Blackman Bootstrap

Saturday December 23, 2006 - 2:51PM EDT

What is the title referring to?  I am referring to the ideology advanced by Booker T. Washington that says that the downtrodden colored should lift themselves up by their bootstraps to conquer inequality. I am sure all of you have heard of Booker T, but many have not heard of W.E.B Dubois.  W.E.B  Dubois was Booker T's contemporary and a opponent of his bootstrapping ideology. I am also an opponent of the bootstrapping ideology. However for reasons that are pretty damn clear bootstrapping is still the dominant philosophy to conquering inequality (except for a brief period in the 60's and 70's).  During Mr. Booker T. Washington's time he enjoyed much broader government support than Dubois, mainly because it allowed the government to take a hands off approach to inequality because they could eschew their responsibility towards "all" people and tell them to do it themselves. The whole bootstrapping philosophy come from ignorance or arrogance or both. However I still see it championed today. Particularly when it comes to these black athletes. Riddle me this people? Why is it that we always bring as shining examples those black athletes that struggled through great obstacles to become a professional.  We champion their effort and determination (and those of their parents sometimes) as being the main reasons they succeeded. That narrow viewpoint distorts reality and sets a bad precedent. It advances the philosophy that what the disadvantaged need to do is try harder. When talking about these heroes no one bothers to mention the 1000 other people that worked just as hard did that exact same things and failed miserably. In fact I think that this idea of lifting yourself up by your bootstraps has gotten so pervasive that people think those who try just and hard and fail don't exist. That the only disadvantaged people really worth anything are those few that luckily come out of the jungle alive and are paraded as examples in front of us.

Take for example the new move with Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness. Great story, heartwarming, inspiring. But although it shows a positive image of an African American what is it teaching. Is it teaching people that the only way for the black man to get ahead is to struggle mightily against obstacles? Everyone loves and underdog story right? It is good entertainment right?  But that is all it basically is. That the black man must use herculean efforts to get anywhere in life is not a good thing. That is the same bullshit philosophy the European world used to justify slavery. Through some disgusting bastardization of Christianity these so called Christians (almost every single fucking one of them that lived back then) used "the word of God" to say enslaving the black man was righteous. It would assure them a place in heaven. As my history of slavery teacher said once, the quakers  had slaves, it was before they discovered their "inner light". Slavery has to be by far the most despicable and worst thing humans have done in recorded history.  What is almost as disgusting is that we still haven't learned all the lessons we needed to from that time. The world is still rife with the ignorant philosophies and mindset that created the chattel slavery of the 16th through 19th centuries.