In 1998 I wrote the essay below. As I see many young gifted and black white and other men and women as opposed to the tired, old "leftist" crowd, I decided to reprint it. Please remember that this as written in 1998 so many of the names referred to are from that time, BUT the message and result are the same.
Eddie Huff 10-2018
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With the
controversy surrounding Judge Clarence Thomas’s speech before the
National Bar Association recently, and his stigma of being an Uncle
Tom, I was caused to ponder. Why do he and many other men who are
otherwise respected by their peers seem to have this image to deal
with. I think of Reggie White who for standing up and speaking his
heart gave up a lucrative media deal. I think of the Rev. Floyd
Flake who after serving his people as a Democratic representative for
years was unwelcome by his black colleagues. I think of Thomas
Sowell and Walter Williams who because of their boldness to consider
and put forth a new and scholarly way of thinking are continually
ostracized by their own people. I think of J.C. Watts and Alan Keyes
who should be heralded as examples of hard work and achievement but
rather are ridiculed and ignored by those who should embrace what
they have to say.
I was taken back
in my thoughts to growing up in the 50s and 60s and remembering the
words “I ain’t black, I’m colored.” Then while in my teens I
once referred to someone as colored when a “hipper” brother
corrected me saying, “hey brother, we ain’t colored we are black
now.” We then went on to become Afro-Americans and finally African
Americans, where we are today. I took each step in stride, as did
most of us, and had no problem in adjusting to new days, and new ways
of looking at things. One thing never seemed to change though, and
that was the idea of the Uncle Tom Negro working for the man against
his people.
In the early 90s
the word paradigm seemed almost to have been discovered for the first
time. It was the “power word” of choice in many circles. The
business world especially seemed to love the word. I am convinced,
though, that many of those using the word did not fully comprehend
its meaning. For those who still do not know the meaning,
essentially a paradigm is an accepted model, or way of thinking about
and doing things. Or another idea is that it is the standard of how
things are thought of or done. Therefore, if we have thought of cars
looking or driving a certain way that was the paradigm. If education
was thought of or practiced in a certain way that was the paradigm
for education. We began hearing of paradigm shifts, or in common
terms, a new way of looking at, thinking about, understanding, or
doing certain things. New standards of how things are done or are to
be thought of were established. In the business and scientific
worlds it was either change your paradigms or get left behind and out
of business. With communication and technology moving at such a
rapid pace business and science must continually evaluate and often
shift their paradigms. Tragically society and culture has not done
the same, and lagging way behind is black society and culture.
A key to
understanding paradigms is not in recognizing the new paradigm but
rather first having a clear understanding of what the old or current
paradigms are. How do we look at, think about and do things, and
why? We can then decide if it is working or not and if we need to
change things.
This brings me
back to my original thought regarding Judge Thomas and others.
I think it is
time we look at our thinking on the so called Uncle Tom. The stigma
of Uncle Tom has traditionally been associated with the black man who
speaks or works against his people on behalf of “the man”.
Generally the “Tom” does this to keep the trouble makers in their
place and in order to preserve his own power and prestige. In the
50s and 60s the “Tom” was considered to be those who don’t
cause any trouble, aren’t uppity, etc.. The uppity ones were those
who chose to question or speak out against laws harmful to black
people and people of color in general. The “Bad Negro” was the
one willing to risk his name and personal safety for speaking the
truth. He had no fear of “the man.” I think we still have Uncle
Toms and we have others who are portrayed as being out of line, the
“bad negroes,” but are the circumstances the same as they were 20
years ago? Is it possible that there is a new paradigm that we need
to recognize?
In his book The
End Of Sanity: Social And Cultural Madness In America, 1997
Avon Books, Martin L. Gross makes the case that America has been
or is being taken over by a “New Establishment”. This New
Establishment, Mr. Gross states, is rooted in Freudian and Marxist
ideology. It controls or seeks to control education, the media, the
courts, and the government of this country. According to Gross it is
not confined to a particular political party, religion, race or other
people group but rather cuts across such lines. What unites them is
the idea that all that we have received from Western Civilization,
especially the European white male, is evil and needs to be replaced
by a culturally diverse set of values which should make this a better
place. No one has explained, however why, if it will make this a
better place, has it failed to make the places where each of these
ideas has come from better? Why do people to this day risk life and
limb to get here. If modern European, Asian, African, or Latin
American culture are the ideal why are those areas in continual need
of our aid and support? Furthermore, why are the ethnic ghettos mere
cosmologies of the nations these people came from where the
inhabitants fail to achieve the intellectual and economic levels of
the majority society?
If what Gross
says is true and we are under the rule and influence of a “New
Establishment” then we need to ask; is there a corresponding “New
Uncle Tom?” We also need to ask how and why he works for the man?
