Hang ups between Blacks and Africans

Transcript of a Commentary by Ambrose I. Lane, Sr.

December 10, 2007 � We Ourselves � WPFW 89.3 Washington

and I�m Ambrose I. Lane, Sr.

You know over several decades I�ve watched the major press in this

country. And � uh they

do things in such a way often that you don�t

pick up on what�s actually being done. Yesterday�s New York Times

and Washington Post carried articles in the oped

section that raised

questions about black intelligence. Now you know I�ve learned over the

years that even though the article can�t be positive it raises an issue

that never should be raised because it�s a false issue and it keeps the

division going in this country, keeps racism going.

The one in the Washington Post I�m going to read it for you, titled

This is 2007, why are we still doing this? And it�s very clear. This

leadership of this country always wants to stimulate racial antagonism.

Always wants to make the whites feel superior and blacks fill that they

are inferior. And even though an article might be positive by knocking

down that theory, it has raised it. And by raising it, it�s in the minds of

those who read it and talk about it.

I�m going to read this one to you so you�ll understand what I�m talking

blacks to embrace their parenting responsibilities, many of

the students said they wished their parents had followed

his advice. They regretted that some of their peers had

done poorly in school, abused drugs and alcohol, and run

afoul of the law. These problems, they agreed, might have

been avoided with more supervision at home.

They might have been the perfect audience for a Cosby

townhall

lecture on the dangers of selfdestructive

values

in black America. They might also have been perfect

illustrations of the growing "values gap" between poor and

middleclass

Except almost all my students are white.

Cosby and the recent Pew study are the latest in a long

fingerwagging

tradition of instructing poor blacks to lift

themselves up by their bootstraps and reject pathologically

"black" values. Today, rap culture is usually presented as

Exhibit A, but strains of the same argument have cropped

up for more than a century. If blacks would just get their

act together, this old story goes, all the social inequalities

between them and the rest of society would disappear.

because they were choosing not to become "closer to

whites in their values." Unfortunately, this line of

questioning reinforces one of the most persistent myths in

America, that white is always right. The myth reflects an

enduring double standard based on "white" and "black"

explanations for social problems. And it assumes that

"white" culture is the gold standard for judging everyone,

despite its competing ideologies, its contradictions and its

flaws, including racism.

The masquerade began over a hundred years ago. Shortly

after the end of slavery, sociologists and demographers

began presenting research on black failure and struggle as

"indisputable" proof of black inferiority. One of the first

studies was released in 1896, when the leading racerelations

demographer of the period, Frederick L. Hoffman,

analyzed census data showing that blacks were doing

worse than whites in mortality, health, employment,

education and crime. The problem was not racism, he

argued, but "race traits and tendencies."

To him, the civil rights acts of the 1860s and 1870s had

leveled the playing field. Blacks should be left to compete

against whites on their own and face the inevitable. The

black man, he wrote, "has usually but one avenue out of

his dilemma the

road to prison or to an early grave."

At the same time, when explaining rising rates of crime,

suicide and mentalhealth

problems among whites,

Hoffman blamed industrialization and the strains of

"modern life." He called for a reordering of the nation's

economic priorities. Hoffman's study coincided with and

provided justification for the

Supreme Court's notorious

As segregation took hold, there was a powerful need to

minimize the role of racism as a factor in explaining racial

disparities. The "Cosby" role at the start of Jim Crow was

conquer their inferiority, he repudiated civil rights activism

in favor of selfhelp

and moral regeneration.

Many whites loved Washington, and his ideas were echoed

by liberal social scientists such as the psychologist G.

Stanley Hall, who instructed black people to stop

sympathizing "with their own criminals" and "accept

without whining patheticism and corroding selfpity

[their]

present situation, prejudice and all."

But when Hall turned his focus on whites, his research on

adolescent psychology directly influenced national efforts

to protect them from the ravages of industrial capitalism.

Drawing on his work, the childwelfare

activist Jane

immigrant families adjust to American life, and later to

save thousands of Chicago's white youth from lives of

crime, violence and drug abuse attributed to "modern city

conditions." But black children were not generally welcome

at Hull House. Addams claimed that similar problems

among black youth were due to the race's "belated" moral

development, manifested in poor parenting and a lack of

"social restraint."

The pioneering black social scientist W.E.B. Du Bois

challenged this first generation of white liberals and social

scientists, including Hoffman, on the flawed assumptions

and racial double standards in their studies and in their

practices. But when Du Bois tried to argue that pathology

knows no color, he was ignored, criticized and dismissed

by his white peers as an angry black man with, as one

sociologist put it, a "chip on his shoulder."

Du Bois's frustrations led him to leave academia for a life

of antiracist

activism. In 1910, the year he became

warned that "whiteness" was becoming the new basis of

the nation's consciousness. "Are we not coming more and

more day by day to making the statement, 'I am white,'

the one fundamental tenet of our practical morality?" he

asked.

In today's era of hiphop,

Du Bois's warning still goes

unheeded. If rap music is so bad, why are white kids its

major consumers? And by what value system should we

judge the large media companies that publish and

distribute hiphop

or,

really, gangsta rap, its most

popular and sinister cousin?

Were "white values" on display two years ago when the

federal government failed to adequately respond to one of

the greatest natural disasters in American history?

If lowerclass

"black" values are so distinct from those of

the rest of America, particularly the "white values"

supposedly now embraced by middleand

upperclass

blacks, why, according to the Pew report, do less than a

third of white Americans graduate from college? Are

legions of whites similarly devaluing higher education? Are

they "acting black"?

If lowerclass

black values are so peculiar, why do whites

report the same or higher levels of illegal drug use as

blacks, as numerous studies show?

What of underperforming white schoolchildren in rural

Are they "acting black" because they can't compete with

their upwardly mobile suburban counterparts?

Today's liberals still empathize with America's invisible

white working poor, who they warn are being "nickel and

dimed" to the point of near homelessness. But why the

empathy? Isn't their poverty really a function of their

Du Bois's scholarship and activism helped pave the way for

the modern civil rights movement, which helped exorcize

the ghost of America's Jim Crow past. That he was right

about racism but that we still continue to accept the same

flawed thinking about race and social problems suggests a

powerful and enduring paradox.

If we insist on explaining racial disparities in terms of black

vs. white values, then we need to explain what exactly

white values are. When we do, we'll find that whiteness is

an inadequate standard by which to judge good black

people vs. bad ones.

As my students would tell you, the real white world is as

pathological, as respectable and as diverse as the black

Now this is a Post Oped

and it�s written by Khalil Muhammad who is

an assistant professor of history at Indiana University.

Now I�m not going to read all of the, all of the New York Times article,

Richard E. Nisbett. Now he is a professor of psychology at the

University of Michigan, and is the author of �The Geography of

Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently and Why.� He

begins his article;

JAMES WATSON, the 1962 Nobel laureate, recently

asserted that he was �inherently gloomy about the

prospect of Africa� and its citizens because �all our social

policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the

same as ours � whereas all the testing says not really.�

Dr. Watson�s remarks created a huge stir because they

implied that blacks were genetically inferior to whites, and

the controversy resulted in his resignation as chancellor of

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. But was he right? Is there

a genetic difference between blacks and whites that

And then he goes on to, to debunk this whole theory that�s been

around for well over a hundred years. Now, I�ve seen this over and

over again by the press, the establishment corporate press. They get it

going because the want, they want to make certain that the general

public, at least the reading general public will discuss it among

themselves so that the people will spread the same stuff that they�ve

been spreading for well over a hundred years. You know most people

don�t realize it but they apply the same kind of reasoning to everyone

that they defeat.

For example, right now in Iraq what are we saying about the people of

Iraq? Now here�s a country that we�ve destroyed. We�ve killed maybe

close to a million of their people, close to a million. We�ve driven out,

because the conditions we have created, we�ve driven out several

millions more. They are now in other countries bordering Iraq. And

we�re insisting that the Iraqi parliament produce for us a law that turns

over most of the wealth in their oil industry to our corporations. But

what is our press saying? �What in the world is wrong with these

people in Iraq? Why don�t they get their act together?�

We�ve done it everywhere we�ve been. We did the same thing in

Vietnam the

same thing in Korea. And we�ve always done that to

African Americans in this country. After the Civil War we insisted that

the newly freed slaves, who�d been slaves in this country for so many

centuries, pick ourselves up by our own boot straps. And we�ve always

had fools among us who would say the same thing because they have

been able to � for example Bill

Cosby who�s an excellent comedian.

Bill has made a huge amount of money but they let him know his

money didn�t mean anything when he tried to buy a television

network. They let him know that all his money didn�t mean a thing.

But here he is spouting the same nonsense and in all of his stuff I�d

like, I would love for him to have said something about 40 years of

planned unemployment in black neighborhoods in this country. That�s

what we�ve had for the last 40 years; double digit unemployment. I�d

like for him to say something about that. And for Puissant to join him

in this without talking about the truth is awful.

But here they start again. They started first with Bill Cosby, then Juan

Williams, and then our Supreme Court Justice, and now these oped

pages of two of the most powerful newspapers in this country. I just

want you to understand what they�re doing. I�ve seen it so many times

over several decades. Just be aware. They�re playing the same old

game again to stir up racism in this country. Just be aware of it. Now

we�ll take your calls at 5880893

or 2025880893

and you disagree or

agree.

We�d just like to hear your thoughts on these matters. I�ve seen it so

much, over and over again, decade after decade. And uhin

fact the

New York Times article does a little tracing of that history, of how

we�ve done it. One after another from Dr. Jensen, Arthur Jensen in the

1969 article in the Harvard Educational Review and after him the �Bell

Curve� Charles

Murray and Richard Herrnstein. Over and over again

the establishment has done this to keep racism going.

Well I want to thank all of you for calling in and for those who we were

unable to get to, thank you so much. Be on the � be aware that they

are starting it again. When the Times, the New York Times and the

Washington Post carry oped

pieces about racism you know they�re

starting the same BS again. So be aware and spread the word. Take

care and I�ll see you again on Friday.

1. Muhammad, Khalil G. "White May Be Might, But Not Always