The Barbershop: Socrates, you’ve helped us understand something. White folks are always talking about American Exceptionalism and how American democracy is the standard that the world should aspire too. So why when their democracy is attacked like on January 6, or Republican legislatures suppress Black voters, white people by and large got little or nothing to say?
The reason for that is now clear, the America they’re talking about is an illusion, a figment of their imagination.
Socrates: A few months ago, St. Louis American columnist Mike Jones put white Americans into three broad historical categories; hardcore beyond redemption racists; social/racial justice white people; racially ambivalent white people.
None of these represent a most white folks, but the racially ambivalent cohort is the biggest and they are perpetually swinging between hardcore racism and racial justice. And wherever a majority of morally ambivalent whites align is where the majority of white America is on the issue of race.
The Barbershop: That makes sense! But what makes them swing back and forth?
Socrates: Hell, if I know. I don’t think morally ambivalent whites really know either, it would require too much honest introspection. I think Jones, like jazz musicians, was improvising off a rift somebody had played before him.
The Barbershop: Really, who?
Socrates: Everybody in here knows about the 1963 March on Washington and the famous speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., which has the ‘I have a dream’ ending. White folks liked it so much they named it the ‘I Have A Dream Speech.’ Black people began calling it that too.
The Barbershop: I can see you headed somewhere.
Socrates: The most important thing Dr. King had to say to us in 1963, wasn’t from the Lincoln Memorial, but from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama in April of that year. And he was addressing morally ambivalent white folks, ‘the white moderate”, that Jones was referencing in his column. But let’s have Dr. King speak for himself:
“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Council or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
What’s instructive about this is, in spite of the criticism and angst of moderate white supporters, Dr. King didn’t back off or ease up in Birmingham. In fact, he amped up the pressure. We saw him expand his call from civil rights to include economic justice and opposition to American imperialism.
Which leads to your question about us. Are we up for this moment? I said I was gonna tell you how I felt about it and what I thought about it. But on further reflection, I’m only gonna deal with what I think, because what or how you feel about something should never dictate how you think about it or what you do about it.
The Barbershop: Ok, we’ll have it your way.
Socrates: Y’all know two things you can always get me to talk about is the NBA and Black politics. This generation of NBA players are probably the most skilled and physically gifted players in the history of the game. This generation of Black political leadership is easily the best educated, most accomplished and politically successful in our history.
Socrates: What today’s NBA players and today’s Black political leaders have in common is that they are toilet paper!
The Barbershop: Lol.
Socrates: What was Kobe’s nickname?
The Barbershop: The Black Mamba, the most lethal snake on the planet, one bite and you’re dead, no antidote!
Socrates: MLK, Malcolm, Stokely, Huey and others – Mamba mentality. When you think about Black political leadership, either individually or collectively, who’s the Black Mamba?
The Barbershop: Ah man, I…we….uh got nothing to say to you on that
Socrates: Here’s why that’s an issue. If you look at that racist cohort, you see white folks like Trump, Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Getz. They’re ignorant and incompetent, which means they’re beatable. But they’re also dangerous because they’re mean and nasty. To beat them, we have to be tough, smart and ruthless.
I look at Black political leadership, and I don’t see enough dog in them.
The Barbershop: Yeah, you’ll never be a champion, unless you got enough dog in you!
Socrates: What’s understood doesn’t have to be explained. With that understanding, you can answer your own question.