A Ramble on the Failures of the Black Middle Class.


African shall develop an aristocracy of its own, but it shall be based upon service and loyalty to the race – Marcus Garvey
The Boston Brahmins revered history and worshiped their forefathers, shunned materialism, and promoted art, culture, and spirituality. These Bostonians stood atop America’s caste system and were called Brahmins-after the Indians who owned a similar position in their culture’s caste structure. A lesser-known social phenomenon was the strata of Negros who lived adjacent to these elite Bostonians, who emulated these values. They were highly literate, loving knowledge, and lived to glorify their ancestors and their sense of noblesse oblige led them to be at the forefront of the abolition movement. Unfortunately, they were quite insular, practiced an odd form of colorism, and engaged in middle-class snobbery. They, of course, weren’t Brahmins, but middle-class, Negros hadn’t the freedom to gain such a status. Still, they sat astride Northeastern Black America’s class structure and maybe even Black America’s. They also exhibited the failure of our nation’s Black upper and middle classes to lead, their inability to create a model of an aristocracy based upon values owned by them. Never created a philosophy of thought particular to African Americans, matter of fact they embraced White American values wholeheartedly, though fortunately, they emulated the noblest of whites.
Today, we have a very different Black middle class, one which is crassly materialistic, hardly aware of their ancestors and their culture & values. Embracing all that middle America has to offer without the noble aspirations of their forbearers. They practice a form of middle-class snobbery based upon only the superficial, one could make the argument that they haven’t come up with one cultural innovation. They certainly have not created an entrepreneurial culture. Never attempt to create enough businesses to keep black folks’ unemployment rates at the level of Asians. Matter of fact they have actually fought not to have to create their own businesses and are the main promoters of Affirmative Action. Before that, they flocked to politics and the church to make their livings, as Booker T Washington pointed out. Weary of having to prove themselves in the rough and tumble-free market.
Of course, they have participated & prospered in innovations started by poor Blacks quite successfully; Miles Davis and Duke Ellington in Jazz come to mind and so does Langston Hughes, who borrowed mightily from Negro folklore, in literature and prose. I don’t begrudge them these successes I admire all three of them and their cohorts and find Sir Duke to had a seminal impact on American culture, classed rightfully in the same lonely stratosphere as Louis Armstrong. But as a class, their contribution on a cultural and institutional level have been dismal. What few institutional and communal achievements they had, they sold them out as soon as whites decided (mostly forced) they were willing to accept them into their neighborhoods and businesses and to a lesser extent their social circles.
Every day kids are graduating from college, joining sororities and fraternities, and starting businesses. Theoretically, there is always a chance to reverse this trend of horrible leadership. All it takes is a few in leadership roles to take assertive steps toward creating an upper middle class with a stake in the community and the ability and outlook to lead the community in the right direction. The lower segments of society would have to do their part no doubt, which so far they’ve shown no inclination to do. Leading me to think, whatever happens, it will be a long, and slow ascension.