Latest / HEW Talks Podcast / Black Collectivism
Transcript
- Dr. Pascale: Hey good people, it's Dr. Pascale with another episode of Hue Talks, where we discuss the historical, contemporary, social, and political factors that impact the health and well being of black and brown communities. Today it's just me and my reflective thoughts. No guess, just me talking with you as far as like the things that are going on in my head. So last month, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist and creator of the 1619 project, Nicole Hannah Jones, published an essay titled, In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? In the article, she recounts how her and her husband's deliberate and intentional choice to enroll her daughter, then a kindergartner, into a predominantly black and under resourced public school in Brooklyn. In her efforts to stand up against a separate and unequal school system. Her daughter, now 16, questions whether her mother, Nicole Hannah-Jones, made the right decision that would have been in her best interest. Throughout the article, Nicole grapples with whether she failed her daughter in her efforts to stand up for her values. In response to this essay, black social media had a field day. There were those who vehemently opposed Nicole's decision to knowingly enroll her daughter in a lower-performing school. Some believed her decision was performative. And there were those who stood in solidarity with Nicole. I was among those who agreed with Nicole Hannah-Jones' decision and applauded her for it. As I read Nicole's essay, a lot of things came up for me. For one, I thought about the state of South Florida's public school system. I am a proud product of Miami-Dade County's public school system. However, according to a Miami Herald article, since 2012, 250 54 of the 315 public schools in Miami Dade have experienced a steady decline in school enrollment due to a number of factors. Among them, Florida's Universal Voucher and School Choice Program. These programs make it easier for families to enroll their children in charter and private schools. To address this issue, Miami Dade County School District made the decision this summer to consolidate or close. nine schools with low enrollment rates. Seven out of the nine or seventy-eight percent of the consolidated or closed schools were predominantly black, despite making up only 20% of the enrolled students in the district. Let me repeat that. Seventy-eight percent of the nine consolidated schools predominantly served Black children. In addition to low school enrollment, consolidations, and closures disproportionately impacting black children in Miami-Dade County, Nicole's article also made me think about the concept of black collectivism. Her decision to send her daughter to an under-resourced school was rooted in black collectivism. Today I want to focus on the concept of black collectivism, historical examples of black collectivism and the need to get back to black collectivism in our current political state. Collectivism can best be described as seeing ourselves as part of something bigger. May that be our family, community, or society as a whole. For the well-being of our family, community, or society, we put aside our own personal needs for the good of the collective. Collectivism is the opposite of individualism. Black collectivism takes it a step further in that not only is my well-being tied to those in my community, but that none of us are truly safe, free, or thriving unless all of us are. Political scientists Michael Dawson referred to black collectivism as linked faith. The African American or Black belief that what happens to the group shapes what happens to us individually, and vice versa. What happens to us individually shapes what happens to the group. Nicole Hannah Jones and her husband's decision was rooted in the belief that their daughter's future was not separate from those of other black and brown children. They believe that if they were blessed with the means to enroll their daughter in a better performing public or private school, they also had the means and the responsibility to invest their time and resources in an underperforming school. So what does black collectivism actually look like? Historical examples of black collectivism that I'd like to highlight include the civil rights movement and the Black Panther Party. When we think about the Civil Rights Movement, we think about big names like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Rosa Parks. But it's important that we remember the movement was fueled by everyday people who decided that their individual participation would benefit the collective. let's talk about the Montgomery bus boycott. We are all familiar with how Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus ride home from Montgomery, Alabama on december first, nineteen fifty five, and how she was subsequently arrested. However, what we may not know is that black women played an important role in organizing the boycott under the leadership of the Women's Political Council. The Women's Political Council, or WPC, was founded in 1946 to fight against institutionalized racism in Montgomery and to provide leadership opportunities for women. Under its founder and president, Mary Fair Berks, the organization focused its efforts on two areas of political action, education and protests against segregated areas. The WPC was considering a bus boycott years prior to Rosa Park's arrest. They met several times with city officials between 1954 and 1955 and their efforts focused on bus reform. Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat was the catalyst for the WPC to organize the Montgomery bus boycott. At the time, 75% of bus riders were black, the majority of whom were black women. Working in collaboration with the NAACP, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, and the Montgomery Improvement Association, or MIA MIA, the WPC organized the boycott for December 5th and boycotted Montgomery buses until buses were no longer segregated. The boycott lasted 381 days, running from December 5th, 1955 to to December 20th, 1956, only ending after the US Supreme Court ruled against segregated buses on November 13, 1956. The Montgomery bus boycott success was due to the collective sacrifice of an entire community. It is estimated that approximately fifty thousand black people participated in the boycott. For nearly a year they walked, taxied, carpooled, and even rode mules and horse drawn buggies to get around Montgomery. Mary Fairbergs and Jo Ann Robinson, leaders of the WPC, were black women with means. Both women taught at Alabama State College and used their education, organizing skills, and their