The kidnapping and enslaving of millions of Africans and their progeny was an act of such monumental savagery, the UN declared the TransAtlantic Slave Trade the greatest crime against humanity in recorded history. The victims of this epic crime were treated as race-specific human chattel for several generations and suffered an unprecedented kind of civilizational trauma. Absolutely severed from their ancestral sources of identity and cultural continuity, enslaved Africans and their progeny were denied the traditions, folkways and habits of mind that inculcate a sense of common accomplishment and significance We were raced commodities, dehumanized and denied the opportunity to accumulate economic and cultural capital. The denial of economic capital helps explain our lack of wealth relative to white Americans. However, the denial of cultural capital may have been the most pernicious deprivation.
Cultural capital is the intangible quality that entrains group behavior patterns and habits of mind in ways that encourage social success. Differing peoples accumulate and bequeath this valuable attribute according to their various histories. African-Americans often bemoan the fact that varied immigrant groups arrive late into this country and pass us by on their way to the "American Dream." However, we fail to identify the cultural capital they bring to the table. In addition to being the most adventurous and entrepreneurial of their source group, most immigrants arrive fortified with values honed from centuries of autonomous social interactions. Their traditions usually are framed by heroic ancestral narratives that bolster their communal esteem and inoculate them against external bigotry.
We were diverted from acquiring this kind of capital because the progeny of enslaved Africans were totally stripped of their ancestral heritage and thus obliged to create an ad hoc culture, primarily designed to accommodate oppression and white supremacist presumptions. Without a sanctuary that could provide a source of of esteem and validation, the descendants of the enslaved were vulnerable to and undermined by the insidious orthodoxies of white supremacy; for dozens of generations, black folks were socialized for subservience and dependency. Although, whenever we had just a sliver of autonomy -- Tulsa, Rosewood, Beale Street, Bonneville, and hundreds of unnamed but independent black towns, villages and hamlets -- we quickly accumulated cultural capital and sometimes developed thriving communities despite opposition that was always virulent and often violent.
However, those slivers were rare and usually imperiled by forces threatened by black success. And, more times than not, these successful black communities were sabotaged from without or corroded from within. Now, I'm not making excuses for the seeming inability of African-Americans to prosper as other ethnic groups; I'm just outlining the realities that shaped our historical context. Unlike Poles, Germans, Lithuanians, Mexicans, Chinese, Indian, or other groups with familial or other explicit connections to the lands of their origins, the childen of enslaved Africans have no such links. And since the primary components of cultural capital are built on these ancestral connections, we were severely handicapped by this forced separation. These are cultural injuries that derive from deep and unique historical wounds. We can deny them or downplay their significance, but we point to them whenever we bemoan the disproportionate criminality in our communities, or our lack of collective enterprise, our tendency to litter, our embrace of anti-intellectualism, etc. Those cultural injuries are deeply embedded and in some ways have socialized us for self-sabotage. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but the truth in it helps us understand why we simply can't "self-help" ourselves out of this multi-dimensional box into which we've been placed. I'm not saying that the struggle for black self-sufficiency and self-determination is not an important fight, just that it's inadequate for the enormous task of repairing those historical wounds.
I argue that preventing African-Americans from accumulating cultural capital may just be slavery's most destructive legacy. And now, obtaining this valuable attribute is a long-term prospect that requires a committed and considerable investment of time and resources. The comprehensive compensatory programs necessary would easily be justified by reparations protocol already established by the United Nations (especially for the victims of "history's greatest crime"), and by historical parallels with the US's Marshall Plan of assistance to war-torn Europe - a plan that provided billions (by today's standards) in outright currency transfers to 11 nations devastated by war. No similar regime of compensation (or repair) was provided for the progency of enslaved Africans after generations of flagrant oppression and social exclusion.
