Step Down Off the Slave Auction Block

Some advice from Shahrazad Ali

[Reprinted from Issues & Views Winter 1997]

There are few people who write about black behavior as fearlessly as does Shahrazad Ali. As author of two books about social relationships between black men and women, she is known to pull no punches and she often gives more than a little grief. Her first book, The Black Man's Guide to Understanding the Black Woman, set off angry fires of debate (or might they be called shouting sessions?) throughout black communities, here and abroad. In a way, Shahrazad is like Malcolm X, who was often called a "scold," because he rebuked blacks for failing to fix those things that were clearly within our power to fix.

In one of her recent columns, which she regularly writes for the monthly Your Black Books Guide (Hampton, VA), Shahrazad chides those blacks who are waiting in line to extort bundles of money from the next white-owned corporation. She first cites some of the most recent cases--California's Edison Company, which had to fork up $11 million to settle a discrimination suit, then Shoney's Restaurants that coughed up over $100 million, and onward to Denny's at $45 million and Texaco at $176 million. She writes:

The blacks who "win" in these lawsuits get anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000 each. Whew! Simmering on the back burner at this very moment are possibly hundreds of class-action lawsuits that various black employees are considering leveling against their white bosses, with hopes of "winning" this new job related lottery. . . . [This is] a way to hit the race jackpot and win big from heavily insured privately owned non-government related businesses. . . .

Try this out for the next scenario: What if a long line of whites showed up at every black-owned business in America. What if they had qualified credentials and demanded to be hired, promoted and loved? What if the black owner refused to fire one of his tried and true black employees just to make room for the white applicant and to have equal representation of all races in the workplace? What if when we rejected these white applicants, they invaded our space, screamed racism and filed a class action, boycotted and demanded millions in damages for discrimination in hiring, and called the press and the IRS? What would we do?

Just because you may work for the white man, does not give you the right to equal ownership of his business or his idea. We should stop acting like slaves constantly demanding that whites buy and sell us over and over again for cash. Step down off the slave auction block and do something for self, instead of disgracing and embarrassing the rest of us with your perpetual begging from white people. . . . Money is not the end-all solution to our problems, but pride, dignity and independence will take us further towards success than testifying in the white man's court room that another white hates you and discriminates against you.

For information about purchasing Shahrazad Ali's books, contact Your Black Books Guide at (757) 723-2696.

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