Orange County Voices : COMMENTARY ON RACIAL EQUALITY : Blacks Need to Ensure They Partake in Shared Power, Privilege : O.C.’s African American community must redefine, reshape, reform and restructure the purpose and goal of progress.

In 1967, Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, in their book titled “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America,” defined racism as being “ . . . the predication of decisions and policies on consideration of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group.” With this factor as a foundation for liberation within the black community, there is the productivity of progress predicated upon the dogma of victimization.

The demographics of Orange County inform us that the African American community is approximately 2% of the total Orange County population, and because of the strategic uniqueness of the multiethnic character of Orange County, the dynamics of social-racial integration will perhaps indicate just how good race relations are between blacks and whites.

It is a notable feature of our community that blacks are very well integrated into the social dynamics of our community. However, the character of socialization in Orange County has presented black leadership with obvious problems and difficulties.

A monolithic view of racial equity stipulates that the design of social integration is designed after the 1960s model, wherein in one specific view of integration is that of African Americans being mainstreamed into the cultural whole of society.

However, even with the sociological gains of the 1960s and ‘70s, the black community within Orange County still struggles with the issues of identity, and political and socioeconomic success within the multiethnic and cultural context of the community.

It is still an acknowledged fact that African Americans are yet denied avenues of certain areas of politics in our communities at large. The question still remains as to whether or not it is because of the dynamics of racism in Orange County, or the lack of preparation of blacks to participate in these social avenues of power.

It has been demonstrated beyond any doubt that the African American community in Orange County is academically and sociologically prepared to participate in the growth and development of our community. The real issue is whether or not the non-black ethnic groups are willing to allow this participation to occur.

What must be remembered regarding integration is that social integration of African Americans was not only meant to be a matter of social privilege, but that also African Americans would be allowed to partake in the mediums of shared power alongside of shared privilege. One of the major concerns in Orange County in some African American circles is whether or not those blacks that are given some of the positions of power and responsibility are victims of neo-tokenism in order to assuage the social pain of “some,” while distributing some elements of the power to the “few.”

African Americans in Orange County, on the whole, have many of the same hopes, dreams and aspirations as other ethnic groups within the community. However, with this being said, the African American community still waits with anticipation on being able to elect one of their own to the Board of Supervisors, or to a City Council, or to represent the interests of the entire community in Congress or in our state Legislature.

These and many other issues are complex. In a neo-liberation-oriented era, wherein the desire for rights, freedoms and privileges is seen in every aspect of American socialization, there is a need within the black community in Orange County to redefine, reshape, reform and restructure the purpose and goal of black progress.

In our community, black progress can no longer allow racial pain and angry urban plight to speak for the quest of liberation and its ultimate goals. The anger of the ghetto is caused not only by an anger toward the oppression of the past but also the anger and bitterness that exist within middle-class blacks in Orange County, because they are denied participation in every area of social mobility within our community.

To overcome this, the black community must consider developing networking family coalitions that can impact the political arena of every community where they live. They must come together and seek innovative measures as to how they will elect themselves to unified school boards and city councils and become county supervisors.

Finally, the other ethnic groups must begin to apply the principle of honorable ethics.

All blacks are not liberal Democrats, and not all blacks are socially, politically and economically monolithic.

In other words, the community at large must become socially educated to the academically and economically viable African American community in Orange County, which desires also to express its own high privilege.