positions to stand up against injustice and to stand with domestic workers, cooks, and maids who largely rode the bus. They understood that their fate was linked, and that in order to go up against segregated buses. No single person could do it alone. So this month we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Black Panther Party, founded in October nineteen sixty six by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seal. First learned about the Black Panther Party in middle school. It's actually what influenced my decision to attend Miami Northwestern Senior High School in the heart of Liberty City. As a first generation Haitian American, I wanted to experience the living legacy of Liberty City's Black Power Movement to be among students whose grandparents actually lived it. Now, Northwestern wasn't my homeschool, and at the time it had a bad reputation. So my parents weren't exactly sold. Thankfully, the school had a medical magnet program and that was the deciding factor. In a way, my parents faced their own version of Nicole's dilemma. Long story short, I loved my time at Northwestern and I'm grateful I went. It was a preview of my HBCU experience at FAMU for my master's degree, being surrounded by black excellence. Now, let's get back to the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party is a prime example of Black collectivism. Some may argue either within the Civil Rights Movement or adjusting to the Civil Rights Movement. Their ten point program was a list of demands that benefited the black collective. It demanded decent housing, education, employment, an end to police brutality, and freedom and self-determination. The party wasn't just talk. Among its most impactful programs was the Panthers Free Breakfast for Children program. The program was established in response to the hunger and poverty that poor black children experienced at the time, making it harder for them to learn in school. It started in Oakland, California in 1968 and quickly grew to a national party initiative. In fact, it is largely what our current National School of Breakfast program is modeled after. The Black Panther Party also had other programs under its community survival programs to include their free health clinics and dental clinics, employment referral services and the likes. I would argue that the Black Panther Party was another arm of the civil rights movement, just with a different approach. The Black Panther Party is often painted as a self-defense, violent organization, while the civil rights movement nonviolent approach was the more acceptable approach. Despite their different approaches, both were rooted in black collectivism. the civil rights movement's Montgomery Best Boycott and the Black Panthers Party Free Breakfast for Children program and their community survival programs are only a few historical examples of black collectivism. There are countless others that I can talk about at length. But I wanna discuss what black collectivism might look like on the micro level now that I've discussed what it looks like on the macro level. If we pay particular attention to our respective individual lives, I am sure we have either experienced or witnessed some form of black collectivism on a smaller scale. Black collectivism often begins on a much smaller scale before becoming bigger justice-oriented efforts. It begins with open hearts in taking action for the well-being of others within our inner circles and networks. Although I didn't have the language for it, my earliest account of black collectivism on a smaller scale is hearing the stories that my mother shared with me of my great grandmother, Normine Talousme Kharty. My great grandmother was born in Celri de Nord, IT. Married with eight children, she was a woman who didn't have much, but what she had was more than enough to give. My great grandmother's door was always open to the less fortunate. What little she had was always enough to share with the needy. Community members knew that they could always knock on her door for a hot plate of food. And if you didn't have a place to live, her door was also open to you. I believe my great grandmother passed that legacy on to her children. who in turn passed it on to their children and grandchildren. I don't believe that my great grandmother's heart to give was extraordinary in any way, but believe her willingness to give was a way of life back then, a way of life that these times call for us to return to. We're navigating a time that necessitates that we not only learn from our past, but also go back to some of the practices that those that came before us used. A time where the collective was the priority and not the individual. If we take anything away from Nicole Hannah Jones' article, it is that we are the ones that we have been waiting for, quoting the late June Jordan. No one is coming to save us. And so it is incumbent upon us to do what needs doing to save ourselves. So how do we save ourselves, you might ask? By taking care of each other. Okay. So what is taking care of each other look like? For some of us, it may look like taking in a child whose parents may not have the capacity to care for them in the manner that they should be cared for. It may look like being the parent in your neighborhood who ensures neighborhood children are getting to school on time by coordinating a neighborhood school drop off and pickup cardpool. It can also look like serving on your school's PTA or PTSA and making sure children in under resourced schools get the same opportunities as children across town at better schools. It may look like checking on an elderly neighbor who lives alone or driving someone to a doctor's appointment they'd otherwise miss. These small individual actions are how we get back to black collectivism. So if I were to respond to Nicole Hannah Jones' question as to whether she sacrificed or betrayed her child, I don't believe that she did. Nicole acknowledged that her child's future is tied to that of other children and recognized that when one of us suffers, we all do. One way we can all engage in black collectivism is by exercising our right to vote. That means voting for candidates and policies that benefit the collective, not just ourselves. Before you fill in your ballot this November, ask yourself, who does this help? Our ancestors marched, organized, and some even died for this right. At the very least, we can use our right to vote with the collective in mind. Thank you for joining me on this episode of HEW Talks. I'd love to hear what black collectivism looks like in your life. So share your stories with me. Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other. This is Dr. Pascale, signing off.