COMMENTARY: What being a progressive means to Black people

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What does it mean when a political candidate touts being progressive?

Is it a statement donating a certain type of white wokeness? There are varied levels to being woke, a point made by the rapid succession of Karens pointing fingers while screaming at Black men and women while advocating to end global warming.

In Durham, NC, being woke is a prerequisite if you want to succeed at anything beyond purchasing a home in a newly gentrified neighborhood.

Woke and progressive go hand in hand like Bonnie needs Clyde and peanut butter isn’t the same without jelly. All the above fit. Saying you’re progressive in Durham is a redundant statement that only brings attention to the bean counters who use labels to discredit the competition.

I have a secret. Black people only claim being progressive if they’re attempting to convince certain white people they’re different, wait for it, than “those” Black people.

Gasp.

Be mindful of any Black politician who uses being progressive as a point of separation. It’s not being used to appeal to Black voters. It’s used to affirm solidarity with a certain brand of white wokeness.

This is a truth with historical footing. Naming and controlling the agenda of Black people has been on the table since Black people migrated North in search of new opportunities. They absconded the witness of lynch mobs for the promise of places like Harlem, where being Black meant walking with your head held high and not moving to the other side of the street when white folks approach.

They were met with a mixed bag of clarifications related to what it means to embrace a new version of Black identity. There was the respectability politics of W.E.B. Du Bois imparted on the editorial page of The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). There was the socialism and union organizing of A. Philip Randolph, pitched on the pages of The Messenger. Randolph was part of “The New Crowd Negro” movement that challenged Du Bois and Booker T. Washington’s embrace of capitalism. Finally, they met Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

While Garvey built an army of supporters prepared to return to Africa, Washington and Randolph helped the government force Garvey’s deportation. In other words, same song, different dance. Black people, historically, have endured suppression from both Black and white people.

Well intentioned white people have intruded into Black folks’ business since the 1840’s when white abolitionist focused on slavery, while Black people coupled anti-slavery activities with demands for racial equality and justice. Being progressive white woke meant something entirely different when viewed from the lens of people walking and talking while being Black all day, every day, for the rest of their lives.

Progressive white wokeness has historically come with high levels of paternalism. They mean well, but the agendas of Black people are often compromised to soothe goals of objectives rooted in an analysis of what “those” poor Black people need. For Du Bois, his agenda was outlined by a philosophy defining success by the ability to attune to white normality. For Randolph, at times, it meant making race secondary to union involvement. For Garvey, it meant making the Black agenda more important than anything white people had to say.

One more time. None of this is new. That part about varied opinions regarding policies impacting the Black community. That other part about white people attempting to define and control what should matter with Black people. If that’s true, progressive is a way of redefining the terms of Black resistance.

The Black people I know have other ways to describe left leaning activism. They talk about forming a Black agenda, Black economic development, Black pride, and Black nationalism. They discuss the vision and purpose of the ancestors, Black culture, and solidarity. Progressive doesn’t fit when the focus is on strengthening a community of kinfolk who hang out on the corner and play spades at family gatherings.

Maybe that’s why I cringe when I hear a Black person press their interpretation of a progressive agenda. It’s hard not thinking it’s a statement meant for the white people who are listening. Another reminder that words matter when they’re often used to define and manipulate work among Black people.

I don’t talk about being a progressive. I’m a Black nationalist with a desire to hear and learn from my brothers and sisters of the African diaspora.

Yeah, that sounds different.