In a previous article I wrote that Black men must seek power. The thing is Black men in general, and Black America in particular does seek power. The power of the victim. The strategy of the Black Misleadership Class has been to beg those who have and exercise real power for concessions. Something happens in Black America, what do we do? We march in the streets. We have town hall meetings. Members of the Black Misleadership Class will have the spokespeople make the Sunday morning talk shows rounds to pontificate on our collective grievances. Maybe it’s me but things are not looking any better. Indeed things have got worse for Black America in the last 40 years since the “victory” of the civil rights movement.
Here’s my issue with the victim mentality that Black America has in general: it hasn’t worked. Collectively we keep doing the same things over and over. Apparently these things haven’t worked or I would be writing an article about how money is circulating in the Black community 57 times and how many Fortune 500 companies are Black-owned. Yet the Black community clings to the victim mindset. The question is why? The answer is simple. Too much money is made from victim mentality.
I made an observation back in nineties concerning what I called the Civil Right Industry. Too many people make money off of it. Just in federal and state governments alone you have several agencies dedicated to enforcing civil rights laws and investigating possible violations. You have judges, attorneys, investigators, clerks, and legal assistants. To make it real interesting consider the food places and other stores next to the buildings housing these civil rights enforcers. Many folks make money. Now let’s look at who’s making off the victim mindset of Black America.
Although the Civil Rights industry covers the rights of all people in one form or another, the base of this industry is Black people. Racial discrimination is the primary civil right investigated in one form or another. The act of denying a person a meal at a restaurant will help an attorney make his Mercedes payment and keep his side chick happy. The main folks benefitting, however, are, you guessed it, a great many members of the Black Misleadership Class. The primary culprits are spokespeople, primarily self-appointed, who claim to speak for millions of Black men and women. Now I have some real issues with these spokespeople. Let me count the ways.
First of all, in most cases nobody got together and appointed these folks as leaders. Often many men and some women will develop a following on social media and use that platform to “speak for the people.” The people didn’t appoint them though and quite frankly most of these spokespeople are not accountable to the same people they claim to represent. Another issue I have is that these spokespeople seem to spend an inordinate amount time appealing for funding for dubious, ill-defined projects that will supposedly benefit the people. For real though, the only group that will benefit from the funding other than the speakers is the owners of the banking institutions where money is being deposited.
Oh and the Mercedes dealership. Maybe a conscious stripper or two.
The main issue as I mentioned earlier is that whatever is proposed by these spokespeople has not worked. That the trick though. It’s not supposed to work. If any “plans” or “solutions” were to work then the spokespeople will be put out of business.
Stop and think about it.
When I made my observations about the Civil Rights industry in the nineties I wondered what would happen if everybody magically had their rights respected. There wouldn’t be a need for the industry and thus many people would be out of work. Same thing with the victim mentality of Black America. Many Black spokespeople, politicians, attorneys, and activists make their money from Black America thinking like victims. Oh yes activists too. Low key many are funded by billion dollar corporations. Back in the nineties when SUVs first started to become popular I remember a well-known Black nationalist was one of the first people I saw driving one. Where he get his money from?
As long as there are men and women making big money Black America will continue to maintain a victim mindset. No one wants to kill their meal ticket.
50/50. I partially agree with you, but there are other things to consider. I think in many ways Blacks have been frightened into the trick bag. The system made an example out of the Black Panthers, and consequently Black leadership hasn’t been the same since.
Also the victim/dependent role is all that left for you when you refuse to do for self (group economics). Dr. Claude Anderson has said this, and before him the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.
Very profound article Mr. Wills! I made this observation a few years ago, although I referred to it as Victimhood Industrial Complex (Civil Rights Industrial Complex is appropriate as well). There’s too much money made in African Americans being professional victims. Race hustlers like Messe Jackson and Al Sharlatan (terms used by the masterful David Carroll) have carved out a nice living facilitating or exacerbating selective outrage among Black people on issues that don’t matter (or do matter but are being misled on the actual issue). I likened the concept using the suffix “industrial complex” borrowed from President Eisenhower as it IMO is an (ungodly) alliance between the leftist media and those unelected “leaders” of the Black Community to perpetuate this victimhood, failure, and indifference.
Sadly we see power by being the victim and woe is me which makes us weak .