The Biggest Mistake Black People Make Today
Of all the mistakes black people in America make today, there is one that is uniquely pernicious.....
Of all the mistakes black people in America make today, including committing a disproportionate amount of crime, creating a stupendously high rate of broken families, failing tragically at school, surrendering to the welfare system, embracing gangsta culture, and swallowing the disempowering lie of victimhood - there is one that is the icing on the cake, and it is solidarity.
Solidarity is usually a positive force - it helps unify citizens in times of war, energise employees at trailblazing companies, and motivate sports teams on the hunt for a championship. When you can relate, bond, and empathise with others on the same team as yours, it makes you collectively stronger and more effective. But there are times when solidarity can be a millstone around one’s neck, and when it comes to the black community today this is most definitely the case. Solidarity here is costing black people dearly. It is the purpose of this piece then to highlight why and how solidarity is backfiring, as well as to make the case for breaking free from it.
Let’s begin by defining solidarity. In this context it is black people feeling they have a collective identity and experience, a strong affinity, and a common interest with other black people.
On the one level you can understand this kind of solidarity in any society. Italians will feel more solidarity with other Italians than they do with Canadians, and the Japanese will feel more solidarity with other Japanese than they do with Indians. And when you consider the history of blacks in a country like America, where they were unequal under the law purely based on a shared physical trait (that being skin colour), then it’s no wonder solidarity based on this physical trait arose - and rightfully so. But old habits die hard, and solidarity has outlived its usefulness to the black community; today it causes more harm than good.
If we broadly divide black people today into two camps: the first are those who are law abiding, decent, and who take responsibility for their actions and lives, and the second are those infected by gangsta culture and a victim mindset - which translates to committing crime, broken families, academic failure, welfare dependency - and taking personal responsibility for none of it. Apart from these two groups having the same skin colour (and sharing some inconsequential cultural practices), there is little of substance they have in common. Yet they are lumped into one monolithic and generic group called black people, the black community, and African Americans - thereby obfuscating their massive differences.
The consequences of this are serious and occur in a chain reaction beginning with a) The black community as a whole being associated with the lowest common denominator of gangsta culture and a perpetual victim mindset - for this segment is the loudest and most attention grabbing, has the bigger impact on society (negative in this case), and makes the most demands of government and its fellow citizens.
This leads to b) People downgrading what they think of and expect from black people. This includes not just how whites, Asians, Hispanics, Arabs, and more, see blacks, but also how blacks see themselves.
Which leads to c) The narrative that blacks are discriminated against and aren’t regarded as equals with other races, which conveniently ignores that the horse comes before the cart, i.e. if you’ve got a reputation for some of the worst and most destructive behaviours in society, should your fellow citizens embrace you with open arms and hold you in high esteem? Or does that sound like the height of delusion?
This last bit of common sense is ignored however, so we move to d) Since blacks are supposedly victims of unwarranted discrimination and racism then this naturally explains and justifies all of their problems, therefore they are excused from all personal responsibility. It’s not their fault, it’s everyone else’s, and we are thus unable to criticise their bad choices and behaviour.
Which leads to e) An inescapable cycle of violence, despair and depravity, plus the solidifying of gangsta culture and a victim mentality. After all if taking responsibility - the first step to breaking free from this cycle - is taken off the cards, then what are they left with but to blame external parties for all their problems. This means they can’t fix these problems till they ‘fix’ white people, or fix the police, or fix government, or whatever other racist boogeyman is out there. And so we go round and round this merry go round of misfortune, unable to get off.
The biggest immediate losers here are decent black people who by blindly accepting and not pushing back on the labels that paint them as a single identity block based on skin colour, end up inheriting the bad reputations
of others in that block. Solidarity is just not worth it then. As slaves, it was. When fighting for equal recognition under the law, it was. Today though, with both of those battles already won, it is not. Decent black people need to break free of this skin deep solidarity. Let’s explore what this could look like.
Breaking Free of Solidarity
There are three elements to breaking free: divide and prosper, lead by example, and break the cycle. Let’s look at each.
