As my discussion above of the new social-class capabilities of the post-Civil Rights Movement era African-American elite sector makes clear, that sector now has more resources at its disposal for executing an outreach-to-Black-crises-leadership demeanor than any previous elite sector in modern African-American history. What is now needed is “an expansion of Black-elite will”. A flowering of “Black-elite will” toward remedying social crises among lower-class African-Americans.
One crucial element underlying the issue of “Black-elite will” relates to African-American familial patterns. Namely, the fact that a sizable segment of African-Americans now located in the ranks of the Black elite were the first of their family line to reach middle-class and professional status, so they have family members or relatives who are bordering on or in the weak working-class and poor sector.
In a certain sense, then, there is a kind of generic moral obligation for some Black elite persons to come to grips with addressing Black lower-class crises. The African-American philosophy scholar at Princeton University, Professor Cornel West, touched on the familial issue associated with the question of “Black-elite will” during an interview with the editors of Black Enterprise Magazine ( February 2005). When asked what he thought about the overall education advancement available to African-Americans, Professor West remarked: “I think it’s magnificent for [the] black middle class and above, but it’s a national disgrace for the black working poor and the very poor. There is a class difference that we have to acknowledge. Sure, for my son and my daughter, it’s cool….I have some cash. You know what I mean? But I have cousins and I have friends and relatives who are not as blessed as I am.”
I suggest that there are three basic programmatic-areas of Black–elite-outreach-to-Black-crises that should gain the attention of today’s Black middle-class and professional sector. The three programmatic-areas that I suggest for a Black-elite uplift interface with lower-class Black crises are the following:
