Freedom in reality

Stevie Wonder sings that people suffer when they believe in things they don’t understand.

African-Americans’ illusion about justice in post-slavery America is illustrative. Justice pertains to the government’s authority to make decisions that allocate resources and impose burdens. In a democracy, justice is reflected in the impartiality of decisions irrespective of demographics.

The equitable application of justice in post-slavery America has been deemed deficient by both haves and have-nots because merit, need and equality are considered by people who are affected by the governments’ decisions. Under merit, a person is entitled only to what he can acquire by skill, talent and hard work. If need dominates, one is granted life’s necessities from state resources irrespective of merit or effort. With equality as the rule, everybody would get an equal share of whatever is available, also without regard to merit or effort.

Despite our high-sounding words about equality, in American reality a variety of conditions put specific groups behind the dominant group. There are natural at-birth advantages which will result in great differences in asset acquisition, especially if society also benefits from the advantages; birth into a subordinate group will strap one with disadvantages regardless of abilities. In America, slavery is a clear example of both unearned advantages for whites and unearned disadvantages for blacks, although for many decades, white women were also less advantaged than white men.

Soon after slavery ended, Elizabeth Keckley spoke about American reality and freedom. In 1868 she wrote: “The bright joyous dreams of freedom to the slave faded … in the presence of that stern, practical mother, reality.” And 100 years later, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “This is no time for romantic illusions and empty philosophical debates about freedom. This is a time for action. What is needed is a strategy for change, a tactical program that will bring the Negro into the mainstream of American life as quickly as possible. Without recognizing this we will end up with solutions that don’t solve, answers that don’t answer and explanations that don’t explain.”

Although black culture has never been free from the intrusion of white America, until the mid-’60s the formal and informal development of competencies of black youth was controlled by black communities. The competencies required to rise to success and leadership in the community were identical to those required for the nation at large, which many of us discovered when we desegregated America. In fact, academic coursework and competencies were derived from white America, although they were taught to black children using our own unique instructional and motivational strategies.

Today, however, from kindergarten on, the formal education and social-skills development all children need for competitiveness are under the control of administrators and teachers whose standards and rules are dictated by national and state mandates. Nevertheless, black people still control the 90 percent of their children’s lives spent out of school, where supplementary and complementary education and motivational programs can be and still are imparted.

We were clearly less deluded before the mid-’60s. But during the Civil Rights Era, many African-Americans became convinced that theoretical freedom as touted in our creed would be applied fairly and bring about equity between black Americans and white Americans, overcoming centuries of injustice. However, the disparities among the various socioeconomic segments in white America which, despite the hype, have prevailed from America’s beginning, would certainly remain for other subordinate groups, especially descendants of former slaves.

In reality, those with certain advantages-whether genetically bestowed, derived from demographic status, unfairly acquired, or developed by the individual-will get ahead of people who don’t have the advantages, even in the most democratic societies. Moreover, no matter how one finds himself ahead, he will likely remain ahead, and get even further ahead when real equality of opportunity applies.

A just society will remove unfairness in access to opportunities for competitiveness and even assist those behind in gaining needed resources; however, no society can compel those ahead to slow down so the ones behind can catch up. Those in a lower group must be taught from birth by family, churches and other community groups to focus on fairness, the twin of justice at the personal level. To be fair to himself, one must take full advantage of all resources available.

Within every community, irrespective of demography, children with serious at-birth disadvantages have always managed to excel, African-American communities from 1865 to 1965 in particular. It was not principally due to governmental justice that we have 12 times more black lawyers and 15 times more black doctors than black athletes, for example; this success trajectory started well before the Civil Rights Era.

The fairer children are to themselves, the more justice, fairness, equity and freedom they will find in real America.

———◊———

Lloyd V. Hackley is the former chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.