Dr. Martin Luther King, in a critically acclaimed book, “Community or Chaos, where do we go from here?” warned Black people and the nation that we would either build community or suffer chaos.
Just as King prophetically predicted a Black president would take the oath of office within 40 years, his admonishment concerning the lack of community has proven wise.
Most of us continue to refer to the “Black community “as if it has metes and bounds, tenor and texture, but there is no such specificity.
And while there once was such an organism, order and orientation, there is little evidence of it now. We are lost!
The Black community label today refers to the 14.4 % of America’s population who have no movement, momentum, or mandate. We traded solidarity for sole proprietorship.
The Black community was never a monolith or magnate, but its power was prominent and measurable.
Whites, by virtue of white privilege and public policy, still enjoy the trappings of community to some degree. Latinos enjoy the benefits of community more than any other group, which is why MAGA wants them gone. Asians do what Nike prescribes; they just do it!
The LGBTQIA community on the urban and national fronts flourished because they adopted what was traditionally our “underdog mentality.” Underdogs overperform because they must. Anything less is failure!
Sadly, today’s “Black community” is at a loss to define or defend itself. The Black community is in a state of chaos that threatens both its reputation and future viability. And while many learned and unlearned critics would assail the idea of “community” as socialist or anti-American, King did not.
King realized that the fiber of America could never be strong until every thread is coarse enough to support the hems of the whole garment. Simply put, its community or “Trumpism” which is tantamount to chaos!
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was one of Black America’s foremost intellectual and insight- ful voices. His writings could very well have been the basis for some of King’s thoughts on community.
In a lecture delivered on Febru- ary 23, 1953, on his 85th birthday, Du Bois sounds as if he taught MLK in one of his Atlanta University classrooms.
“All that is asked is that each of us do what we can; first to supply our own wants in food and shelter, health and learning. But more than that, that we do for others what they need done and cannot do for themselves, and yet which must be done lest we suffer.
Even if ten thousand men combined, and in sweat and sacrifice, make steel, wheat, corn, meat, or shoes, the result of a combined labor belongs to one or a few of them, while the others scramble to keep from starving. What has gone wrong?
It is clear that the workers do not understand the meaning of work. Work is service, not gain. The object of work is life, not income. The reward of production is plenty, not private property.
We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.”
MLK and W.E.B. would logically agree that we, as a minority, need to build and maintain a well-tethered community.
We are a lost community that must find its way past personal success to the greater good.
America will be in chaos for as long as we are!
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
