VandenBerg’s Views

Throughout recent history there are heroes in the fight for civil rights.  An incomplete list includes names like Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Thurgood Marshall and Dionicio Morales.  Each has done great things in the quest for ethnic equality.  Thousands upon thousands of unnamed individuals joined in this quest, many at great personal sacrifice, some paving the way to the future with their very lives.  Groups and associations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) each formed with the same goal in mind.  Great things have been accomplished.  Great strides have been made.

The New York Times published this article regarding the CBC and it got me thinking: now that the USA has elected a person of African descent to the office of President of the United States, the “most powerful man in the world,” what, if any, are the next steps for groups and individuals for whom the primary reason for existence is the fight for ethnic equality?

Allow me to clear up one thing before I move forward.  Many people hasten to point out that Barack Obama is a product of a mixed ethnic background.  This is true.  However, he associates more closely with his African heritage and other politicians seem to associate him the same way.  As proof I offer two parts of the aforementioned New York Times article: one that reports that Barack Obama is a member of the CBC, and another that states that the CBC has never had a member who is not black.  So logically, if Barack Obama is a member of the CBC and the CBC only allows black people to be members, Barack Obama views himself, and is viewed by others, as black.

The questions are simple to ask: Have we achieved the goal of ethnic equality as evidenced by the fact that the United States of America has elected a man of African descent as its leader?  If we have, what is the new goal?  What implication does this have on the political power of groups like the CBC, which has members in some of the highest political offices in the country?  What about smaller groups, such as the RainbowPUSH Coalition or the National Action Network; are they still relevant?  Is the NAACP, a group that uses only ethnicity with which to identify itself, now a relic of an older time?  Do we still need “Affirmative Action” (which is a term used to group together many actions and laws that grant favors to one ethnic or gender group at the expense of another)?  If these groups are no longer relevant and will lose political clout, are the members of these various groups feeling happy at the achievement of their work but resentful of their diminished importance?  With reduced political sway also comes less funding; is this also an issue for some of the charitable works these groups underwrite, especially the UNCF, and therefore a cause for resentment?  There are many more questions that could be added.

That is a lot of difficult questions, but in order to ask all of them does the answer to the first question, “Have we achieved the goal,” have to be “Yes?”  If the answer to that question is “No,” are the rest of the questions moot?  More importantly, can the first question be answered by a “Yes” or a “No,” or is the answer somewhere in between?  Or do we skip over the first question and ask the others anyway?

I will make an attempt at some of the questions.

The answer to the first question, “Have we achieved the goal?” is, sadly, a negative.  The last fifty years in the USA we have seen wonderful progress.  As I wrote we have made great strides towards ethnic equality in the USA but I think it would be foolhardy to think we have reached the end of the quest.  I also think you would be hard-pressed to find an intelligent person who disagrees with my answer.

Does that eliminate the second question, “What is the new goal?”  Maybe.  Smaller advocacy groups, community leaders and individual activists such as Al Sharpton focus more on the individual.  One of their important roles is to bring instances of individuals that suffer an ethnocentric abuse to the forefront so that these incidents are not hidden and the abusers are cast in to the light of public scrutiny so that we all may learn.  But the large groups may have to slightly alter their paths.  For instance, the CBC’s main function in the past has been to make sure that the needs of citizens of African descent are not forgotten in the halls of Congress or by the President.  The CBC also helps underwrite many charitable works.  Now that the President, and several important congressional posts are held by members of African descent, will the CBC be perceived as unnecessary by some and consequently lose some of their funding which in turn would hurt the charities it underwrites?  I believe this will happen. I believe this exact scenario will also occur with the NAACP but I am unsure of the UNCF.  To recap the answer to this question, the very large groups will see a change in their respective roles and have to adjust their agendas accordingly; the smaller groups and the individuals are still necessary and need not reset goals that have not been achieved.  This also effectively answers the third and fourth questions.

Answering the question about the relevancy of the NAACP is above my pay grade, so I choose to not answer the question.

What about the many “Affirmative Action” policies and laws? Are some/most/all of them still necessary?  The easy answer is that some are and some are not.  The hard part is to figure out which ones are which.  Is there a need for schools to use ethnic bias for admissions as a means to achieve the goal of ensuring those applicants of economically poor backgrounds get a fair chance?  Even the US Supreme Court can not answer this one, allowing the University of Michigan School of Law to continue this policy, but ruling that the same university undergraduate admission policy of using ethnic origin was unconstitutional (NPR news article for reference).  What of so-called “ethnic quotas” used as a determining factor in civic industries such as police and fire departments?  That these types of policies were necessary in even recent history is indisputable.  Whether they are necessary now is debatable.  That we will not need them in the future is the goal.  And that is my answer.  Sadly, some of them are necessary since we have not reached this goal.

Finally there is the issue of resentment.  This is a tough issue with which to deal.   If your entire life you have been devoted to an important struggle, and the struggle is won, your devotion has no direction.  While not resentment, some may feel an emptiness.  Others have made a living from the struggle and become leaders in the struggle.  If the struggle is no more, will they no longer be seen as important in the community?  As relevant?  Will they become resentful of their obsolescence?  Will they no longer have an income?  Since we have not achieved the goal we will not see the results, but I think there will be some, when true equality is reached, that will be melancholy about it.

Well, there you have it.  When discussing the quest for ethnic equality, we have certainly made great accomplishments as a society but we still have more to do.  That the United States of America will, in less than two weeks, have a sitting President of African descent is monumental, note-worthy and certainly a big step in the quest.  But we have not achieved the ultimate goal.  When we no longer describe each other or ourselves in terms of ethnicity we will have achieved the goal.  I think though, that for many people, the election of Barack Obama as President has helped turned an ideal that was only a concept in to one that will be a reality someday.

It is this paradigm shift that is the real change the the election of Barack Obama has brought to the USA.  This, for many people is the hope that before this past November they did not dare to have. This hope is demonstrated by the transition from the dream of which Dr. King so eloquently spoke to the reality that it will happen and, to many, is the most important change in history.

I relish the opportunity to make this topic an ongoing discussion.  I heartily recommend that and encourage you to make comments to this article in hopes that intelligent discourse leads us all to learn, both about this topic and about each other.

Copyright 2009 Mark D. VandenBerg All Rights Reserved