America Behind the Color Line by Henry Louis Gates Read Free Book Online Page B

successful, and have been able to improve their physical station in life—have a nicer neighborhood to live in, a bigger house to live in, fancier cars, nice clothes—that those who get left behind are left further behind than they might have been forty or fifty or sixty years ago. Before integration, the successful people in the community still didn’t have anywhere to go, so that success stayed in the community and we had a thriving middle class. You couldn’t break out too far. Then integration kind of changed all of that, and for those of us who became successful, it became easier to leave those behind who had not yet gained success, especially those children who needed examples to follow.
    The examples were no longer there the way they used to be; the successful people had moved on to some other place. So the kids today, rather than seeing successful middle-class professionals in their neighborhood, are to some extent denied that kind of example. So, then, what example should they follow? They tend to follow people who may not provide them the right example, who may not exert the right kinds of influences. And we’ve lost something as a result. Those of us who have been successful and have escaped have got to go back.
    There are reasons why those of us who are in the black community and who have made it have such a great responsibility. Our youngsters need us more perhaps, for one thing. And our youngsters are still living in a society that is really only one generation removed from racism, discrimination, segregation, and economic deprivation, and we’re still suffering from that. It’s different in that regard from the way our white counterparts may view their responsibility to youngsters in, say, a poor white community.
    We’re also living, to some extent, in a society that still sees people by color, much as we would like it to be otherwise. A few of us have been able to rise above that, to be frank. But there are a lot of youngsters walking down the street who get met with, watch out, there’s a black kid. There’s still that kind of discrimination in our society. Some people would call it racism. There is racism, but I don’t call it a kind of discrimination racism; it’s just there’s a difference there that is part of our legacy, part of our history, that has not yet been overcome. And those of us who have been successful have an obligation to reach back to these youngsters and help them, more so than I think our white brothers. But I tell my white colleagues, you’ve got to reach down to the black community too. You’ve got to reach down to any community in need.
    I also tell black youngsters, get a white mentor. If there isn’t a brother, we’ll get you connected up with a white mentor. I had lots of white mentors. Most of my mentors that made me successful in the army were white, and nothing wrong with it. We have to not limit ourselves because of our race or color, and we shouldn’t limit ourselves with respect to where we go and get help from. More and more people in the white community are anxious to help those who are less fortunate, and especially those less fortunate in the black community.
    I believe the most important thing that I can do, in relation to the black community and in relationship to myself, is to do the job. I have never been driven by ambition. I’m not unambitious—I wouldn’t have gotten where I did if I was unambitious—but I’m not driven by that ambition. I’m driven by my desire to do the job. I’ve always tried to do a good job everywhere I’ve been. And it’s been recognized and that’s why I was successful. I try to do the best job I can for people I work for and for the American people, and I try to be a good family guy, as best I can. I try to keep a lot of friends on my side.
    The gulf between the two black communities—the middle class and those who have been left behind—need not be permanent, but it’s going to take a lot of work to change it.