So-called Foundational Black Americans may tell themselves they are noble protectors of ancestral legacy, but they are, in fact, little different from European groups in this country that conceptualized white privilege and tried to reserve it for exclusive groups.
Originally published in LA Progressive.
Things have gone all wrong. It was supposed to have been a repetition of the Biblical Passover. Although Elon Musk, Trump’s angel of death, was to sweep through the land dispensing healthy doses of misery, the homes of families displaying red MAGA baseball caps on their doorposts were to be spared the devastation of mass layoffs, cancelled farm contracts, loss of veterans’ services and Social Security/Medicare /Medicaid uncertainties. Only the “others” – the “coloreds,” the immigrants and the woke people were supposed to feel the pain. But to the shock and amazement of many, white MAGA loyalists are catching hell too.
Isn’t it quite enough that millions of them have already experienced the devastating impact of major corporations relocating manufacturing to cheap labor countries, leaving behind entire communities that suffer not only the loss of employment, but also the derivative loss of healthcare, educational opportunities, and worst of all – hope? Isn’t it tragic that many of these hopeless people seek escape by resorting to opioids and falling into the iron clutches of addiction, with many more succumbing to self-delusion inspired by liars ranting about the ongoing replacement of white workers by crazed, criminal, black and brown immigrants? And how about those demographic predictions of the vanishing white American?
Now, these dejected, pathetic souls fill town hall meetings to rage against Trump administration chaos, not because they are conscientious citizens expressing righteous indignation and demands for a more humanistic approach to government. No, their grievance is that the grand conspiracy to make America great again by making America white again has been betrayed. It might be possible to force the shedding of a tear for these pathetic dupes of capitalists and political hucksters, but it just can’t be done because their commitment to MAGA is not only selfish, but also a conscious effort to improve their own circumstances by stepping on and hurting others.
Before wagging a judgmental finger at these people, it must be acknowledged that their thoughts and actions are very much in keeping with this country’s traditions. The pursuit of democracy in America is marked by trampling on others. In fact, even the very first immigrants who fled tyranny in England to create a democratic and just reality in the new world set as their first order of business stealing territory, killing off as many indigenous people as they could, and enslaving Africans to do their work for them.
Back when America was great, being of European descent was not enough to make you white. Privilege belonged only to the Anglo-Saxon, and the other European immigrants – the Poles, the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, etc., were abused and exploited. As years passed and it became necessary to bolster the white ranks, these other European so-called ethnic immigrants received white privilege, but it sometimes required effort on their part. In her book, “The History of White People,” author Nell Irvin Painter quotes a member of an immigrant family as saying:
“Maybe my mother thinks that if she eats enough of this other bread, she will stop being Italian- American and she will become American-American. Maybe…people will stop thinking that a relative of my father’s who comes to visit us from Brooklyn once in a while is a Mafioso because he’s Italian-American and has New York license plates on his new black car, and sports a black tie and pointy shoes and a shiny suit and a Borsalino hat tipped way down over his forehead so you can hardly see his eyes.”
For too many of these European immigrants, efforts to assimilate included not only eating American bread, but also adopting the tradition of hating African and indigenous people. Many Irish immigrants to America are the cause of considerable confusion and embarrassment for those in Ireland who have long stood in solidarity with Black and other oppressed people because of what Ireland has endured at the hands of British imperialism. Many Irish immigrants, along with those from other parts of Europe declared through their actions that their intent was to demonstrate that they can be as good at racial hatred as any white person anywhere.
One of the hazards of immersion in a society fueled by the “othering” of those not in a favored group is that othering becomes reflexive. Though people of African descent may have been the prime targets of othering for generations, they have not been immune to the inclination to engage in this despicable practice themselves. This has been most tragic when there has been intracommunity division. For generations many Black communities were notorious for maintaining color castes based on shades of complexion that were largely the product of internalized inferiority prompted by pervasive white supremacy. Then there have been the tensions between people of African descent and other communities of color – specifically, Asians, Latinos and Arabs. The division has been a delight to those in the establishment whose continuing domination of the society depends heavily on the absence of unified opposition to a profitable and exploitative program of social, economic and political control.
