Whose America?

Well hello folks!!
This week has definitely been interesting thus far, not to say the least -- summer like temperatures in October -- you get my drift . . . Ok, back to my blog, the Washington Post featured an intriguing op-ed piece. So, intriguing that I decided to postpone my original blog for later . . .

In Which Black America, Eugene Robinson introduces dialogue on how mainstream America has defined black America's existence and black America's degree of agreement/disagreement. Wonderful story --- why you might ask, because he explores the current evolution of black America. Some people get it and some people don't, but I'm here to help you out. Black America has a middle class, a considerable population -- although I must add this view is relative (in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago there's an abundancy), in Tuscon, Denver, and Walla Walla we're more like anomalies. Yet, even with our presence in certain metropolis black folks are still a periphereal presence for mainstream America.


Let me expound, sure mainstream America sees you at work, but after work and on the weekends, they can not detect your presence. Black folks don't attend their church, their kids don't attend the same schools (even if your kids attend the same schools after the last bell those kids won't see each other until Monday), nor do they live in your neighborhood. . . and if black folks live in mainstream America they're the only family that lives in there neighborhood, furthermore they are the only reminder on Main Street. . . Yet, mainstream America refuses to acknowledge the presence of that America (the rare population of affluent blacks -- i.e. C-suite titleholders-- are anomaly for mainstream America and black America in general no need to discuss this population for purposes of this blog -- by no means does my omission negate their significance).



Mainstream America is obsessed with Nothing is More American -- please read, courtesy of Amaretto -- and the black America that they heard of or observe from afar lives in the (1) "ghetto", (2) "sketchy" neighborhoods on their eve of gentrification, (3) inner-city, (4) or in the suburb -- but it's the suburb on the other side of town that you have to pass the enumerated neighborhoods to get there, so with that being said they've never been there or lived there, unless of course their situation is ideal to #2.


So, what have you noticed, that this America and mainstream America are co-existing, but mainstream America prefers the fixation on their America. Read the former sentence thrice. Mainstream America is used to the role or lack of role black America has played in their psyche. . . Ahh. . . but Mr. Robinson is genius because he highlights a series of events that coerce you to think about mainstream's America "reality" -- it ain't that real. The current black middle class which has a direct relationship to the strides made in post-Civil rights America, is very active and opiniated (that doesn't mean all blacks espouse the same opinions) so much so that when certain events surfaced that are very characteristic of pre-Civil rights America, black America refused to be silent and voiced their concerns. Which just goes to show that maybe the roads leading to Main Street are a lil' too narrow to accomodate America, but the great architects created the roads that way.

Cheers,

Bellini