Does Integration Negate Ethnic Survival?
- Details
- Category: Lifestyle/People
- Published: Thursday, 25 April 2013 03:30
- Written by Lawrence A. Robinson
About ninety years ago, before the social experiment they called integration was in effect, my grandfather owned three grocery stores and several other businesses and properties. Even though he did not drive, he owned several vehicles and my mom was a chauffeured child. Thirty to forty years later my dad owned buildings which housed grocery stores and other businesses.
I remember as a child, my dad would send me to the fish store and I only needed to tell the owner who I was. The owner would give me a package and I would take it back home. Later that day or the next, my dad would drive up to the fish store and pay for the fish. My dad trusted the store owner enough to send his young child to pick up product using only his name. The store owner trusted my dad enough to know that he would receive prompt payment.
This was the type of relationship that was had throughout our community. This is how it was in the Black community, Black people doing business with Black people, growing the community, worshiping together and supporting each other.
Then, the social experiment, integration was upon us. It sounded like a good idea at the time. We were told that other ethnic groups had better products than we had and cheaper too. We were told that their theaters had newer movies and they used real butter on the popcorn. We were told that their grocery stores had fresher bread and the honey buns had more sugar but would not make you fat. We were told that we could trust them more than we could ourselves. We were told that their fish didn't stink. Over time we believed it all, and a lie became the truth.
Surely, you know of the Black Wall Street, located in Tulsa, OK.
During the oil boom of the 1910s, the area of northeast Oklahoma around Tulsa flourished, including the Greenwood neighborhood, which came to be known as "the Negro Wall Street" (now commonly referred to as "the Black Wall Street") The area was home to several prominent Black businessmen, many of them multimillionaires. Greenwood boasted a variety of thriving businesses that were very successful up until the Tulsa Race Riot. Not only did African Americans want to contribute to the success of their own shops, but also the racial segregation laws prevented them from shopping anywhere other than Greenwood. Following the riots, the area was rebuilt and thrived until the 1960s when desegregation allowed Blacks to shop in areas that were restricted before.
Black Wall Street boasted Black owned banks, factories, merchants, jewelry shops, restaurants, hand made shoes of course, and stores that sold cotton garments. They had it all and for whatever reason, others did not want Blacks to be successful and self sufficient.
We need to find a way to reverse this failed integration experiment. It has failed Blacks and made us believe that we cannot provide for ourselves. It has made us a population of consumers rather than builders and producers. How do we start trusting each other again? Can we find a way to start buying from our brother again? How do we start to support each other again after all this integration?
Lawrence A. Robinson
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some information source from Wikipedia