The following is Blog number thirty-four and is part of the ongoing Racial Reconciliation in America Series. A number of posts will be made in this segment of the Series as we discuss The Black American Family. This post is entitled: The Black American Family – Barriers to Entry.

RACIAL RECONCILIATION

THE BLACK AMERICAN FAMILY

BARRIERS TO ENTRY

Now, for the White human being, generational wealth is the crucial nexus of its ruling class structure and cultural stability as the Control Norm of Western Society. It is the Just Us Philosophy as we have already discussed that has over the process of time created the phenomenon called White Privilege. Some White folk deny that there is such a thing as this and some accept that it is truth.

          We contend that the phenomenon is absolutely real. We contend further that this phenomenon more than any other reality is what maintains the gap between Black and White achievement in every component of life in America.

Progenitors of our current generations traded on the sweat, goodwill and invention of the African Slave in America. There was a pass through of wealth. This progenitor wealth and its pass through, as an inheritance represented more than capital, property and all things material.

The White progenitor wealth pass through that has benefited their progeny the most; with profound and lasting affect, is the establishment of barriers to entry into opportunity. From our nation’s beginning up to now, it is the barriers to opportunity that has represented the greatest negative affect on the Black family.

The lingering affects of the Just Us Philosophy as it relates to opportunity is an inheritance. It is a wealth pass through unto all White folk living in America. Including poor White folk who may think that they have inherited nothing!

This wealth pass through is the essence of White privilege. Something inherited rather than earned; it is represented in: family name, ancestry, innate expectation to dream big, freedom of thought, movement, benefits of doubt, acceptability, financial access, trustworthiness, influence and things of authority and power.

Is your mind free to be anything desired; unfettered by the distractions of your race? Are you without the energy drain of thoughts associated with predictable racial disadvantage? Have you ever felt a loss that you could justifiably argue was due to your race? Do you spend any energy at all on your race during the day?

One is inspired or distracted by the condition of emotions, resulting from our thought life. We only have 100% of energy force to give during a 24 hour day. The ancestral pass through, of inherited White privilege, brings with it a quintessence of natural hope so powerful and so profound that it is rarely recognized nor thought of, but simply taken for granted as one lives life.

It is like unto a natural condition unrecognized. This is a hope, which precedes dreams; realized by the innate egalitarian freedoms existing solely amongst White folk. From an expectation to dream big, there is an implantation within the White psyche of a natural faith; not a spiritual faith, but a faith in the self, family or sphere of influence promise, that somebody knows somebody with some help.

The combination of this faith, hope and expectancy to dream, allows those of White privilege, to have a focus on their dreams without some deviant disadvantage to ever think about!

For Black folk, as a matter of history there has been a consistent barrier to entry into opportunity, particularly in the area of asset creation. For White folk this is a progenitor provided competitive advantage.

The result is a gap in financial equality and generational wealth achievement between Black and White families; this gap particularly in asset creation may never be overcome.