The latest iteration of Black othering is found in the concept of “Foundational Black Americans.” A website dedicated to this idea explains: “It is important to clarify that Foundational Black Americans (FBA) is not a group or an organization, and there is no designated leader of FBA. FBA is a lineage-based designation that specifically refers to the over 43 million Black Americans who are direct descendants of the Freedmen—the formerly enslaved Black people who were emancipated in the United States. This lineage represents a unique and unbroken connection to the foundational builders of this nation.”
Those who subscribe to this concept believe it is important to distinguish so-called Foundational Black Americans from those born in Africa and other people of African descent whose ancestors were never enslaved in the U.S. This perspective resembles the MAGA program not only in its othering of immigrants, but also in the convenient disregard of facts, and reliance on comforting self-delusion, all of which is ultimately self-defeating.
So-called Foundational Black Americans may tell themselves they are noble protectors of ancestral legacy, but they are in fact little different from European groups in this country that conceptualized white privilege and tried to reserve it for exclusive groups. In the case of Foundational Black Americans and the so-called “American Descendants of Slaves” who preceded them, there is a belief – sometimes stated, sometimes not – that there is only a small slice of the American pie that is potentially available to Black people, and it is terribly unfair that those who are relatively recent arrivals in this country will share in that slice to the exclusion of people whose families have been here since the slavery era. Many Foundational Black Americans also believe that reparations paid by the U.S. government should not be paid to those whose ancestors were not held in bondage in the U.S.
After all, it is the Foundational Black Americans who are the “foundational builders of this nation.” But therein is a flagrant untruth. Implicit in the statement is the suggestion that meaningful contributions to the struggle for liberation and justice have been made solely by those whose ancestors were enslaved in the U.S. What then are we to say about Marcus Garvey, Harry Belafonte, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), C.L.R. James, Louis Farrakhan, Ivan Van Sertima, Cicely Tyson, Shirley Chisholm, and many more?
Also, the idea that slavery in the U.S. was a discrete enterprise limited to this country’s boundaries ignores historical facts documented so well in Eric Williams’ book Capitalism & Slavery about the global operations of the slave trade, and that the culprits responsible for those held in bondage in the Caribbean and Latin America are also culpable for the plight of those enslaved in the U.S., and vice-versa. In other words, when it comes to slavery, the circumstances of all Africans are indivisible. This includes Africans who were never taken from Africa, because they were left to cope with the devastation that was the consequence of the slave trade’s massive depopulation of a continent and the destabilization of African societies.
Hoping only for a slice of the American pie not only limits the vision of what is possible for the African World, but it also takes the ideas of liberation and self-determination off the table. Why settle for a slice of the American pie when it is possible to enlist all people of African ancestry in a global fight to purge Africa of all foreign exploiters and to then unite the entire continent under a single flag that flies over a unified socialist economy and that through its sheer size and might is able to guarantee the protection and prosperity of not only Black communities throughout the world, but also solidarity and material support for oppressed people everywhere who are fighting to escape the clutches of imperialism?
Perhaps even more important than the unification of the African World is the preservation of what makes African people so special. Through all the trials, turmoil and challenges endured by Africans worldwide for generations, they have largely maintained their spiritual integrity. Indeed, it is their faith that has made not only their survival but also their triumphs possible. To lose that spiritual grounding and moral clarity would be beyond tragic. The great threat is posed by long-term immersion in a society that is spiritually bankrupt. It is in America where the idea of excluding and trampling on those who are different, or who come from elsewhere not only flourishes, but is also regarded as a virtue.
For those who sign on to the FBA program and effectively emulate MAGA and other anti-immigrant forces, spiritual death looms large. God’s second great commandment is that we love one another. That includes not only people from other parts of the African diaspora, but all people from everywhere. FBA is a short-sighted, selfish, and exclusive idea that does not honor the ancestors, but instead betrays their documented practice of coming together as one people regardless of tribal, ethnic and national affiliations they may have had before they were stolen from Africa.
FBA is a short-sighted, selfish, and exclusive idea that does not honor the ancestors, but instead betrays their documented practice of coming together as one people regardless of tribal, ethnic and national affiliations they may have had before they were stolen from Africa.
Mark P. Fancher is an attorney and writer. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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