(Author’s note: Since I’ve been so effusive in my praise of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ genius as a writer and commentator on the black condition, some have mistaken my words. What I stated was that Coates is the “best writer since James Baldwin” … not that he is a better writer than Baldwin. Coates himself backs away from any characterization of him being superior to Baldwin as a wordsmith and thinker. In one manner, however, I do think Coates will prove to be superior to Baldwin, and that is in consistency. When Baldwin found himself in financial straights he would hurriedly dash off substandard work, simply for a payday. I seriously doubt that Coates will ever do that).
As I left Cleveland State’s Waetjen Auditorium on Monday evening, after listening to the brilliant Ta-Nehisi Coates’ (the author of Between the World and Me) presentation at a City Club-sponsored forum, I was approached by a longtime friend who solicited me to become a volunteer at a literacy/mentoring program. The effort is focused on black boys attending East Cleveland schools. I initially begged off, citing prior commitments for my Saturday mornings, but then — I guess inspired by the honesty of Coates’ message — I told her the truth: I’m of the opinion that mentoring alone will not solve the problem facing at-risk black youth.
As Coates said during the Q & A after his more formal conversation with Dan Moulthrup, “For every nickel a black family has, a white family has a dollar.” That is the alpha and omega of the “race problem” in America. It’s really about the Benjamins. White supremacy was — and still is — all about keeping one race poor so that another race can prosper.
Coates also made the comment that people hear what they want to hear, and believe what they want to believe (I’m paraphrasing a bit here) in spite of evidence to the contrary. He used the example of people constructing homes in areas of the Pacific Northwest on alluvial flood planes, where scientists are predicting a catastrophic earthquake is sure to occur, but that people fool themselves into thinking they will somehow not be affected. This is what I call willful blindness.
In the case of mentoring, yes, black boys certainly need mentoring. But mentoring alone, in the majority of cases, is not enough: they also need a way to have a few dollars in their pockets. They need to be able to afford a cell phone so they can feel normal; they need to be able to take a girlfriend to the movies, to be able to do all of the things kids of parents from better economic circumstances take for granted.
The plain truth is, it’s a bitch being broke in a land of plenty, and if the parents of these youth that are in need of mentoring can’t afford to buy them a cell phone, many of them are simply going to take one from someone else. And that’s called robbery.
But poverty gnaws at the body like hunger. I know. While I’ve never been poor (which is as much a state of mind as it is an economic condition), I’ve been dead broke more than once. I’m talking about being so broke I couldn’t pay attention, let alone pay the rent.
The problem I see with most of the mentoring programs that are being put in place is that they’re offering what these very well-meaning people have to give, which is not necessarily what these youth need — or not what they need at least at first. For the mentoring message to sink in and take root, the basic needs of the child must first be met; otherwise they are going to have trouble focusing. And, indeed, the at-risk youth most in need of mentoring probably are not going to show up for mentoring sessions at all.
Thinking through these kinds of issues and coming to some rational and logical conclusions it what Coates’ book is all about, yet nevertheless, he eschews providing answers to large questions, such as structural racism. When a young white female asked him what should white folks do, Coates smiled and said, “I don’t know.”
He then expounded on the theme by rhetorically asking why should it be up to black folks to tell white folks what to do. His point being, since they created the racial chasm that exists in America, it’s up to them to fix the problem they created. Coates’ further point being that if and when whites sincerely want to straighten their hand, they’ll figure out how to do it.
A good place to start on reconciliation would be a serious conversation around the subject of reparations, an issue that Coates has written about extensively. And when blacks talk about reparations, we’re not talking about sending a check to black families like mine; we’re OK financially.
But what reparations could accomplish is to fund programs that would allow mentors to solve the basic economic needs of young blacks so their attention can be gained, and the positive messages of the need to learn to read well and lead decent upright lives can penetrate — can get through the mental clutter poverty creates.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.