How the Talented Tenth Got Over
No society prospers without a strong middle class that assumes responsibility for lifting those from the bottom of the well. Today's black middle class function often as nomads, estranged from the brothers and sisters of lesser means. They have ceded the authority of their considerable affluence to trade on the money-making stereotypes of what it means to be black and American.
Of course you wouldn't know it from watching television, listening to pop music or, even reading magazines that black men don't all covet blonde models. Or that all black women aren't booty-shaking harlots willing to do anything for a brief moment in television's glaring lights. Apart from the few, easily ridiculed critics like Bill Cosby, where is the outrage from those who know better? Or ought to know better?
The overlooked truth is that in the 40 years since King died, black America's middle class has become a forceful mainstream rushing upward, onward and over the people who were once their neighbors. And in the midst of progress, the middle class has granted the pseudo-credibility of silence to a nihilistic street culture that has risen simultaneously--denigrating all that King's death made possible.
Those who study black folk's history know that King's movement was a peaceful, civil rebellion. It was led by young people, who wore Sunday suits and smart dresses as they stood up to sit-down. They were black and middle-class in their present-day values and forward-looking expectations.
It was that combination of values and outlook that laid the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement and the assent of a people from slavery and segregation to possibility and prosperity. It will be those values that guarantee our continued survival in a land that still can be hostile to black skin.
We, black American middle-class citizens, seem to have amnesia. Perhaps, we don't remember because we've forgotten where we came from and how we got over.
Sam Fulwood III, author of "Waking From the Dream: My Life In the Black Middle-Class" (Anchor Books, 1996), is a writer for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and teaches at Case Western Reserve University.
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How the Talented Tenth Got Over
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View All Comments »juanitaw at 04/06/2008 8:20:11 PM
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I am not sure if the talented tenth got over, I just think that the black community has become 2 different worlds and that there is such a cultural chasm that it makes communicating difficult between the groups. And if you can't communicate, you can't solve your problems.
Middle-classness to me is more about values and cultural tendencies than financial status. Many lower class people, and middle class people with lower class tendencies do not understand or execute their lives in a way that makes them successful.
As someone who came from modest means who is now doing well, I dealt with lower class kids while I was growing up. Many of them didn't like me because I was too proper, spoke and acted too white and obviously didn't put out. I did my homework, I was polite to my teachers and I was considered stuck up. Some of my relatives think the same thing. Now I am doing well and some of them are bewildered. There are many examples of middle class blacks and lower class blacks who practice their tendencies in the black community but those people are ridiculed. It is not until those people make money, buy a big house or expensive car that they are considered accomplished.
ken at 04/06/2008 1:16:10 PM
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@lola_44
I can't speak for everyone, but one of the things about hip-hop that I find most exciting is that it is basically an entrepreneurial culture. I don't think much of Puffy's music, but when I look at what he has done as a business man I can't help but be impressed. Not only has Puffy been successful himself, he has created a blueprint of sorts for others to follow.
gijoebo06 at 04/06/2008 7:59:45 AM
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I was just introduced to The Root and enjoy reading it. However, I must agree with SR Boston. I am in the military and by most accounts can be considered middle class. I didn't get here on by stepping onward, upward and over the backs of people that were once my neighbors, as this author so eloquently put it. My neighbors, black, white, mixed and brown, male and female, helped me in my time of need as I continue to help others after me. I am reminded of the many countries that I have visited and have been stationed around the world and it still shocks me that in this land of plenty there are those that WILL NOT take advantage of the opportunities that this country provides. When do we hold those of our race accountable for not wanting to be better, regardless of the hand reaching across the divide to bring them over? A great friend of mine, Mr Brandon Fauntleroy-McDowell, was murdered two weeks ago in Kansas City, Mo. This young man was assisting his community as he elevated himself into a better position in life. He was about to graduate with his Master's in three weeks and had already been accepted into Law School at the age of 25. He was surprised and subsequently shot to death in broad daylight by three assailants (read people you think the middle class has stepped on to get ahead) for the rims of his Tahoe as he left his job one afternoon. When you see the mug shots of the three people who allegedly had something to do with this horrific crime, you wonder what this man of God did to fail them to the point that they needed to murder him. Maybe from your position as an instructor at your university you have seen the Black middle class fail the rest of the black race. I see a middle class that tries to help our race, creates after school programs, tutors those less fortunate and does all those things that our grandmother taught us we should do to help our families prosper. But, as SR Boston wrote, you can bring a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Sad to say but the talened tenth could very well be the talented [20th, 30th or higher, you pick the number] if the very ones you say we have stepped over really wanted to rise up and bring someone else with them. I have not read your book but I plan to purchase it and examine the reasons why you think that that tenth has gotten over. Maybe it was when BET stopped becoming entertainment television that I was proud of as a child and started becoming Blacks Embarrassing Themselves. Or, maybe it was the childish antics of our professional sports players who don't see themselves as role models for our youth. Or maybe, just maybe, it is our collective self-loathing which causes us to classify those that we don't agree with, even though they have at least a drop of black blood in them, as not being "black enough" to run for the highest office in the land as a black man.