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Forum nameOkay Activist Archives
Topic subjectRE: Again, it's an illusion
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=12176&mesg_id=12200
12200, RE: Again, it's an illusion
Posted by M2, Mon Jul-23-01 08:33 AM

The Middle Class is defined as people making more then $35k/year, that's it, it's nothing more then an economic classification. It doesn't denote socio-political power, it doesn't mean you won't be discriminated against. All it indicates is that your income is above a certain amount.

Same goes for Upper Middle Class, to be Upper Middle Class you have to make more then 75k/year....putting you in the top 20% of all income earners, again, it's just an economic classification.

If anything, the Black Middle Class are an indicator of how deeply seated some racist attitudes are, AND they are a tremendous indicator of the barriers poorer Blacks face as they try to improve their lives.

Affluent Blacks with good credit, are rejected for mortgages at the same rate as Poor Whites with Bad credit. The problem is that even with the financial evidence in front of them, the loan officer still sees a shifty negro who can't pay his bills.

Selling Out: To truly sell out, affluent Blacks would have to have been given a choice. E.g. Disavow your heritage, do X that will hurt your family and people, etc, etc. But that doesn't happen, affluent Blacks don't have to deny their heritage to succeed, they simply have to put their minds to it, dodge the hurdles this country throws at them and simply not give up.

Knowing what you need to do in order to succeed and getting it done, is how you become affluent...not by "selling out"

The concept of middle class Blacks being sell outs, is a leftover from slave days....when we were taught that only whites could succeed....so in Today's world we think successful Blacks are denying their Blackness to succeed.

I grew up in a Upper Middle Class home, and I've created a similar economic status for myself now that I'm on my own. Nowhere along my parents and my own path to success, was it required for us to act against our people, deny our heritage or act White. Just ask the White Boys I work with, I'm not the Brotha that lets Joe White man go around justifying discrimination or try to pontificate on how racism doesn't exist, without ripping him a new one.

There is nothing wrong with economic success and you shouldn't feel guilty for having it. Blacks should want economic success, so that we can become the powerful and not the powerless.....taking care of the economic part is the first step towards rebuilding some of the centuries old wounds stemming from racism and slavery. Feed the body before you feed the soul.



Peace,





M2