The First Generations of Power

One thing my mother told me, almost now ten years ago, was that if you had a child you wouldn’t be as outspoken as you are at your job. Mind you, in 1998, the time of my first panic attack, and my refusal to surrender to oppressive legalized white supremacy, also know as NCSSM, I was quasi immortal. Now some ten years later, those words finally are beginning to make some sense. I just completed my first attempt at my Ph.D. comprehensive examinations, (at this level it’s no longer just academic, it’s now a form of hazing) and I had to write a section on critical race theory. In doing so, I had to trace it back to the roots of colonialism. Taking no chances, I not only discussed colonialism but also tracked it to class domination beginning with Marx and Engles. The fulcrum was domination and oppression. As I wrote my answer, praying that I gave an intelligible response, I had to take a few steps back and survey past and current situations. Going back to the prophetic words of Dr. Ma, (including Neither a Borrower nor a Lender Be) I reflected on the work of Franz Fanon in his work Black Skin White Masks, he launches a discussion on dissent and race. In a nutshell he states that once an African man buys into the ideology of family, it symbolizes a form of social self castration for the simple fact that he looses the power of dissent. In contrast, the White man (who really has nothing to dissent about or for because he is of the dominant class) still maintains his power stronghold. Stupid question but I am going to ask it anyway: is this equitable. Of course not, but here is where I begin to finally get to my point. The first generations of power, by African American standards, in my opinion have run amok. Listening to Dr. Wife share her laments about the battles for power behind her onyx league “Ebony Tower” and then sharing like issues I have come to the following conclusion: We as a folk will not be satisfied until we have placed ourselves back into a state of servitude, physical bondage, and mental captivity. It as though the first generations of power are illiterate to the politics of power and diplomacy. Case and point: In 2004, right before I started my Ph.D. I was at a book signing for Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. I heard a question from the audience which basically asked why is it that the “black intellectuals” are not teaching or coming back to the HBCUs to teach. His answer came almost from a Redd Foxx stand up comedy routine. Some asked Foxx about going to Alabama. He said he wouldn’t even go to the hospital to get his mama out of the hospital. He would give her cab fare but damn if he was going. Well, Dyson responded pretty much the same way. I won’t teach at an HBCU because they want to pay the negro rate. When I first heard this, I was a little offended because I consider myself a product of the HBCU experience. A year and some change later, I posed the same question to Dr. Cornel West at NCCU. His reaction was even more telling. Do you know where I was the other day? I was in jail waiting to be bonded out because I participated in a march against the Iraq war. The people at Princeton could understand that, but at the HBCU, I might loose my job altogether. Another thing is that I don’t think too many students want to see Cornel West at 4:00 on Friday afternoon after five classes. I was still baffled. Why not teach at the HBCU. Now I know why, first generation power has run amok. In some cases the working conditions border the oppressive if not crossing the line all together. Buildings in states of disrepair, enrollment driven admission policies and worst, administration that cracks the whip as harsh as any overseer from the days of slavery: to me it’s as though we have recreated the plantation in hopes of turning out a non critical, incredibly passive post modern 21st century slave. I know that’s harsh but that’s really how I see it these days. Sure there is Howard, Morehouse, Spellman and possibly Hampton. These schools however represent the crème de la crème. At Howard we have not only a swimming team but a women’s lacrosse team as well. Howard and others I have mentioned are the marquis HBCUs which in some cases set the standard. That said, what is the standard? What is the standard for not only the quality of teaching and curriculum but what about the quality of life for the employee? At one institution, I took the time to ask a member of the custodial staff, if you weren’t doing this job right here, right now, what would you be doing. He stated he would be in political science. That took me for a loop but he said it. Now, where is the institution’s commitment to making that happen? Bleak at best I would say. In another situation, I observed that some J schools are training students to become employees in a business that has become less critical and more tabloid. In the political economy of capitalism, we are producing folks to be journalist, but that said, are we training them to be critical, influential powers of advocacy and change. No, at all costs, we must produce product. We must meet outcomes. In doing so, issues quality of life become secondary. The effect, we have become not only the slave but our own master as well. We refuse to step out of line because we are shackled to educational debt, mortgage debt, consumer debt, and so on. To step out of line and question our superior means we really put the bulls-eye on our chest while our supervisor loads the riffle. Again, I equate this to power run out of control. The sad part about the whole conundrum is this, we really can’t blame whitefolk this time. Yes, we observed and created our own institutions after their successful model. But the breakdown comes form forgetting that power in our antiquitc communities was something that was shared and never used to berate or objectify another. There was honor in being of service to your fellow citizen. One was not hired strictly out of nepotism, but because there was some type of apprenticeship and a genuine bond. Now it’s who you know and how you son and how you getting in and who’s the man holding me up (borrowed from De La Soul). Certainly we may be post modern, but our mindset as a folk all our own is Neo Colonial and this time not only are we wearing the black skin but also the black masks.