injustices in which it’s easy to be on the correct side (police brutality, celebrities using racial slurs, etc.), we love to chime in with self-righteousness.
However, we also love to duck essentialist arguments — “Hey, why does [insert racial group here] do [insert action here]?” We love to avoid discrimination explicitly by redirecting it — “Don’t go there; it’s sketchy [translated: There’s lots of poor Negroes there].”
This past month has seen race re-enter our discourse at a fevered pitch. Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was every pious race crusader’s wet dream when he was caught on tape mirroring attitudes that seem more akin to a plantation owner of the antebellum period than a 21st-century billionaire.
Another example that caught my attention was a well-written piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates that I couldn’t disagree with more. In “The Case for Reparation,” Coates details how structurally exploitative Jim Crow factors have contributed to continual social, economic and legal displacement of black Americans.
Though his historical analysis and narrative construction was nothing short of flawless, I was disappointed with his conclusive thesis, which reiterates the same jargonist conversation I have been hearing all my life as a black American: Reparations, or economic replenishment based on lost wealth post-slavery and post-Jim Crow, are deserved.
I am not here to debate that black Americans have faced hundreds of years of discrimination and likely will continue to deal with these historical forces well into the future. Only a fool would discount this.
My issue, however, comes with the continued narrative that black economic liberation is largely dependent on institutions controlled by white Americans. It is true; most government agencies are controlled by bureaucracies that have continually perpetuated classist and racist estrangements that have granted white Americans and wealthy people privileges and damned certain minorities and the poor.
For these reasons, it is largely futile for us as black Americans to lobby these institutions for reparations. Do not mistake this for hyper-Libertarian rhetoric that denounces government aid. It is important for us as a culture to continually challenge these institutions for economic justice. The issue lies with the unresponsive nature of these institutions, and thus, the need for self-determination.
Malcolm X once articulated his frustrations with white Americans involved in the fight for equality. His “Ballot or the Bullet” speech denounces the legal wrangling that continued to enable disenfranchisement of African Americans nearly a century after they gained the right to vote. He and Martin Luther King Jr. both criticized many white “allies” who were unpredictable in their support.
Relying on white institutions to bring about liberation is unlikely to yield any results. The fact that these issues exist 50 years post-civil rights movement shows not just an ineptitude of institutions but a genuine disinterest in our community — and sometimes it’s even a desire to revive the exploitative model of slavery (shoutout to the prison-industrial complex).
The solution? Black self-determination. We have to be responsible for our own communities. Raising children to love education and be ambitious. Changing our image, speech, diet and lifestyle to a more sustainable model. Challenging parents, neighbors, churches, etc., to invest their time and effort into creating a great society. And above all, individuals taking responsibility for themselves, choosing the long, arduous road to triumph rather than disillusionment and frustration.
None of this is easy, and none of this is a quick fix. But I believe far more in myself and my communities than I do in any white institution or “ally” to achieve liberation.
Maybe if enough black Americans gain political and capitalist authority, change will come. Hell, maybe even reparations might be distributed. Until then, I’m not holding my breath.
Marc Priester is a junior government and politics and economics major. He can be reached at marcpriester@gmail.com.
