I recently read a Newsweek article by Raina Kelly who sighed, “’Precious’ is just one more movie that feeds our vision of ourselves as victims…black people have begun to accept as unchangeable the lot of those stuck in the ghetto.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]-->  I think Kelly hit the nail right on the head here.  But, it takes no special talent to articulate a problem.  Anyone can do that.  What about viable solutions?

We must ask the question, “How do we break this cycle of urban poverty?”  Once we have done this, there are two main options before us:  continue to do what we have always done but expect or try something different.

If we continue doing what we have been doing for the past forty years (panhandling whites and being dependent on the Welfare State), we will surely continue to get the same results (socioeconomic stagnation and increasing political marginalization). 

However, if we truly desire better results, we must try a different strategy and tactics.  This new strategy must be based on a new doctrine.  The doctrine of the past forty years has been Douglassonian that is based on a misinterpretation of the teachings of Frederick Douglass.  This misconception led to the farce that was the misguided and impotent civil rights movement (CRM).  Today, we continue to utilize siege tactics against a wall that has long since fallen down.  The doctrine of agitation and protest (petitioning the ruling class for redress from a platform of victimization) is now obsolete.

In order for us to go forward, “Cross the Jordan” threshold and adopt the Promised Land Mentality, we must undergo a paradigm shift.  The bowdlerized Douglassonian doctrine of the CRM must now give way to the doctrine of Booker T. Washington.

Only Washingtonian doctrine can empower low-income black America to develop upward economic mobility.  Douglassonian doctrine is preoccupied with whites:  what whites have done wrong, what whites should have done what whites should do (Juan Williams, Enough).  This flawed school of thought is hindered by a self-serving bias that sees all problems as lying outside the black community.  Washingtonian doctrine is almost a polar opposite, but prevents further stagnation through anticipation.  Those who appeal to the ruling class cast themselves in the role of subordinate and subordination hinges on dependency.  Paternalism in fact guarantees perpetual white domination.

Washingtonian doctrine starts with the acknowledgement that accepting the blame for all the pathology within the black community is actually empowering.  For so long as we consider the mess in our backyard to be someone else’s responsibility, we will never clean it up ourselves.  And those outside the black community inside the mainstream are too apathetic to assist low-income blacks in becoming competitive.  Taking responsibility for our own pathologies is the key to breaking the cycle of urban poverty.  All the scape-goating, mud-slinging, blame-dodging and created a dysfunctional black culture, a dystopian “Bizzaro World” where the black poor are prisoners of their own self-righteousness.

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