BlackEconomics.org®
Our great and late historian, Prof. John Henrick Clarke, reminded us of an important reason why native-born Black Americans (Afrodescendants) are often outperformed in certain socioeconomic categories by immigrant African People from the Continent, the Caribbean, other parts of the Americas, and elsewhere. His reasoning was that these African immigrants are former citizens of countries that they control de jure. Accordingly, they and their fellow citizens have access to the full spectrum of positions and opportunities in which to operate in their nations—irrespective of whether other (external) forces actually determine outcomes.
Opportunities to operate in these positions enable immigrants to study and train to obtain knowledge, skills, expertise, and confidence to perform at national and international levels in a widespread fashion that often exceeds the Black American experience. Because Black Americans are not privileged to enjoy wide ranging and prevalent access to such positions and opportunities, we may not be fully prepared to perform with the same level of proficiency and confidence as U.S. immigrants of African descent. Fortunately, there are exceptions from time-to-time.
Therefore, as a potential concept or principle for further study we posit that: For a national (“disadvantaged”) subaltern group to be expected to engage in an effective People developmental process, a plan for such development should ensure that the group be extended a high-level of self-determination, independence, and be permitted to function across the full range of positions and opportunities that are confronted by governments that manage national and international operations with all of the attendant challenges.
It is through such a developmental process that Black Americans (Afrodescendants) can gain the knowledge, skills, expertise, and confidence required to operate (Prof. Clarke liked to use the word “run”) a separate and independent territory or nation. Anything shy of a full and separate developmental process for such a national subaltern group will produce less than optimal results when the group has an opportunity to move from their dress rehearsal to live operations as a self-determined and independent People—as a subgroup, a separate group, nation, or nation state.