Who speaks for the man whenever he needs someone to get the minority
vote out? Who speaks for the man when he wants to push a law or keep
a law which is harmful to African Americans and America as a whole?
Who is at the man’s side for the photo op when it is opportune for
the man to have one? Who is fed and clothed by the man in exchange
for their unquestioning allegiance? I think we know who they are. We
have new Establishment Negroes who are ever at the beckoned call of
“The Man” to guide their people in how to think and act.
Basically, to keep them in line. On the other hand who is the
radical brother today who says you are enslaving my people with your
laws, you are killing my people with your ideas, you are lying to my
people with your every word? He fights for freedom of thought and
expression and succeeds outside of the prescribed way. What is his
reward? To be attacked by the New Establishment whites and their
Uncle Toms.
We need to
rethink our idea of the Uncle Tom. He is not a traitor just because
he is successful. He is not a traitor because whites listen to him.
That is what the purveyors of the old paradigm would have you think.
How dare Clarence Thomas allow himself to be nominated as Supreme
Court Justice by a Republican president. How dare Reggie White say
publicly what he (and most of us) are thinking. How dare J.C. Watts
Jr. be elected to congress by mostly whites and to represent a
predominately white district. We, the negro thought police and the
man, did not give these men permission to do this. It is impossible
for this to happen because we have preached too long that it cannot.
If we say it cannot happen and it happens then it makes us look bad.
The New Establishment Uncle Tom has everything to lose if these bad
negroes succeed. His power his prestige and yes, his livelihood are
at risk if this type of thing gets by. So he is at the forefront in
decrying these uppity “Negroes”.
I will never
forget a line in the film Ghost Busters when the main characters, who
were lazy goof off professors at a public university, had just been
fired for incompetence. One of them made the remark, “this is
serious, you don’t know what it is like to work in the private
sector. I’ve been there and they expect results.” It was a
humorous but profound statement which I am afraid describes many of
those who have gotten used to living on the New Establishment’s
dole and get power and prestige from seeking the same for others.
I think it is
time for African Americans shuck this thinking and establish new
paradigms. Paradigms which are good for the people as a whole. We
have heard a lot about dreams in America.. “The American Dream”,
Dr. King’s Dream”, and we all tell our kids to dream, or should.
Some people though would rather give up on the dream. They would
rather destroy someone else’s dream and call it equality. In other
words they have no faith that they can achieve what the most
successful of people have, so they would rather bring the successful
person down to their level vs. striving to achieve that level of
success. In my opinion that is not achieving anything.
What if we
achieve the American Dream of equality for all, and get our piece of
the pie only to find the pie has been trampled under foot and is no
longer what it was when it was fresh and whole? No one wants that.
It is the same with our country. Now I do not believe that it is
possible to bring an entire nation to that level, or at least I hope
not, but that does not mean that there are not those who are seeking
just that. “Give me mine or I’m ruining yours”, they say. It
is like the kids who because the game is not going their way try and
ruin the whole game for everyone else. I remember when as a kid in
Philly I was invited to a party in another part of North
Philadelphia, Tioga to be exact. It was going well when some kids
came in from yet another area who were not invited. They just
announced that they were crashing this party. Party over!!! Fights,
the police and you get the picture. They never asked could they come
in, they never asked what the occasion, they just announced that they
were crashing the party and they did. At times I feel that as a
people we are like this and that needs to change.
Now having said
all of this, do not mistake my words for looking blindly at
injustice, prejudice, and the problems that we still face. These
need to be addressed. There is allot of work to be done, but let’s
not just assume that what worked in the 60s will work today. White
people and for that matter every other kind of people, including many
African American people are getting tired of our cry baby, wimpish
behavior. We want equality but we want live in our own
neighborhoods, keep our own colleges, have our own holidays, and
month. We want to be respected but slam whites publicly every chance
we get. Just let David Letterman or Jay Leno make a joke about a
Black or Mexican person; he’s gone. But we can, and do, do it on
stage, Radio, TV or anywhere. If we want respect let’s give it.
Let’s show character, pride, and wisdom. I think I liked “I am
somebody” much more than “I need something”. Let’s listen to
what some of the new voices are saying. Let’s get our dignity back
and negotiate with people who believe we are somebody and are able to
make things happen for ourselves. Let’s also treat with respect
our brothers and sisters who have made it through hard work and using
their heads. I think if anyone sat down with Judge Thomas, Reggie
White, or J.C. Watts, they would not buy the picture that has been
painted by people with their own idea of what a black man should look
like, think like and/or act like.
Power to the
people!
Eddie Huff-1998