Divide and Prosper
We’ve all heard the term divide and conquer. It’s derived from a Latin expression and is sometimes attributed to the general and ruler of Rome, Julius Caesar. Today it’s mostly used in a cynical way to describe powerful and influential entities seeking to divide people for their own gain (and yes, there is a lot of that going on currently). But when it comes to black solidarity, the significant downsides and negligible upsides of it are such that we can flip this maxim into a positive. It works like this:
a) Decent black people declare their independence from identity blocks like ‘the black community,’ ‘black people,’ ‘African Americans,’ and more. They do this publicly and loudly.
b) They explicitly demand to be grouped in with non colour based blocks like ‘Americans,’ or ‘Westerners,’ or ‘people of faith’ or whatever.
c) They will then experience backlash from two groups: gangsta culture and victim mindset black people, and woke white people. The first won’t want to see them succeed for it will expose them and their excuses, and the second will fear losing their status as self-appointed saviours of black people. One strong upside of this is that if enough black people claim independence then the story of black victimhood will be strongly undermined (perhaps even mortally wounded). Additionally, the sight of woke white people attacking empowered black people will expose them for the self-serving racists they are.
d) Declaring independence means those black people who want to can move beyond skin colour based identity to values and culture based identity, and thus prosper without the unnecessary baggage of black solidarity. No longer can they be lumped in with people with destructive mindsets and habits and suffer undue harm to their reputation.
This of course is dependent on a large enough number of people doing it, otherwise it’s unlikely to yield results. Leading black luminaries like Candace Owens, Larry Elder, and Thomas Sowell have found out the hard way that when you promote a message like this without sufficient public support from decent black people, you will be lambasted as a sellout, traitor, and Uncle Tom, no matter how true or useful your message is. Numbers are key therefore, and there are enough of them, they just need to be activated.
Leading by Example
When decent black people declare independence (and do so in a public and explicit way) they set an example for those who are still trapped to follow. Remember, the biggest hindrance to the black community changing is believing their problems are not their fault, but other people’s fault. So if they can see people with the same skin colour as theirs rejecting the victim narrative and prospering, then it will give them hope they can do it too. Change here comes from making a personal decision, not from government or society making it for them, hence the control is in their hands.
It would also help immensely if black musicians, actors, tv personalities, sportspeople, politicians, community leaders, and prominent business people would start speaking truth instead of pandering to the worst elements of the black community. Their influence would help to move the needle in a huge way. Perhaps having the support of a solid number of decent black people would give them the courage and confidence to speak out. This might be a case of the chicken and the egg though, as in the black community needs leaders and influencers who will lead them to independence, but those leaders and influencers need the support of a good number of decent black people if they are to be listened to. Some black leaders will therefore need to take the arrows until that critical mass is reached. The aforementioned Candace Owens is a great example of someone who is willing to do that; I see a promising future for her.
Breaking The Cycle
If you have enough black people declare independence from the monolithic ‘black community,’ and they lead lives unhindered by the victim narrative and gangsta culture, thereby inspiring others to do the same, then you have a chance at breaking the cycle - if not for all, than for many.
I realise of course that whilst all this sounds simple, it is hard, and opposition to it will be high. But what is the alternative? Trying to pull yourself up whilst remaining a part of the black community will fail if your fellow group members are determined to pull you down. Black people who overcame slavery never had to deal with this, for they were largely united in the fight for freedom against an external foe. Likewise black people who under the leadership and inspiration of Martin Luther King Jr and others, overcame unjust laws, were also largely united.
Today the situation is different in that many in the black community don’t want to change. If they’re united on anything it’s on propagating gangsta culture and a victim mindset. Trying to escape this cannot thus be a united effort or it will never happen. Those black people who see even a glimmer of the light must divide and prosper, lead by example, and throw their support publicly and en masse behind black leaders from all spheres of society who preach a message of personal responsibility, respect, and harmony.
It’s time for black people to embrace the West and stop acting like they don’t have a stake in its survival. Yes, we have challenges in our societies, but these impact us all regardless of skin colour. And whilst I have argued against black solidarity in this piece, mainly as a strategy to achieve much needed change, I am strongly in favour of solidarity in general. It’s just we need to upgrade our solidarity so that it no longer runs skin deep but is based on values, beliefs, and a shared vision for the future.
So I leave you with one of the fables from the Ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop:
The Four Oxen and The Lion
A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Written by Arcadius Strauss.
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