Worlds Apart by Cynthia M. Duncan

Author:Cynthia M. Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2014-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

LEADERSHIP IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY: THE OLD AND THE NEW “TOMS”

Black leaders who work to improve conditions for the black majority have had to battle not only whites’ efforts to retain control over Dahlia but also divisions and distrust within the black community. Many say that whites deliberately fan factional infighting among blacks. They believe that whites, especially those in political power, deliberately create rumors to prevent coordinated efforts to bring about change. In this community, the white can put out a rumor to start a rumor, and there it go. Nobody checks on whether it’s true, a seasoned organizer sighs.

A black schoolteacher notes, When you have ambition here the whites are not the only ones who come out and attack you. They use blacks to do so. They get other blacks to come out and do it. The black community is divided, most agree, and old habits persist. First of all, you go back to the plantation mentality, Michael Long explains. It’s very much in evidence here. A leader, he’s got to have some followers to make an impact. So they get to his followers. And it leaves him out there exposed, naked. He’s ineffective. If he goes out there, he soon falls down on his face.

Factionalism spawns suspicion of leaders’ motives and undermines efforts to improve institutions in the black community. Just like in Blackwell, distrust and lack of cooperation also spring from envy of those who do better in an uncertain environment where jobs and resources are scarce. Some whites call it “the crab syndrome,” saying the ones below hang on to the legs of the ones scrambling higher. Most blacks see it as the jealousy that is inevitable when there is too little to go around. A black mechanic says, You might just be a plain old person who gets up and works like hell for what you have, but people will tag you as a “big shot.” It becomes a problem when people get satisfied with their condition, and resentful of those who are getting up every day working hard, so they call them “big shots.” Political distrust and resentment of those who better themselves make it hard to bring about change. But black leaders persevere nonetheless, and there are signs that opportunities for cooperation are increasing.

I found three leadership groups in Dahlia’s black community. First, there is the older establishment with long-standing ties to the white community, the “Toms” who are criticized by some for being overly deferential. Second is an older, “radical” group that challenged white authority during the civil rights movement and has continued raising social justice issues up to the present. Many of these men and women have paid a high personal price for that resistance. Finally, in recent years, there is a new group of professionals, some children of the older establishment and radicals, others who scraped and scrambled their way out of poverty and returned to Dahlia. This new middle class bridges the two long-standing black leadership groups in Dahlia and offers a glimmer of hope for change.

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