Boot-Strap Time

Fire of Liberty

As you know, I'm a big fan of Booker T Washington's "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" ideals that puts the emphasis on the individual and the private sector of alleviating problems like poverty, crime, drug use, illegitimacy and what not rather than sitting merely complaining and waiting for the government to solve their problems. Such thinking or return to such ideas is something that the black community of America needs to return to in order to fix the problems I noted earlier(The same goes for all Americans).

In fact this is pretty much the point that respected people like Bill Cosby, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, John McWorter try to convey the the black community in their various speeches and publications. Another individual that's studied issues on race and the problems that affect this community is Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University, who penned a fine piece in the May 21 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times that calls on individuals in the inner city and black community in general to return to the wisdom of Booker T. Washington. Though I recommend you read the whole piece, I'd like to share with you what I thought was the most impressive part of the piece. Here's a look:

Washington bore a heavy burden, and his goal was a practical one. African Americans in the 1880s were a vulnerable population, and the best way to improve their chances was through an educational program that would send them into the world as skilled workers and wise consumers, not agitators. And to make it happen, Washington had to appease, cajole and deflect white skeptics, politicians and race baiters every day of the year.

Behind the program lay a simple strategy. Before you demand political rights and social status, Washington told his followers, get some economic power. Learn a skill, find a job, do it well, make your boss or client need you. Buy some property, take care of it, pay taxes, and raise property values so that the community wants you. Be a paying customer in the local shops so that the proprietor who admits you will count on your business. The profits you generate and the work ethic you model will blunt their racism and boost your finances. Let them shun you in the train stations and the voting booth for now. When black families are secure, when black capital is indispensable, when black labor is in demand, then will come the time for political action.

There is no better message for young Americans today, especially young black men. If we ramp up Washington's curriculum to include the professions, his self-reliance, work ethic, and thick skin when it comes to race relations are a welcome alternative to the cynicism and despair that characterizes racial talk today. It is also more in line with the realities of American life. As the 2000 Census demonstrated, more African Americans are moving into the middle class, and the political/social revolution of the civil rights movement is one of the glories of our history.

The various members of Congress can continue to offer up countless government programs and flood dollars upon dollars in these segments in society if they want to but I'd bet my last two on the wisdom of Booker T. Washington over anything that seems to orginate out of D.C. So my advice is for more folks to read Washington's writings and speeches and get to setting their community in the right direction.