How should black youth react to the many obstacles they will experience? What paths should they take to give themselves the best chances of moving into the middle class, obtaining stable employment and healthy personal relationships? Individual strategies can be improved by learning from the immigrant experience.
Often immigrant success stories focus on the central role of education in the success of immigrants, particularly those from China, India, and Nigeria. These examples demonstrate two important things: educational attainment is an important avenue to success; and their successes are inconsistent with the white supremacy narrative. Yes, there is racism and bigotry — and it is experienced more by native-born black Americans — but merit still counts.
It would be a mistake, however, to see immigrant successes only through the lives of successful Chinese, Indian, and Nigerian professionals. Many members of these communities have also been successful through their entrepreneurial efforts. Small-businesses ownership provides the ability to support their families and give a foundation for their children’s success. Just as important, the success of less-educated immigrants often reflects individual motivation; their work ethic and willingness to move to where they can better themselves and their families, aided by communal organizations and family networks.
These traits help explain the Somali experience. With few skills and English-language deficiencies, they started out doing manual labor. A significant share gravitated to meat processing plants. After working at these painstaking jobs, many found Minneapolis a hospitable city and migrated there. With the aid of communal organizations and familial ties, a fair share was able to open small businesses while others found stable employment. Indeed, one of the tragedies of the aftermath of George Floyd’s death was the destruction of several Somali businesses.
A recent study further illuminates the lessons to be learned from the African immigrant experience. It sought to understand why African immigrants have higher earnings than native-born black Americans. Immigrants are not representative of the inhabitants of their home country. Those who emigrate, on average, are more motivated, reflected in their risk-taking, endurance, and willingness to work. The study found that black Americans who by adulthood have moved out of the state of their birth did better than black Americans who did not move, and just as well as African immigrants.
For black youth, the lessons are manifold. Of course, youth should do their best at school since it provides an important pathway to the middle class. However, the immigrant experience suggests that steady employment can be a building block for success. Thus, teenage part-time employment, even during the school year, may provide not only necessary finances but also the discipline, behaviors, and personal networks that will be useful in future endeavors.
Kathleen Newman opens her important book, No Shame in My Game with this narrative:
On the way to her Burger Barn job, Kyesha stumbles over drug addicts. She sees young men lingering together on the corner, cell phones in hand, waiting for instructions from the more powerful dealers who control the trade. … The difference between Kyesha and her less successful friends can be credited to Burger Barn, citadel of the low-paid hamburger flipper, and the salvation for a poor girl from Harlem’s housing projects. … It has become the center of her social universe, the place she spends nearly all of her time, the source of all her closest friends and romantic attachments.
Describing the welfare leavers he interviewed, journalist David Shipler noted,
Contact with new, more successful people has been a bonus of going to work, say many who have moved off welfare and out of the stifling circle of indigence. Encounters with achieving colleagues provided a healthy social environment.
For Shipler’s Peaches, work provided a healthy social environment where “I can enjoy myself and be a real person, and have something to talk about besides who screwed who, who shot who, so and so’s dead.”
Many of the initial entry-level positions may be menial activities but we should always take pride in our work. Fifteen years ago, welfare leavers I interviewed spoke positively of their achievements in these jobs. MiShonda completed a work readiness program in Chicago and was hired by Avon to package their beauty products. Her face brightened when she told me about the pleasure her job had brought her:
Okay, while I am only working at Avon, I am making products people like to use. I’m helping them be beautiful, feel comfortable, and making them smell good. And I’ve done it. Gives you something to look forward to. You’re doing your part to make someone else happy.
At about the same time, my son was doing trade union organizing at the Baptist Hospital in Beaumont, Texas. Texas is a right-to-work state so even though workers can vote to be represented by a union, no one is required to pay union dues. Josh was assigned to increase the share of workers who paid union dues.
At the time, the union was negotiating for these low-paid janitorial workers. While they certainly desired a wage increase, what surprised Josh was how upset they were at the lack of cleaning supplies available. These workers felt it was important to keep the rooms and other facilities as clean as possible for the sake of the patients.
When paid employment is not available, youth should volunteer in non-profit or religious organizations. Even though many of the chores you will be assigned will be menial, they, like the efforts of the Baptist Hospital workers, will be rewarding by giving value to others. Being connected to communal organizations also provides contacts and advice that can be crucial for personal advancement.
Unfortunately, the social justice movement condemns this belief. The KIPP Foundation — a national network of 255 charter schools — dropped its signature slogan, “Work Hard. Be Nice.” It gave three reasons: (1) it won’t dismantle systemic racism; (2) it suggests being compliant and submissive; and (3) it supports the illusion of meritocracy. In the words of Orpheus Williams who leads the Foundation’s equity programming:
The slogan passively supports ongoing efforts to pacify and control Black and Brown bodies in order to better condition them to be compliant and further reproduce current social norms that center whiteness and meritocracy as normal.
Political actions are necessary to weaken, if not eliminating the roadblocks that black American encounter. However, these roadblocks should not impede personal efforts to succeed. We should learn from immigrant efforts, as well as those of the welfare leavers and Baptist Hospital workers cited. Gaining a positive attitude towards work, building an organizational network, and being willing to take some risks are crucial. The path may be bumpy with many obstacles but perseverance with the proper behaviors provides the best chance to reap rewards.
Robert Cherry is professor emeritus at Brooklyn College and is author of Jewish and Christian Views on Bodily Pleasure (Wipf & Stock, 2018).