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Black Elitism/Black Capitalism: Part II; Author replies to comments

By Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, 3 March 2001

Hello Brothers and Sisters:

Thank you for responding to "Black Capitalism" pt. 2. I am glad to see us really discussing these matters, which are not in any way mere abstract questions, but rather go to the fundamental question of what kind of society do we really want? One which has classes of desperately poor and excessively rich, one which has all economic power in the hands of a white [or some day Black] elite, or one where the needs of the people are met and we are all on the same economic level.

I do not accept *elitist* arguments of a "talented tenth", "better class of Blacks", or the "incorrigible poor". This type of argument shows that it is only thinking "within the box", that is within the confines of the present capitalist system, which *creates* crime and deprivation. Capitalism creates inequality, and poverty creates a lack of culture. Somebody said to me a long time ago, ignorance is merely lack of knowledge, while stupidity is total foolishness. Many of our people are politically ignorant to the workings of this system, and they are being debased, but they are not stupid. Ain't no mystery to this ya'll, don't get to think that you are something special, you could be the same as any of the least of our people.

Remove the conditions of oppression, and any of our people in the most degrading of conditions, can ascend to any social station in life, even higher than many of you looking down your noses at the poor. They can be the next Malcolm X, Martin Luther King or whomever we exalt as Black leadership. Middle class Black people have got to put aside their own class blinders and prejudices against their own people. It is oppressive, plantation thinking ("house nigger vs. field niggers"), and keeps us from accepting our people where they are.

Seems to me, our task as Black activists, people who say they love Black people, is to fight for the uplift of *all our people*, not feed them to the white government and its prisons and graveyards. We cannot get our liberation without fighting for the liberation of the poor, so let's organize the 'hood.

Lorenzo Komboa Ervin