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'First Black' Syndrome
Sag Harbor
November 22, 1998

Dear Editor,

From time to time one hears or reads a statement by black or white Americans lauding an achieving African American and adding, for unexplained and questionable reasons, that he (she) is (was) the son, grandson, great-grandson (or daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter) of a slave (slave being accented as though it indicated an internal characteristic rather than an external condition) . . . the first of his (her) race to hold or be appointed to a certain position . . . the first in his (her) family to attend high school, college, etc.

These "first black"-syndrome references, as they may be characterized, betray a medley of reasons and emotions. First is the emotion of astonishment: that a black person could even have attempted, not to talk of achieved, whatever it was, considering their racial, social, and family background and since, for these reasons, they had been deemed incapable of such achievement (being less than human).

This then leads to the further question: Whatever could have happened? (Whence the speculation: Are the barriers falling down?)

Second is the prideful implication of "a black" having been able to overcome all the racial, social, and family obstacles and handicaps confronting that group (the "overcoming black" in spite of all the odds), who refuses to accept victimization and victimhood. (The glib implication: Of course, these obstacles will be put in your way, but you don't have to accept them.)

Third is the implication (by fellow blacks) that this was a "superior" black compared to others of the same group (or race) - no allowance being made for chance factors, such as "being in the right place at the right time."

Fourth is the implication that, somehow owing to the favorable action or environment provided by the white world, a black person had been able to profit thereby and "make it." (The credit-taking "kindness of whites," or "blacks have come a long way, baby," and should be grateful and content rather than, like Oliver Twist, asking for more": that is, the "Thernstrom reaction." Which tends to leave the impression with some African Americans that it is better to "take" than to "ask," if they mean to get anywhere at all.)

Not surprisingly, no white ethnic group, or the white majority, in America is ever considered to have "had enough" of anything. One wonders what the Thernstroms, authors of "Black and White in America," and vigorous opponents of "affirmative action," have to say on this aspect of the matter.

Why, one may ask, are similar "first white"-syndrome references never - or hardly ever - made in parallel circumstances?

Superfluous as the answer may seem, it all boils down to this: Whites are assumed always capable - and entitled - to hold any, hence all, positions; and blacks, being mostly descendants of slaves and servants, are entitled to none. Suffice it, however, that the vast majority - if not all - of whites in early America were either "slaves" or "indentured servants," the latter category, ironically, being assumed to be superior to that of "slave."

These all, however, were either "liberated" serfs or descendants of serfs from Europe, "serf" being a euphemism or synonym for "slave," the conditions of servitude being the same: bound to the land. Contemporary Europeans and their overseas cousins are, thus, descendants of serfs.

(The "liberation" - rather, expulsion - of European serfs from the land was a consequence of the agropastoral enclosure movement dating to the 12th century, accelerating in the 14th with the Flemish wool trade, peaking in the 17th century, to be finally completed by the industrial revolution in the 18th century.

This resulted in a more efficient agropastoral production using less labor relatively to capital and land. The parallel in America was the expulsion of African slaves from the land after their emancipation in the 19th century.

The expelled serfs and their descendants emigrated to America to find new opportunities and build new lives, becoming owners, overseers, slaves, and indentured servants of plantations. By contrast, the majority of emancipated African slaves did not emigrate, for various reasons, but chiefly because there were no "vacant" lands abroad which they could appropriate by force.)

Yet, no one ever refers to white Americans as descendants (grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, etc.) of European serfs and American slaves and indentured servants - a fact of their ancestry conveniently forgotten.

But African Americans are forever being reminded of their past enslavement - even though in Africa, their continent of origin, there was, unlike in Europe, no indigenous tradition of serfdom or plantation slavery. And, as to indentured servants, hardly anyone ever ponders the fact that a "slave" (black or white) deprived of personal liberty against his (her) will and resistance is on a higher moral plane than an "indentured servant" who voluntarily barters his (her) personal liberty for material consideration. And for the same reason that emancipated African Americans re-entered servitude: lack of free land or other resources to buy it.

Furthermore, while whites are supposed to have only the earth and the sky as their limit in everything, blacks are often regarded by them as having had enough (if not more than enough) of whatever it is they happened to have - or not have ("plenty o' nothing").

Indeed, they have come a long way from "first of his (her) race" to "enough is enough." The implication here is that there is a limited pool of national goodies and since - as the Thernstroms assume - African Americans have had enough of them, any further gains made by them must be at the expense of white Americans.

(The early captains of industry similarly, erroneously, assumed a limited fund of wages in arguing against raising the wages of workers. Many of their present-day successors still argue that wage increases come at the expense of profits - as though the national pie does not grow, and even though profits are supposed to be not contractual but residual income of no fixed amount. There is the further implication that African Americans, as a group, have a limit, ceiling, or share of the national income that they should not breach.)

Now, all this would be true, or have the ring and appearance of truth, only if African Americans (as well as other groups) now share in the national output of income, jobs, housing, education, public service, legislature, judiciary, etc., in the same percentage or proportion that they constitute in the national population (assumed to be around 12 percent). There should then be no cause for complaint - ever, on their part or that of any other group.

This simple concept of proportionality as the test and proof of equality of access and fairness should not be hard to comprehend, most of all by academics such as the Thernstroms, unless they reject these concepts in favor of what they subjectively consider to be "enough." In which case they hardly deserve to be taken seriously rather than as the latest academic bigots to come down the pike, after Hernstein and Murray of "Bell Curve" notoriety.

Yours sincerely,

DAVID CARNEY

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Not A Taste Sensation
East Hampton
November 21, 1998

Madam,

In her review of the Water Mill restaurant Palomas (The Star, Nov. 19), Sheridan Sansegundo's reference to "a velvety flavor" got my attention.

Never having eaten velvet, I couldn't wait to experience whatever taste sensation the fabric might yield when it "blends with a variety of spices to produce a completely new flavor."

Unfortunately, however, Palomas wasn't open early on a Saturday morning, when I finished Ms. Sansegundo's review, and I had to resort to potluck at home in an attempt to replicate her palatal epiphany.

A quick check of pantry and fridge turned up no velvet, but a foray into the clothes closet produced a small helping, in the form of a dark brown garment belonging to my wife.

I tasted it, but detected no difference from the terrycloth robe I'd just had for breakfast, the nylon pantyhose occasionally offered as an amuse gueule at Jeneen's, or the fondly remembered broadloom carpet served so elegantly some years ago at Le Cirque.

Sincerely,

JAY JACOBS

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Visiting Mergansers
Springs
November 27, 1998

To The Editor,

I have just spotted a pair of birds, ducks, that is, in front of my Clearwater bayfront house, that I have not observed before. They have slender, pointy bills, with a crested head. They have red-brown heads, and patchy-colored feathers, with a lot of brown, black, and white. I have concluded that they are red-breasted mergansers, which my "Golden Birds of North America" says are "common, especially along seacoasts in winter." Well, I've never seen them here before, but they've made this an uncommonly good Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,

SARAH NIR

P.S. I'll take them over turkey any day!