We as a people have never had a conversation about race. That is a sad fact. Race and racism have of course been discussed by groups and between people, but we have never had a national discussion. There has never been a national reconciliation about race and racism. Not even after the Civil War.
Given all the challenges we currently face stemming from confrontational polarized politics, it may seem like the wrong time to bring up this topic. But nevertheless for the future health of our country and for the future wellbeing of the 12.7% of our population which is black, this discussion must take place. And in order for it to take place, people need to have a clear understanding of the history of the African-American experience in this country.
Many books have been written on this topic, or at least with such a title. Many of the books tell about all the contributions of African-Americans, whether it be in science, government, music, etc. To me, these books seem to be trying to convince both whites and blacks that African-Americans deserve to be valued. But this tact has not and will not change white America’s attitude because it does not address white feelings of difference, feelings of fear, or feelings of superiority.
Then there are books which very clearly and in great detail tell the facts about slavery, the civil war, emancipation, and the more recent past including of course the Civil Rights movement. The most moving and insightful of the books that I have read was W.E.B. DuBois’ The Soul of Black Folk. These books powerfully relate the injustice that African-Americans have as a group suffered over the centuries.
But surprisingly, none of the books that I have seen, except for books about African-American radicals like Malcolm X, provide a frank assessment of the lives of blacks, especially average blacks, in modern America. How they are treated by white America.
This is an essential part of waking America up and having the discussion we need to have. For there is a general impression among many whites that African-Americans have been given so much preferential treatment and have so many rights that it is their fault if they are still living in poverty and ignorance. According to a 2016 PEW report, 38% of whites feel that the country has made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights.
What follows is a very brief attempt to clearly outline the African-American experience in this country.
First of all, who were these people who became enslaved? They were free people living normal lives, having various roles in their mostly rural communities, who were captured by either black or white slave traders.
In 1790, just after the adoption of the Constitution, there were 680,000 black slaves (19% of the population) and 58,000 black freemen. By the outbreak of the Civil War, there were 1.8 million black slaves (approximately 12% of the population) and 360,000 black freemen. The vast majority were plantation slaves and their life was toil, fear, and degradation. They were the property of their owners and could be used, bought, sold, and killed at the whim of their owners.
After the Civil War, after emancipation, there was a brief period in the South where some blacks started coming into their own, owning land and attaining political office, but that quickly changed as the Federal government supported the white power structure, Reconstruction ended, and the era of Jim Crow laws came into being. While no longer slaves, blacks had no de facto rights and could be summarily punished or even lynched for offending the white power structure. They were poor and downtrodden, with nowhere to go. Their hopes that came with emancipation dashed.
In the North, the 13th Amendment didn’t really change the lives of blacks much, except in the border states of Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky where there had been substantial numbers of slaves. Blacks in the North were mostly, with several well-known exceptions, looked down upon before and after emancipation by the general population. It’s true that abolitionists didn’t think anyone should be a slave; it was immoral. But like pro-life Evangelicals, they didn’t think much about what happens to the freed slave. The assumption was that if you are free you can take care of yourself.
The Great Migration of blacks to the North that began in 1915 changed their lives in many ways and did open more opportunities, but they were mostly segregated in slums and had few opportunities beyond manual labor or service. Their lives were certainly materially better than living in the South, but they were still a mostly uneducated, looked-down-upon class by white America. The “American dream” was not available to them.
During the 20th century, a black middle class and professional class did grow that was able to materially partake of the “good life.” But this accounted for a relatively small percentage of blacks. Most were stuck in the ghetto living under terrible conditions and with only minimal educational opportunities. In 1966, 41.8% of African-Americans were poor. Life was still a dead end for many.
The Civil Rights movement brought more rights for African-Americans and improved the lives of many: 23% of blacks aged 25 and older had college degrees in 2016, 50% of black households had incomes over $43,000 in 2014.
But it did not substantially change the lives of many blacks. While the poverty rate fell, 26% of blacks were still poor in 2014.
So where do things stand today? Regardless of the metric … income, education … black Americans still lag substantially behind white America. College degrees: 23% blacks v 36% whites. Median household income: $43,000 blacks v $72,000 whites. Poverty rate: 26% blacks v 10% whites. Unemployment: 10.3% blacks v 4.5% whites. One statistic makes the stubbornness of this inequality despite improvement very clear: median black household income today, while almost twice as high as in 1967, is just what white household income was back in 1967.
Putting aside material advancement, which is undeniable, the Rights movement did not much change the attitude of white Americans towards black Americans. Discrimination is still pervasive although often less obvious. Thus even if one has “made it,” blacks are still conscious of their unequal standing in the eyes of whites. According to the 2016 PEW report noted above, only 8% of blacks think that the country has made the changes necessary to give blacks equal rights, while 43% think that the country will never back the necessary changes,
Even before the empowerment of the ALT-right movement by the Trump administration, discrimination against blacks and a feeling that blacks are not as smart or good as whites, or were “different,” was endemic in America. Republicans even want to take away their vote whenever possible. While surveys show that whites generally approve of the principle of racial equality today, when it comes to implementation in the workplace or schools, for example, less than 30% think the government should take action to insure equality.
Many whites, especially Republicans, and some blacks as well, place a large share of the blame of poverty and the lack of advancement on blacks themselves. And to some extent this is true; for most people, education and advancement must be gone after, it’s not given to you.
But after having been beaten down for generations, lower class blacks need to grow up in a culture that encourages you to have thoughts of education and advancement and provides the means to implement your thoughts. Middle and upper class blacks go to schools and have role models that do that. But lower class blacks live in a culture where neither their family and peers nor representatives of the government power structure they have contact with provide that encouragement or the means to implement. For them, life experience makes it very difficult to imagine that their lives could be different. A large new study of intergenerational effects on social mobility makes this clear.
Now let me address the feelings of fear, of difference, of superiority that lie behind continuing racism, whether at a very low or aggressive level. First of all, what is there to fear? Even assuming that blacks would rise up in violent revolt, this is not the 1860s South where black slaves accounted for 38% of the population. As to fear of individual black men, our fear is based on the knowledge that we have mistreated blacks and made many prone to violence. If we treat blacks like human beings, then there would be no reason to fear.
It is true that African-Americans are different from WASPS and most other ethnic or racial groups in this country. But then they are all different from each other. At one time, that difference caused discrimination and even violence between groups. But we’ve gotten over that for the most part. The time has come to get over that regarding blacks as well.
And as for superiority, if a group that has the advantages that white Americans have enjoyed for centuries doesn’t score better, have more degrees, and make more money there would be something amiss. There is no inherent intelligence difference between the various races. That canard of race “science” has long ago been debunked. Give blacks the same social support and opportunity that whites have enjoyed since the Civil War and in time they will reach the level of education and income of whites. There will always be blacks who are poor and uneducated, just like there will always be whites who are poor and uneducated. It has nothing to do with race, it has mostly to do with opportunity,
The point of this short primer is that despite emancipation, despite all the laws that protect civil rights, despite integration, and despite the undeniable improvements in the material living standards of large numbers of blacks, most African-Americans have never realized the true fruits of freedom because they have never experienced equal opportunity in anything from the government or society at large. Starting most importantly with equal opportunity in primary and secondary education.
They are still not truly free in a very important sense of the word. We are still far away from Martin Luther King’s dream of one day all people being able to join hands and sing, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
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