Up from victimhood

Bill Cosby and Allen Poussaint:

Martin Luther King had a dream that some day his children would "live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

He wanted his children to become strong, beautiful people. But what we see today in poor African American neighborhoods is a nightmare.

We know there are forces that make the ability to escape poverty seem bleak: overburdened single-parent homes, a high dropout rate, joblessness, gangs, drugs, crime, incarceration, deaths at an early age from guns fired by angry black men. We know that systemic racism and governmental neglect still exist.

Yet we in the black community must look at ourselves and understand our own responsibility. We sometimes inflict ourselves with a victim mentality, feel hopeless, and do self-destructive things that make our lives even worse. Many people who are trying to make it find themselves struggling against fellow African Americans so lost in self-destructive behaviors that they bring down other people as well as themselves.

These forces are decimating our communities. And they are not what Reverend King and other leaders took those whuppings for. This is not the future for which our ancestors escaped slavery or resisted it. None of our forebears sacrificed their lives so that their children's children could call each other "nigger."

We cannot accept this current state of affairs. We must realize – and believe – that, for all the external hassles we face, we are not helpless. We can overcome the odds and succeed in spite of the obstacles. And we must try. Despite the fact that racial discrimination has not been eliminated, black strength lies in the resolve to keep on keeping on, never quit, never give up, never yield to the role of cooperative victim.

Since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision to end school segregation, black people have achieved extraordinary accomplishments on all fronts that seemed unthinkable 50 years ago.

As black people face the future, we must remember our successes in American society.

One way slaves survived brutal conditions was to turn the Christianity they had learned into a liberation theology. The stories of the Hebrew slaves became their own. Even as slave owners used the Bible to justify slavery, black people used the Bible as God intended – to give people hope for a time when there would be true justice.

For black people to hold their heads high even today means getting rid of internal feelings of inferiority.

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Probably one of the biggest impediments to success of many blacks in this country is the racism excuse. Everyone faces impediments to success no matter what their race, but when one blames or accepts that failure on their race or their circumstances they are shortchanges themselves and their race. Athletes know or find out that failure comes from lack of effort or talent and to be successful you have to exert great effort and acquire the skills and talents needed to compete.

Walter Williams has said that to avoid being poor there are three things you have to do. Stay in school until you graduate. Don't have kids until you are married and have a job. And, finally get a job of any kind so that you can get the experience needed for a better one. All of these things are within the grasp of every person yet it is incredible how many people ignore this advice. Hopefully Cosby and Poussaint will change some minds. People have a choice to make on whether they will keep on doing the things that have made them poor. the authors are telling them what those things are, and explaining a need for change.