Essay On Negroland

Negroland, written by Margo Jefferson, is a memoir about her life, as wells as others in 1947 Chicago. In the book, Negroland residents acquire “provisional privilege” and aim to live their life’s away from the shadows of their poorer, darker counterpart. What particularly stood out to me the most about Negroland was their black skin, but despite the racially charged era, Negroland members utilized the freedom of opportunities allowed that other African Americans were not afforded. Nevertheless, the privilege they acquired were restricted every time they grabbed those opportunities, and further detained black elites from supporting their middle to lower class African Americans. Jefferson writes, “Privilege is provisional…. Our people have
had to work, scrape for privilege, gobble it down when those who would snatch it away were not looking” (pg. 56) Jefferson says this to show that even though Negroland residents far advanced the stereotypes white people placed on them; the privilege that came with the quality of their character, gets consistently snatched away from them. Jefferson inputs many examples from her youth. From her white neighbors instructing their daughter not to play with them, her sister told she would never succeed in ballet because of her skin color, and the fight for women’s rights only fighting for white women’s rights. Consequently, Jefferson soon realizes later in life that “the entitlements of Negroland were no longer relevant…. We'd let ourselves become tools of oppression in the black community” (pg. 226). The elite black class regularly struggled with being black or being their own “third Race.” A third race which consists of having black skin, but no traits of a black person. In today’s modern world, I find that the elite black wants nothing to do with their black community. W.E.B Dubois formulated the theory of the Talented Tenth. It suggests the top tenth percent of the African American population who rose to success, will then lead the entire race into prosperity and racial equality. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Nowadays, rich black folk keep to themselves, only associating with themselves or other rich people, relaxing their hair, getting their nose redone, and having zero black friends. For example, I went to the National Cathedral School for girls., the second-choice school for Malia Obama. During my time, I was one of two dark skinned girls. The other girl, named Maya, was the daughter of a Big Ten basketball coach. Looking back now, Maya accepted no black friends, always relaxed her hair, and looked down on other black girls who wore their natural hair. I’m not saying her actions made her bad black person, but she didn’t motivate the other African American and biracial students at our elite institution. All my life, she gave the impression of a strange black person, but now I comprehend her affluence put her in a different class of black people I didn’t even know about.
As Jefferson expressed, there has always been an elite black class. So, why hasn’t the African American community improved? Why are we still having racial inequality issues? The reason behind our lack of success stems from the talented tenth never showing any initiative to help other black people They didn’t want to help black people then in 1947 and they don’t want to help other black people now. For the elite class to hold on to the little privilege they possess, they refuse to identify with most African Americans. They must work harder for what they own, and to rise the ladder of success in this Eurocentric world, they must strip away their blackness to gain acceptance. Why do young girls relax their hair? why are light skins preferred over darker skins? The elevation of classes remains so important, and to keep that importance, black elites commit maintaining their status by not affiliating themselves with blackness. Jefferson wrote a magnificent piece of literature that highlights rich black people, her life show that as an elite black person, life becomes an ever-ending struggle, but worth it, however we need to make it better for every black person in America so that theirs can be worth it as
well.