Transcending the Color Line: The Sociology of Black Experience in America - Tapa blanda

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Bobby Eugene Mills received his BD degree in theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and his PhD in sociology from Syracuse University. An advocate for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Dr. Mills taught college-level sociology courses for over 35 years.

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This collection of essays is a philosophical attempt at making sense out of the American black collective experience. These essays do not reflect traditional sociological theoretical perspectives and methodological considerations. Instead, the query is: How do we actually live? More importantly, what are we willing to sacrifice in order to live the way we say we want to live? Invariably the search for moral understanding and spiritual meaning is neither easy nor popular. It is indeed the abstract empirical (amoral and apolitical) character of sociology that has all but rendered it irrelevant to the resolution of contemporary social problems. In short, it is the biased initial theoretical assumptions of the scientific method (abstract empiricism) that are the social basis for collective bias via the illusion of value neutrality. This collective cultural bias is the social foundation for institutional racism, sexism, theological dogmatism (denominationalism), and above all authoritarianism. An “ism” is a schism, and schisms divide. Without a doubt, “either/or” logic fosters cultural extremism rather than a universal perspective on humanity.So perhaps our true query is: should sociology be the sociology of social justification (democratic elitism) or the sociology of social justice (freedom and social equity)?

I offer this collection of essays as a down payment on the sociology of freedom. We need to heal the racial divide in American society once and for all. My hope is that these essays will serve as an intellectual framework for reconciling some of the numerous ideological contradictions that exist between individuals, ethnic social groups, and members of American society in general. They are all based on the understanding that the longest journey is the journey within, and it begins with the first steps of self-introspection. God hates prejudice and racism. The story of Moses’s marriage to the Cushite woman teaches us this profound spiritual lesson. The anger of Aaron and Miriam because of the marriage of Moses caused God to descend from heaven in a pillar of cloud and stand at the doorway of the tent (see Numbers 1-16; God created all individuals out of one blood. Life and death are in the tongue, not skin color. “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile” Psalm 34:13). God is an ever present help; however when God makes His presence known, He shows up and shows out for the righteousness of His kingdom and then moves on.

Within any social group, the task of a leader is threefold: to have a vision for the future (particularly for the children), to lead by visionary example, and to take followers where they have not been. Also, individuals cannot become good leaders unless they have been good followers. As an ethnic group, blacks have three basic primary institutions: family, church, and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). All three have major dysfunctional issues, and blacks must take responsibility for the existence of these institutional dysfunctions. (Blacks also have two secondary social institutions: barber shops and beauty salons.) Unfortunately, all three primary institutions are in a state of moral and spiritual decline because the leadership in all three institutions has devolved into a self-serving mentality. Yet it is also true that blacks have lost a sense of tight-knit community, which came under attack by the forces of institutional racism during the process of desegregation. Therefore it is also my hope that this collection of essays will inspire some creative ideas about revitalizing our spiritual, moral, and socio-economic institutions as we attempt to recover the universal sense of common humanity lost in the desegregation process.

In my opinion, the cornerstone problem in the black community is the inability of blacks to hold each other accountable. One white man can hold one thousand blacks accountable, but one thousand blacks cannot hold one black individual accountable. As a result of institutional racism and the horrible after-effects of chattel slavery, whites have become the only ones who can discipline blacks. (Of course, this is not by choice but by institutional and cultural design.) Those who have the power to discipline through the strength of the law and the gun inherently have social and cultural rule. Yet increasingly it has also become virtually impossible for blacks to morally discipline each other because of the spiritual and moral decay of the institutional structures of the black community, namely the attitude that “nobody can tell me anything.”

By and large, in the white community ideas rule. Intellectuals in the white community can ascend to the forefront of community development and therefore easily influence community affairs and institutional arrangements, because ideas make money. In other words, ideas rule, not money. This is how leadership roles in the white community are institutionalized (and universalized). In contrast, leadership roles in the black community tend to be personality driven, based on our “slave heritage.” The black community then becomes a victim of one-dimensional “group think.” Black intellectuals tend to be shunned and sometimes even ostracized. Almost everywhere in the black community, the open competition of ideas is discouraged and oftentimes stymied.

Specifically, leaders come primarily from the ranks of black pastors and black politicians, who themselves, as a whole, create conditions that divide the black community. On the one hand, black pastors talk about abstract faith apart from action. But “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works” (James 2:14)? Faith without works is dead, yet black pastors rarely talk about faith manifested as works of righteousness. On the other hand, black politicians deal with one-party politics (although for a profound reason) and oftentimes even the politics of race. One major political party uses the “lure” of openness, and the other major political party appears to operate with closed-door intentions toward minorities. This brings to mind Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Therefore both sides are not always heard, understood, or even appreciated. If the black community is to become spiritually whole, intellectually productive, and above all morally integrated, these conditions must be altered radically.