Black Middle Classed Americans

So many in the Black Middle Class have failed to understand the importance of standing by one
another. So many of them fail to see that the sacrifices their ancestors made in order to stay
together cannot be judged by standards white colonialists brought from Europe.
Let that be the work of other immigrants. Our history is more unique. Our ancestors did not come
here to find work. They didn't come here at all.
When our ancestors suffered the indignities they suffered it was so that one day we might honor
the fruits of their labors, and look after one another as best we could.
They were not saving for a new home.
They were not trying to buy land.
They weren't building a nursery in preparation for a new addition to their families.
They were not saving up to get married.
They were not making certain their children got to school.
They didn't attempt to train one of their peers in a profession.
They couldn't participate in policy decisions. The U.S. specialized in non-citizenship!
From 1619 until 1865, minimally, they were trying to stay together and to look after one
another when possible. One of the most independent goals they had was to work for a plantation
where they were not owned after the work on the owner platation was done for the day. In this
way freedom was often purchased for one another. Many men did this for their moms.
Now that we have loftier goals, we nevertheless have to hold fast to the original. If there are
suddenly only a few thousand black people in this country, those people will not be safe, even if
they are rich.
If our ancestors worked, and they surely did, their legacy is far more unattainable than any
we can lay down now.
Those who struggled so in the twentieth century may not always get proper credit for it;
but that they live to strive has had to be enough proper credit for our ancestors. The two sets
of acknowledgements won't ever be equal.
Whenever any one of us attains anything large or small, we have to remember how many scores
of us have died just in case that achievement could ever come true.
When one of us have set our sights on a lofty goal, we all have to remember, whether the goal is
achieved or not, we come from a race who will die trying, with all the odds stacked against them.
What chance did our forefathers have to come here with only a few cents in their pockets?
What chance did our forefathers have to come here with pockets?
What chance did our forefathers have to leave a will- no matter the treasure they earned?
We are a different race.
Of all those born in America circa 1950, not even a century past the emancipation of slavery here, how many who were black inherited tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars? And
of all those non-inheritors, how many have earned a billion dollars now? I can tell you they are
several. Or they are at least three. The fact is amazing because slavery lasted a long, long time-
and not slavery had only just begun!
When an African-American or an American African achieves without a seeming nod to certain
few, there may be no lasting slight at hand. And there are scores of ancestors to thank.
One black man reaching out to another black man has be done cautiously, quietly, in America, surely if any mass of benefit is being offered.
None of us need be bitter about getting our 'props' because whatever we did for the new
generations, we are in very good company. And whatever that new generation grasped, though
they most assuredly should not be unaware of the history of our grasping, well...that is what
we strove for isn't it?
We will have done all of this so they could achieve that, inconspicuously.
In the film, Lorenzo's Oil the parents by-passed their youngster's skeptical physicians to come up with a cure for their child's disease. But as time passed, when finally they had a solution to the metabolic disaster they'd fought ,the disease had progressed in their child. The mom was then forced to ask aloud, knowing full well the answer could be 'yes', "Have we done all this for
someone else's child?"
We have to give a push to those standing in front of us, even if we move up a disappointingly little bit from where we originally stood.
That is how we do it at all.