The cultural mess we call the internet is understandably awash with two second headlines and ten second stories about African American anecdotes, losses and victories. Makes me want to tell you what I think about it all. Instead I came up with this:
Invisible Man… written the year I was born this book is about an African American’s struggles to be a visible man even within his own multi-colored community. I’ve read this book. It is sophisticated and complicated, written better than I have the ability to appreciate. It won the National Book Award for its author Ralph Ellison who later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom… in 1969.
This challenging book left me with a host of questions and some impressions. One significant impression is the idea that none of us are entitled to anything in America. That is not how it works, at least not for those of us who by their socio-economic demographics actually live in America. There are and always will be those who live in mahogany, ebony or ivory towers.
Those of us who actually live in America are not looking for a hand out. We are expecting to be respected when we act respectable. I have personally known a wide range of folks of all colors, ethnicities, and origins who have this attitude. This attitude is how America works, how it makes progress. This attitude is not looking for opportunity which is not available to others. Those with this attitude are looking for opportunities for everyone in their influence because each one knows that when you progress, I progress; when you are respected, I am respected.
There are a multitude of ways to talk about opposites to this attitude and the subsequent dilemmas and disasters. I find that unnecessary and unhelpful. You do not get back on-course by debating why being off-course is a bad idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment