"You can't rise as a class. You have to rise individually. It's what many of the civil rights-era people don't understand," he said. "They want us to rise together, they keep telling us that we are victims. If they keep telling us they are victims, then there is a role for them to play."
The preceding quote was stated by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson. He was speaking out against Jesse Jackson and Julian Bond who, according to him have convinced Blacks that we have been victimized and must vote Democratic because then a white liberal can save us.
I'm not trying to get into that part of his conversation, I just found this the first part of his assertion very interesting. Do you think Blacks can rise as a class? Are we too far gone for that? Must we rise individually in hopes that over time it will be a majority of us that have risen, and then as a class we will be financially and politically independent? Or, is this just an excuse for us to foster elitism and leave the most needy, often most disfranchised and sold out by the system behind?
Now, as a law student the legal argument on which the premsie of "individual" rising is based just smells to me like typical "individual remedy" jurisprudence that Scalia and his buddies (read Clarence Thomas) use to justify picking apart Affirmative Action, saying remedies for discrimination should be individually given as specific isolated litigation arrises instead of remedies given to the AfAm group as a whole (like affirmative action or reparations).
But on a social context, I'm not so sure. Are at a point where we must go back to W.E.B.'s talented tenth? Is this really the best way to move ahead?
If you'd like to read the rest of the article which furhter analyzes Sec. Jackson's assertions and why Kerry has lost 10 points since Aug. amongst AfAms click this link:
Jackson article .
However, I really wasn't trying to start a debate about Blacks and repubs v. dems. I am really concerned however by the assertion that we can't rise together: what do you think?
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