A case of mistaken identity

Last week, I watched the opening monologue of Saturday Night Live featuring Dave Chappelle.

After the monologue, SNL's opening sketch followed, a parody of Secretary Clinton supporters watching the presidential returns. Both segments were brilliant, and concluded that the presidential election was not emblematic of the fall of Democracy or rural white anger. More precisely, it mocked the continued inference that ethnic and racial minorities not only look alike and are molded by the same set of circumstances that have shaped their existence in America for generations, but also subscribe to similar ideologies, are more of a monolith than part of a plurality of a great nation, and vote the same.

For example, during the opening sketch, a desperate Clinton supporter hoping that the inevitable outcome will not come true, blurts out, “Black people vote late.”

This is a case of mistaken identity, an issue that has plagued our country for many years.

Like the rest of America, on Election Day, there seemed to be two Black Americas. One so mainstreamed that they generally vote as a block. The other so disaffected that voting -- because of their experiences -- is a useless exercise that has done little to change systemic racism. The "Two Americas concept" seemed to ring true among the mainstream as well, the difference being that disaffected poor whites went to the polls. It was far from the only difference, but it is now abundantly clear that the voice of the forgotten and disenfranchised -- regardless of race -- cannot be overstated.   

The great truth is that even among ethnic and racial minorities, particularly African Americans, there have always been grand differences. The great debate between famed scholar W.E.B. du Bois and orator Booker T. Washington focused the importance of creating meaningful educational opportunities that could accelerate the economic and housing opportunities for people still under a Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) existence, versus a more conciliatory approach of providing basic agricultural and technical skills that would sustain a reasonable existence for them and their families.

In many ways, the outcome of those discussions and years of civil rights laws and social change movements have created two divergent groups within the African American community. Not surprisingly, the first group is defined by the narrative that African Americans are plagued with historic and systemic inequalities that put them well behind their mainstream counterparts at birth. And throughout life, that distance widens on nearly every front that matters to ultimate success. This results in densely populated, poor black communities that cycle generations of poverty and impoverished conditions, making those communities fraught with challenges too many and too frequent to overcome.

The other narrative recognizes that there have been great gains made, particularly since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and those gains have directly benefited a generation of African Americans, women and other minorities by enhancing their educational opportunities and successes in leadership and influence in both corporate America and the public sector. Further, those gains over the last 50 years have created a burgeoning black middle class, and many have used their new found wealth and opportunity to leave the largely rural and urban settings of their birth for suburban aspirations. This group of African Americans is held as the exception to the rule.

In his recently released documentary, “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise,” Henry Louis Gates makes the point clear. The percentage of African Americans making at least $75,000 more than doubled from 1970 to 2014, to 21 percent. Those making $100,000 or more nearly quadrupled. By contrast, Black America with income below $15,000 declined by only four percentage points, to 22 percent. And the unemployment rate for African Americans overall is virtually the same as it was when the civil rights movement ebbed circa 1970.

The way forward is to embrace an America where our tensions and intentions are not based in what we hope America to be, but rather in what it is.

As Dave Chappelle closed his monologue, he shared his recent visit to the White House where many black people were in attendance for a special event. He recounted how long it took for an African American, who wasn't the hired help, to even be allowed on the White House lawn.  He then asked the audience to give the President Elect a chance and in his words, "Demand that he give us one, too."

That "us" he noted was not just about black people, but a growing, disenfranchised plurality of our nation who are neither all the same, nor some independent disappearing island, alone in America with no voice.

In 1903, du Bois wrote, "[We must] develop the Best of this race that they may guide the masses away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races."

The same is true for our entire country and now is the time.

Tony Allen, Ph.D. is currently chairing the 20th Anniversary of the Ebony Tie Affair, the largest gathering of African American men in the region. The event will be held on Nov. 21. For more details, go to www.ebonytieaffair.com.