There is no getting around the fact that only government can marshal the enormous assets necessary to do the job. There is also no doubt that such an ambitious program would face stiff resistance from an entitlement-weary American public. However, enlivened public discourse on the issue would offer a golden opportunity to make the case and to properly internationalize the issue. It will soon become clear that only such a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary effort stands a chance of success of stanching the cycle of decline our commuities are experiencing. Until we take serious steps to bolster our underlying absence of cultural capital, self-sustaining communities will remain out of our reach.
Cultural capital is the intangible quality that entrains group behavior patterns and habits of mind in ways that encourage social success. Differing peoples accumulate and bequeath this valuable attribute according to their various histories. African-Americans often bemoan the fact that varied immigrant groups arrive late into this country and pass us by on their way to the "American Dream." However, we fail to identify the cultural capital they bring to the table. In addition to being the most adventurous and entrepreneurial of their source group, most immigrants arrive fortified with values honed from centuries of autonomous social interactions. Their traditions usually are framed by heroic ancestral narratives that bolster their communal esteem and inoculate them against external bigotry.
We were diverted from acquiring this kind of capital because the progeny of enslaved Africans were totally stripped of their ancestral heritage and thus obliged to create an ad hoc culture, primarily designed to accommodate oppression and white supremacist presumptions. Without a sanctuary that could provide a source of of esteem and validation, the descendants of the enslaved were vulnerable to and undermined by the insidious orthodoxies of white supremacy; for dozens of generations, black folks were socialized for subservience and dependency. Although, whenever we had just a sliver of autonomy -- Tulsa, Rosewood, Beale Street, Bonneville, and hundreds of unnamed but independent black towns, villages and hamlets -- we quickly accumulated cultural capital and sometimes developed thriving communities despite opposition that was always virulent and often violent.
However, those slivers were rare and usually imperiled by forces threatened by black success. And, more times than not, these successful black communities were sabotaged from without or corroded from within. Now, I'm not making excuses for the seeming inability of African-Americans to prosper as other ethnic groups; I'm just outlining the realities that shaped our historical context. Unlike Poles, Germans, Lithuanians, Mexicans, Chinese, Indian, or other groups with familial or other explicit connections to the lands of their origins, the childen of enslaved Africans have no such links. And since the primary components of cultural capital are built on these ancestral connections, we were severely handicapped by this forced separation. These are cultural injuries that derive from deep and unique historical wounds. We can deny them or downplay their significance, but we point to them whenever we bemoan the disproportionate criminality in our communities, or our lack of collective enterprise, our tendency to litter, our embrace of anti-intellectualism, etc. Those cultural injuries are deeply embedded and in some ways have socialized us for self-sabotage. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but the truth in it helps us understand why we simply can't "self-help" ourselves out of this multi-dimensional box into which we've been placed. I'm not saying that the struggle for black self-sufficiency and self-determination is not an important fight, just that it's inadequate for the enormous task of repairing those historical wounds.
I argue that preventing African-Americans from accumulating cultural capital may just be slavery's most destructive legacy. And now, obtaining this valuable attribute is a long-term prospect that requires a committed and considerable investment of time and resources. The comprehensive compensatory programs necessary would easily be justified by reparations protocol already established by the United Nations (especially for the victims of "history's greatest crime"), and by historical parallels with the US's Marshall Plan of assistance to war-torn Europe - a plan that provided billions (by today's standards) in outright currency transfers to 11 nations devastated by war. No similar regime of compensation (or repair) was provided for the progency of enslaved Africans after generations of flagrant oppression and social exclusion.
There is no getting around the fact that only government can marshal the enormous assets necessary to do the job. There is also no doubt that such an ambitious program would face stiff resistance from an entitlement-weary American public. However, enlivened public discourse on the issue would offer a golden opportunity to make the case and to properly internationalize the issue. It will soon become clear that only such a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary effort stands a chance of success of stanching the cycle of decline our commuities are experiencing. Until we take serious steps to bolster our underlying absence of cultural capital, self-sustaining communities will remain out of our reach.
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