Opinion
Better to be 1st Among the Gauls Than 2nd Among the Romans
By Ryan Elcock
Between 58 to 51 BC, as he was successfully bringing the Gauls under the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar is said to have remarked to a traveling companion that it was, indeed, ‘better to be first among the Gauls than second among the Romans.’ Just as there are interpretations galore to the Roman Emperor’s quixotic statement, the dictum may have been about the ego; that unquenchable penchant for breaking new ground, where one never sells their soul for praise – the sojourn toward outlier and exemplar status. Caesar himself would have much preferred to be a Gallic leader in the deplorable poverty he witnessed than deputize the Emperor in the heart of Rome’s splendor.
Taking this into account, I have to ask: Why do we, as a people, feel the need for validation? I pose this question because despite being on a rising trajectory, many Africans and Caribbean people in their own countries and even those in the Diaspora feel the need to alter their attitudes from their own proud ways to the ‘house slave’ mentality just so they can benefit from the success of the first world than actually work towards fostering home grown success!
If you think me simply vituperative, I have examples galore: For starters, the Black Community in America has been up in arms about the slight from the mainstream media. Blacks complain that the media and ad agencies do not target them or seem to want their purchasing power. This article speaks to the evil that advertisers can do to the black zeitgeist.
Although they are projected to transmogrify into a US$1.1 trillion market by 2015, Blacks apparently do not see the opportunity in using their purchasing power to empower black media outlets and black ad agencies that make their issues and needs a top priority. Instead, they bellyache about the little love shown them by mainstream media outlets. Basically, Blacks await validation from those who neither share their issues nor experience.
It is simply mindboggling how we, as a black race, continue to throw our hard earned dollars at institutions in the hope that they’ll welcome us like the prodigal son all these years of the ignored minority dollar later!
After the Civil Rights Era and Jim Crow before it, we are still the lackadaisical minority! Even the Latinos and Asians have, superficially, eked out their own paths from almost nothing. Unlike these other minorities, Blacks still waste their effective demand like suckers who cannot make decisions on where to throw their dollars? Surely, if Caesar could prefer to be a black leader than a white deputy, then we can choose to emulate the overall philosophy of breaking our own ground!
Alas, we are, perhaps, still colonized in both mind and spirit. Despite the great things he has done with his newfangled group of companies, we celebrated when Bob Johnson became America’s first billionaire. But do you know how he reached this shady zenith? The man sold his media company Black Entertainment Television – BET – to Viacom. And yes, like a capitalist, the man took his payout and has grown richer. However, do you know what we lost? We lost a medium, which, in itself, is invaluable and irreplaceable! That Black company was valued in the billions and bought out by the mainstream! But where the heck is BET now?
Again, I do not mean to whistle past this graveyard but this channel perpetuates a certain black caricature and stereotype and everything that is not integral to the decency of being black. Instead of being the promoter of all those things central to us, BET is into playing second fiddle and also the classic blackface – pun intended – to an audience in need of the ephemeral fix! All the while, the new owners sitting up in Viacom reap the profits off a channel that caters to a Black populace.
In essence, hyperbolic as this may sound, this is the new way to mentally enslave rather than empower people of color. How soon we forget that BET gave many a currently successful black artiste their 15 minutes of fame when MTV shut the doors on them!
Additionally, a look at how many formerly venerable Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) in the United States; and once prestigious universities in Africa and the Caribbean are ghosts of their former glory is a foray into an infuriating sellout! Rather than continue to innovate and ensure that they effectively competed for students like the mainstream universities, many of former august institutions – save for the big Morehouse, Hampton University, Spelman College and Howard – have been reduced to deputies and wards of either the federal or state government – dependent on the people’s teat for financial handouts!
These former giants of Black Ivory Towers have fallen on hard times simply due to financial mismanagement and poor leadership. They were managed by an old guard who held on too long to the fight for equality and affirmative action – choosing to solicit government protection instead of aggressively innovating to solidify their unique position as the bulwarks of Black America. And thus, they may not get a share of the US$1.1 trillion market potential.
Furthermore, while the HBCUs were uniquely positioned to take advantage of the collaborative opportunities that had arisen in both Africa and the Caribbean Universities, mainstream universities took their place and now, someone else is creating new opportunities for Black entrepreneurship, agriculture, innovation and technology. And that someone is not any of these institutions that were happier to receive a so-called ‘whopping’ US$228 million injection from the US government. How whopping can this kitty be to all 97 of those beneficiaries? As if to show their misery, the athletics departments in most of these former producers of the world’s sports elite have been reduced to having their football teams [if they have one] shucking and jiving and acting as tackling dummies for Major Division 1 football programs in order to raise cash for their cash strapped athletic programs.
Caesar would, if he could, turn in his grave!
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. African entrepreneurs and philanthropists like Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote and Sudan’s Mo Ibrahim are using their unique position of being in the rising African market to go global and export Africa to the world. They are the ones leading the way for both Black America and the Caribbean.
Paradoxically, it was that unconscionable neglect by Europe and America – condescending in viewing Africa as a place for pity – that necessitated African innovation and cooperation with one another and with China.
If Black America and the Caribbean position themselves strategically, then it is safe to say that Caesar’s words were spot on: Even though the Gauls were destitute then, they eventually rose up while Rome eventually fell. And with the state of Italy and the European Union these days, being second to Rome is truly nothing to brag about.
relcock@thehabarinetwork.com