A different kind of set aside

An unpopular truth

[Reprinted from Issues & Views October 18, 2004]

Like numbers of affluent middle- and upper-class blacks before them, many of today's black elites are just as determined to use government to coerce resources and money from others, in order to fulfill bogus dreams to bring about what they call "economic empowerment." Around the country there are those who scheme to use their newly won political clout, to avoid engaging in personal financial risk taking. That is, they still believe that there is some other route to resuscitating black communities other than individuals coming together for the purpose of creating commerce.

Ignoring all the examples of every other ethnic group, whose members act in concert to pool resources, ignoring even the noble history of members of their own race, who founded and maintained successful business enterprises long before the end of segregation, these blacks look for shortcuts to prosperity.

By now it is a given that the black masses were misguided by agenda-driven black and white liberals to put all their efforts into the crusade for "civil rights." In so doing, the critical task of achieving genuine economic independence not only was cast aside, but disparaged as the obsession of Uncle Toms and the peons of Booker T. Washington. Those blacks who understood the folly of institutionalizing a permanent dependence on government and on the largesse of whites, and warned of an inevitable bleak future, were quickly turned into non-persons and cited for disloyalty to The Cause. [See "S.B. Fuller: Master of Enterprise."]

And so, year in and year out, blacks continued to do nothing about securing for themselves an economic base in those neighborhoods with dominant black populations. In the 1980s, Harlem businessman Jimmy Murrell, a tireless exponent of economic self-reliance, but embittered by his inability to rouse greater interest among affluent blacks to invest in Harlem enterprises, claimed that blacks were "sitting on gold mines" all across the country.

One such gold mine was Detroit, where today a disheartening scenario is unfolding. Before integration, Detroit, like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Durham, Birmingham, and other cities, had a thriving black commercial district, which blacks eventually dumped for the joys of integration. [See "Who Killed Greenwood?"] Now, some clever worthies have come up with a scheme to turn back the clock, but this time they hope for capital for their projected businesses to be provided compliments of the citizens of Detroit.

In July, the Detroit City Council, the majority of whose members are black, passed a resolution for the city to create a fund to grant loans to black business people only. Although said loans would come from public funds, whites, Asians and Hispanics need not apply. Supposedly, the money lent would be used for developing a section of Detroit as a commercial-industrial center for black-owned enterprises. The proposed district has been dubbed by some as "African Town."

Needless to say, the prospect of restricting funds on the basis of race set off a tumult, with many of the city's blacks rejecting the proposal as "racist," and joining their voices to those of indignant Asians, Arabs and Hispanics. It is the presence of these immigrant groups that spurred the council's desperate proposal. The proposal, accompanied by a report, the product of a local black businessman, was seen as decidedly anti-immigrant.

In the report, blacks are described as a population being displaced from jobs and "other opportunities" by various immigrant groups. Although such claims are in keeping with the facts in other areas all over the country, it is too late in the day for blacks to expect any relief from the burdens brought about by mass immigration -- especially in cities that are now magnets for millions of new immigrants, legal and illegal.

On the political front, black politicians have made it clear that they will not take a stand, either to advocate closing the borders against illegal immigration, or to campaign for a moratorium on the numbers of legal immigrants. To a man and woman, black members of Congress have become born again supporters of current immigration policy, as they pander for votes, not only among naturalized immigrants, but among their constituency who are advocates of mass immigration. In fact, Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee and Maxine Waters both have voted to increase the numbers of immigrants allowed into the U.S.

Nor are you likely to find the NAACP challenging mass immigration as injurious to the welfare of blacks. Determined not to ruffle any feathers among other minority groups, NAACP leaders admit to having "made a deal" with La Raza, the Latino group that encourages illegal immigration.

As is true for other Americans, there is little to no chance that blacks can make an effective impact on policies that permit the massive numbers of immigrants now entering cities like Detroit. But it is not too late for blacks to take a page from their own history book, and amass capital among themselves. Hundreds of thousands of their ancestors managed to do so, while possessing fewer means. They did not allow social restrictions to prevent them from developing, growing and maintaining critically needed businesses, which made it possible to improve the quality of life in their communities. [See "Banking Pioneers".]

Blacks have no excuses left for continuing to contrive ways to inveigle from government that which they can do for themselves. All such bounty, whether in the form of "loans" or outright alms, extorted by whatever means, are not the property of the state, but come out of the pockets of others.

Back in Detroit, on October 18, the City Council came to its senses and struck down its original biased proposal, thus stemming the tide of angry outrage that threatened to grow uglier.

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