You have heard the saying, "He who defines you controls you." Well, Black folks have now been defined for what may well be the final time, because if we accept the "spinning" of the Pew report, it will be the death-knell that many have longed to hear since free Black labor went out of style.
The initial reporting of the information was centered on the contention that Black people could no longer be considered as "one race." Then I looked at the actual report and found that 37% of those polled believed that nonsense, but 53% did not. Well, that’s funny, I thought. Why would the emphasis be placed on the 37% rather than the 53%? Then the age-old phrase came to mind, He who defines you…."
I was also reminded of another conversation that went something like this: "What’s your name?" The young man replied, "Kunta Kinte!" After having the Black overseer apply another stinging lash to the young man’s back, and with the other enslaved Africans watching, the white man said, "No, your name is Toby, and it will be your name until the day you die."
Those of us who saw the movie, Roots, know that conversation went on for a while until finally, after the excruciating pain of several lashes suffered by Kunta Kinte, he finally succumbed to the white man by saying his name was Toby. During the conversation, if you want to call it that, the white guy said, "Your master gave you the name, Toby, and when the 'master' gives you something you take it."
I could end this column right here and be assured that you have gotten the message, but I need to write a few more words to fill the space.
Why would the Pew report, aired on National Public Radio, and moderated by Juan Williams, put emphasis on the notion that Black people in the United States can no longer be considered "one race" of people? Is this country renaming us? Are we being redefined? Are today’s media outlets modern-day "Mr. Ames," the white guy who ordered the whipping of Kunta? Is Juan Williams the character named, “James” who was administering the lashes? And, more importantly, are we the crowd of enslaved Black folks watching the whipping of Kunta Kinte?
The information about Black people relative to the research done by the Pew Center can have far-reaching and long-term negative effects if we allow it to be woven into the fabric of this society. Aside from defining us as a fragmented group of "people" lacking any form of cohesiveness, concentrating on the 37% instead of the 53%, can take us further down the road of assimilation (Toby), in the opposite direction of resistance and the ability and willingness to define ourselves (Kunta Kinte).
While other groups in this country practice group identity, group pride, group economics, in other words, "nationalism," Black folks in this country allow ourselves to be defined by others. We allow others to determine who we are and what we should do. Ever since we were brought here, there have been efforts to deny our humanity, make us obsolete, and ultimately to make us disappear – to turn us into a "nonpeople," to borrow Albert Cleage’s term. Question is: What we going to do about it?
Will we continue to allow others to define us? What will we do in response to the latest "revelations" that some Black people are rich, some are in the middle, and some are poor? How will we deal with the fact that some of us are light skinned and some are dark, some are Repubs and some are Dems, some are liberal and some are conservative, some are Baptists and some are Catholics, some are urban dwellers and some are suburbanites, some are model citizens and some are criminals, some are educated and some are uneducated, some are in corporate and some are in the public sector, some are young and some are old, and some resist while some accommodate?
Pew research notwithstanding, Black people must stop the nonsensical practice of accepting information without analyzing it for ourselves. We must also use our critical thinking, based on historical fact and purpose, and look deeper into issues that are placed before us everyday by institutions and individuals. We must question sources and connect the dots when it comes to information in the public discourse. We must think!
We must also use our commonality, not our differences, to identify who we are. Imagine a pile of bricks, each one a bit different from the other. Men are sorting the bricks by selecting the "best" ones and discarding the chipped and broken ones. A dear friend, Kenneth Price, wrote, "The blessing is not in the bricks but in the mortar." Each of us is a brick, whether smooth, chipped, or broken. But with good mortar we can build a beautifully ornate structure. That "good mortar" is our Blackness – our commonality. Let’s use it to repair our broken bricks and to build a bright future for our children.
"Be as proud of your race today as your fathers were in the days of yore…" Marcus Garvey
- Reprinted by permission. James E. Clingman is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. His weekly syndicated newspaper column, Blackonomics, is featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. He has written six books, the latest of which is Black Empowerment with an Attitude, and has been the featured speaker for numerous organizations, schools, churches, and events) across the United States.