I have to send a “shout out” to my fellow blogger over at Resurrection Song. Now this is what you want to read about yourself on a Monday morning. Thanks. I needed that. Now on to the post.
Courtland Milloy, a liberal columnist for the Washington Post, finally wrote a piece I can appreciate it, sort of. He writes about a recent discussion given by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., to promote his new book, America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans.
In his book, Gates examines black progress 35 years after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., and “expresses the need for black leaders to boldly critique self-destructive behavior among black people and the urgent need for the “talented tenth” — meaning college-educated blacks — to become more a part of the solution.”
There was a time, not long ago, when African Americans were on a march toward freedom, using education, discipline, sacrifice and courage as weapons in a war against racial segregation.
“We were taught that doing well in school was like firing a bullet into the heart of George Wallace and Orval E. Faubus,” said Harvard University scholar Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., 53, referring to the former segregationist governors of Alabama and Arkansas.
But just as victory appeared to be in sight, something went wrong — something that Gates believes too few black leaders are willing to talk about.
Finally, I said to no one in particular, a prominent black person willing to speak about self-destruction in the black community.
Then my smile faded as I read this: “Too many of our leaders won’t stand up because they are afraid of being appropriated by the right, or afraid they are going to sound like Clarence….For me not to defend affirmative action, as someone who has benefited so much from it, would make me as big a hypocrite as Mr. Justice Clarence Thomas, and I just couldn’t live with myself,” Gates said.
Too bad. Gates completely misses the point about why some blacks who benefited from race preferences speak out against it, as I tried to explain in “Counterfeit Equality.” I think the “hot stove” analogy is especially appropriate.
