The Disappointment With Some Well To Do Blacks

As part of the annual Labor Day economic statistics it is now estimated that the average corporate executive in America now makes over three hundred sixty times the income of the average worker, give or take a worker or two. Okay, let’s put this into perspective. One minute of an executive’s time is worth six hours of the average worker. An entire eight hour day for the average business executive is worth a year and a half of pay for the average worker. About a month of access to the executive lounge, flying business or first class, personal secretaries, and kicking up one’s heels on top of the solid walnut designer desk is equivalent of a lifetime of clocking in, fifteen minute breaks, and being pushed to pinch every penny out of each and every minute of productivity.

Some people will see this disparity as a sign that capitalism works and capitalism is right. People justify the pay difference as executives having such abnormal pressures from being the captain of his or her industry. But how often have we seen these captains run their companies into the ground and get a multi-million dollar severance package for their incompetence. The average worker is lucky to get paid a couple of weeks pay if they get canned. A corporate executive can fire tens of thousands of employees, put entire communities into an economic tailspin, and get another multi million dollar bonus at the end of the year for his economic thriftiness. These are supposed to be evidence of capitalism operating as its finest. However, these appear to be more like examples of feudalism with executives acting more like royal lords of a feudal domain than a member of any working community. The average worker is little more than a pawn manipulated by management and quickly sacrificed in an elaborate game of strategy to capture the queen of maximum profit.

Capitalism has never been kind to the black community. While specific black people have benefited tremendously in an economic system that encourages people to take advantage of each other in order to get ahead the majority of black people are the ones being taken advantage of instead of being the one taking advantage. The vast majority of our African ancestors were introduced into the American culture as a result of the institution of slavery deeply rooted in capitalism. It was cheaper for plantation owners to purchase an African for perpetual enslavement and the enslavement of their children and future generations instead of hiring a man who had rights. It was the ultimate form of capitalism and economic efficiency. And it utterly destroyed the foundation of the black community at the time.

Today, although black people are no longer being forced to work without pay at the end of a whip, the black community is feeling the pain of companies trying to be more efficient and profitable. Most companies have moved their manufacturing base outside the country to countries where the average working salary is about a hundredth of what an American worker would earn.  This actually bringing the disparity between the American executive and his foreign worker to something in the neighborhood of thirty five thousand to one. This means bigger bonuses for everyone in management. Now that there is a more desperate community than black people to exploit, the black community is now bypassed altogether in this relentless pursuit of wealth.

As previously mentioned some black people have done well in this environment proving that capitalism knows no racial boundaries. However, this is not to be confused with the fact that most people who practice capitalism and are key to others participating in capitalism are very much aware of racial boundaries. People can say that a person’s ethnicity or race has nothing to do with the decision to hire or promote. But when employment applicants or potential business contacts are an obvious or known racial or ethnic minority they must convince the employer or potential client that their values coincide with the values of the dominating class. Typically, black people who do exceptionally well in this type of environment are either exceptional at convincing people of the dominating class that they share their values or, and much more likely, they actually do share the values of the dominating class down to their very core.

Since most blacks who are part of the very well to do class and have internalized and embraced the values of the dominating class, it is only natural that they become part of the economic feudal system that sees the vast majority of black people as little more than economic pawns. These black modern feudal lords don’t have a problem in the world with enjoying the manifestations of their good fortune while black people all around them do their best just to eek out a living. Many of the black well to do are most concerned with assuring their white well to do peers that they are not the typical black person rather than do anything to show a proclivity towards helping the black community specifically. A black person with a strong black spirit would be more likely to actively work for the betterment of the black community. Lord knows black people in the upper echelons of economic fortune could never be associated with such racial identification.

This is not to say that well to do blacks do nothing for the black community.  Some clean out their closets and donate their old clothing to charities and sometimes these charities will help people in the black community as well as others.  Some well to do black people will donate their time to teach other people tools of success that from the basic such as reading to the more intricate such as proper money management and how to buy a house with no money down and some people who sign up for these courses are black.  Many of the black well to do support predominantly black churches.  But when in the enviable position to use the power of their influence to help a black person get a job too many brothers and sisters would rather not get involved and let the system work uninterrupted.  In fact, some blacks would go so far as to avoid hiring other blacks so that they won’t look like they’re trying to help the black community.

It is interesting to see the contrast with white people.  White people in a position to make a difference do whatever they want and could not care one smidgen of an iota about what anybody may think of them. White institutions can hire nothing but white people for employment and not give a damn about how it looks to the rest of the world until a court forces them to diversify and the racist institution has run out of appeals.  Racist country clubs, schools, and other institutions will tout their exclusivity and their all white memberships.  White people will leave their fortune to a dog instead of their grandchildren and would not care how it would look to anybody. White people aren’t shy about preferring their own or people of other races or ethnicities who demonstrate acquiescence to the dominating white values. Why do black people who are in a position to make a wonderful difference to the rest of the members of the black community embrace the attitude that they shouldn’t?