Will Globalization Destroy Black America?
This is the title of an article by Phillip Jackson (thanks Native Son). Good question, and asked with the best intentions, but approached with too many wrong assumptions, IMO. I will address part of the article here and finish in a later post.
Firstly Mr. Jackson assumes that blacks are a monolith or at most bi-sected into a large majority of those doomed by globalization and a sliver of beneficiaries.
Secondly, Jackson assumes that everyone else is doing well by comparison. One of his opening statements says it all:
"While much of the world has adapted to the new-world economy and new-world standards of existence, most of Black America is still operating much the same way it did in the 1950s and 1960s."
Most of the world has "adapted" in a most curious way. Not everyone in China and India (and the dozens of other examples held up as symbols of globalization) are techno-saavy millionaires. Most of those people are locked in economic binds that relegate them to the status of neo-serfs. I would argue that only a few people are truly benefiting from globalization, and since black americans just happen to live in the world's superpower, they benefit from globalization alot more than the person on the street in Mumbai benefits. Try to tell someone from rural india or china about black american poverty, and they will laugh in your face.
So, "adapting to the new world economy" could mean resigning yourself to never leave the dorm-room living conditions of the factory of Corporation X - that is until the powers that be kick you out for a younger assembly line worker that can twist on bottlecaps faster. Is this what we want black people to emulate?
I guess Jackson is refering to the winners of the "new economy". There are however few winners. And being left out of the new economy is not a black-exclusive problem:
Black people who live in different parts of the country, saying to each other, “We are in trouble!” We know it and the rest of the world knows it! Black America, as we know it, is in danger of not surviving globalization.
Replace "black" with any racial/ethnic group that has been in America for more than a generation, and you would still be on the money. Ask these white corporate drones who are being laid off and having their job downsized and/or outsourced Foreigners from Mexico are benefiting. The Mexican-American population is a different story. Whites probably have it worst. They are in a worse position than blacks because they actually have a strong feeling of entitlement to the rewards of American empire: safe jobs, cheap or subsidized credit, etc.
Although education has become the new currency of exchange in the 21st century, the old American educational paradigm stopped working decades ago for Black Americans. Simply sending Black children to American schools without a clear purpose or goal has contributed to the demise of the Black community. Black America watched formerly third-world countries catapult over America to become educational super powers while America rested on its old, stale educational laurels and fell way behind much of the world in educational performance. And because Black America unthinkingly depended on the American education system to educate its children, we have fallen way behind.
What 3rd world countries are being referred to? Only the elites of these countries have catapulted, the majorities of these nations are mired in poverty and social/economic stagnation, relative to Americans, even Black Americans. And many black people have indeed taken advantage of educational opportunities, ask any HBCU graduate, or the people on the blog links on the leftside of this page. Black kids indeed have been sent to school with a clear purpose; many may not have been paying attention----like most americans. However, unlike the majority, a mediocre black kid will be eaten alive by the system.
The problem is that black people are not using their educations to create a block of wealth and affluence. Many educated black people are content to work for corporations, and not enough establish their own businesses. Of those with businesses, I don't see any concerted effort to get create a coalition with the economic influence to shake things up.
Shizi
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