I'm A Diner

Of course I celebrate my independence.

Malcolm X famously said of his American citizenship:

I've got a plate in front of me but nothing is on it. Uh, because all of us are sitting at the same table are all of us diners? I'm not a diner until you let me dine. Then I become a diner.

It’s popular to portray black Americans as if they’re starving, but plenty have been eating well for generations. Speaking of my extended family, we eat pretty good. In fact, a lot of us take it for granted. I speak, as those who know me, as an ex-member of that group known as the Talented Tenth.

Essentially, the idea of the Talented Tenth was formulated by WEB duBois some time ago. He was essentially talking about college educated African Americans leading by example for the rest. His ideas were a variation on two other themes. one by Booker T Washington and another by Carter G Woodson. Essentially to boil it down simply, Washington said, ‘We need engineers, not just PhD bookworms like duBois’. And Woodson said ‘We don’t need frivolous degrees in things like Negro Studies, or Divinity’. Each of these great men had their supporters and detractors, but all similarly worked to establish a vanguard of some sort representing the best for the Negro race. Each probably would have liked Barack Obama.

My own disenchantment with the Talented Tenth came explicitly from an understanding and respect for African American diversity, including the very real fact that many people can’t even stand the term ‘African American’. It was a lesson I learned back in the 1980s when it was generally assumed that some black Americans would lead all black Americans. Like Jessie Jackson or hopefully somebody better.

So really there is nothing that Jessie Jackson or any such ‘black leader’ did so wrong as assume that they could represent the millions of folks here as a singular ‘black community’. And while there are still black Americans in positions of power (or at least some elected office (ahem, Maxine..)) few of them keep pace with what’s going on now. Old people, with old ideas, working the system to stay in power. So long as more Americans know these old foghorns blow that same sorry note, then you will hear the same old arguments dredged up as if nobody needs to be patriotic or ‘America doesn’t work’, or any other kind of subversive schemes.

Bottom line. Nobody can decide for African Americans if they should or shouldn’t celebrate Independence Day, although throughout the years, many have followed political schemes and racial theories that there is a single most correct answer, as if individuals and families own experience doesn’t count. If you can’t see the irony in that, you ain’t woke.

My family has pride in military and social service to this country. We celebrate, when in fact we have considered expatriation in 1968. Being an American is the easiest thing for Americans to be. Why wouldn’t you celebrate that?