Bookmark and Share
Comment and read the comments of others on the BlackCommentator.com Blog.  http://blackcommentator.blogspot.com/
Click to go to the home page.
Click to send us your comments and suggestions.
Click to learn about the publishers of BlackCommentator.com and our mission.
Click to search for any word or phrase on our Website.
Click to sign up for an e-Mail notification only whenever we publish something new.
Click to remove your e-Mail address from our list immediately and permanently.
Click to read our pledge to never give or sell your e-Mail address to anyone.
Click to read our policy on re-prints and permissions.
Click for the demographics of the BlackCommentator.com audience and our rates.
Click to view the patrons list and learn now to become a patron and support BlackCommentator.com.
Click to see job postings or post a job.
Click for links to Websites we recommend.
Click to see every cartoon we have published.
Click to read any past issue.
Click to read any think piece we have published.
Click to read any guest commentary we have published.
Click to view any of the art forms we have published.
Road Scholar - the world leader in educational travel for adults. Top ten travel destinations for African-Americans. Fascinating history, welcoming locals, astounding sights, hidden gems, mouth-watering food or all of the above - our list of the world’s top ten "must-see" learning destinations for African-Americans has a little something for everyone.
 
Trying to be Exclusive, but Acting like Everyone Else - From the Fringe By K. Danielle Edwards, BlackCommentator.com Columnist
 
Custom Search
 
 

In recent times, a trend seems to have emerged. I call it the second wave of the not-always-so-Talented Tenth. This is constituted by an increasingly visible and vocal contingent; they are the crop of African-Americans, generally ages 23-40, who have christened themselves “professionals.”

This isn’t necessarily professional in the conventional sense of careers – those who are doctors, attorneys, academicians, or even specialists in technology, communications or business. Instead, these professionals are anyone who has a job in an office, who may have a cubicle or their own office, whose employment in not manual or service-oriented in the ostensibly basest sense. These professionals are not washing dishes, taking fast food orders, laying bricks or trimming hedges. They work in offices, dress like they’re going to a megachurch service and take pride in their status, even if they spend their days answering calls, making copies or booking travel arrangements for their superiors.

Yes, these are the professionals. And seemingly everyone now wants to be part of this elevated caste.

And so imagine my surprise when I recently attended an event targeted to such professionals, to those with a bit of extra change left over after paying our bills – our inflated mortgages, monthly notes for cars with a certain cache and organic groceries from places like Whole Foods. The organizers, who have built their empire on such higher class black support, just knew that this faithful following would come out and pay preciously for a concert featuring underrated and railroaded artist Bilal.

Doors were set to open at 8, but no one gained entry until at least 30 minutes later. Folks were frigidly keeping their cool in temperatures that had descended into the 50s in late spring. The line weaved through a parking lot as ticket-holders looked nonplussed, engaged in conversation with their fellow professionals. Once the doors opened, the line continued to bottleneck, as organizers manually checked IDs and printed-out tickets against a paper roster, having ticket purchasers sign their name next to their previously processed online order.

So much for being professional and progressive with technology.

Once seated, most attendees waited an hour and a half until the opening act came on and performed an entirely too long set that tested the patience of the listless audience. The “poet” talked about the dearth of professional black women who can cook homemade meals complete with fried chicken, greens and hot water cornbread, among other topics, which contained our struggles in pop culture analogies, with Beyonce as a memorable, uninspired allusion. He also predictably reminded us of our past glory as African royalty. People started shuffling around, taking bathroom breaks and, in some cases, left the building.

Sigh.

The reason for the extended performance was made clear upon conclusion, when organizers announced with feigned disappointment and astonishment that the evening’s host (and presumably, in the minds of the concert-goers, co-headliner) songstress Jaguar Wright had accepted another engagement and would not be in the house. People who had paid up to $150-plus for tickets were getting two-thirds of what they expected, with a bunch of headaches and nonsense in the process, and no concessions or apologies, to boot.

Though we were told it would be 15 minutes, at least 35 minutes passed between the opening act and Bilal’s set without clear or reasonable explanation. As they waited, the professionals went to the bar for drinks, checked their Blackberries and rubbed their eyes, likely thinking about waking up the next morning for work.

Bilal put on a respectable hour-long performance, one much better than that put on by the orchestrators of this event.   

It may feel good to be a professional or to be called one. It may enhance our egos to be thought of as exceptions, as the upper crust who have weathered and risen above the undercurrent of mediocrity and negative statistics.

But oftentimes, we act like we’re exclusive when, really, we’re acting just like everyone else.

Such an event is a reminder that true professionals don’t pay for pretense. When dollars are at stake, they expect the real thing and will not compliantly scamper away into their burrows of complacency without complaint.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist K. Danielle Edwards is a Nashville-based communications expert, writer and poet whose works have been featured in The Root, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, Black Magnolias Literary Journal, Parenting Express, Mamazine, Mamaphonic, The Black World Today, Africana.com and new work will be featured in the inaugural issue of Mythium. She is the founder and editor of the forthcoming online literary journal TheWriteMother.com and has taught creative writing at the Tennessee Prison for Women. Click here to contact Ms. Edwards.

 

Any BlackCommentator.com article may be re-printed so long as it is re-printed in its entirety and full credit given to the author and www.BlackCommentator.com. If the re-print is on the Internet we additionally request a link back to the original piece on our Website.

Your comments are always welcome.

eMail re-print notice

If you send us an eMail message we may publish all or part of it, unless you tell us it is not for publication. You may also request that we withhold your name.

Thank you very much for your readership.

Your comments are always welcome.

 

May 28, 2009
Issue 326

is published every Thursday

Executive Editor:
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield
Publisher:
Peter Gamble
Est. April 5, 2002
Printer Friendly Version in resizeable plain text format or pdf format.
Frequently Asked Questions
Comment and read the comments of others on the BlackCommentator.com Blog.  http://blackcommentator.blogspot.com/
click here to buy & benefit BC
Cedille Records Sale