The Remarkably Unpopular Tale Of Black Progress

In search of Afro-optimism.

1998, Nagano, Japan. Surya Bonaly becomes the first (and still the only) figure skater to land a one-legged backflip at the Olympics.

The commentators hailed the feat as “truly amazing,” the crowd erupted with delight, yet the judges only awarded her tenth place.

A clip of Bonaly’s performance went viral on social media recently, and the verdict was unanimous:

“She would be a gold medal winner today. Judges were racist/discriminated her on some level,” claimed one viewer. “We all know why she was penalized, but they will use safety as a pretext. Sad, just sad,” lamented another. “Black Girl Magic. They’ll do ANYTHING to dim our light…,” warned a third.

And most damning of all:

“She’s a black woman, what more do we need to hear?"

The thing is, Bonaly wasn’t penalised because she’s black. She was penalised because the move was illegal. It was made illegal in 1976, 22 years before Surya landed it, after a two-legged version, performed by a white man, was deemed too dangerous.

But after arriving at the Olympics nursing a ruptured Achilles tendon, and realising she was out of medal contention, Bonaly decided to perform the backflip anyway, fully aware that it was illegal, just because she “wanted to do something the crowd would like.”

It’s arguably the most badass moment in figure skating history.

But, 25 years of racial progress later, Bonaly’s story isn’t badass, it’s “sad.” Her light didn’t shine, it was “dimmed.” She isn’t the owner of her choices, just the victim of somebody else’s.

I mean, she’s a black woman. What more do we need to hear?

In 2018, Orlando Patterson, author of Slavery and Social Death, spoke about this blight on the psyche of black America:

We’re going through a period of extreme despair about the situation of African-Americans. The most extreme form of this despair is a movement called Afro-pessimism, which holds that Black Americans are still viewed as they were viewed in the slavery days as different, inferior, and as outsiders.

After 89 years of slavery, 100 years of segregation, and 57 years of resistance to correcting these wrongs, a degree of cynicism is unavoidable.

But something else is happening too.

Whether it’s from the media, from music and movies, or occasionally, from each other, black people face a relentless campaign to convince them that racism is the cause of every moment of adversity or rudeness or disappointment. That anybody who doesn’t mindlessly cast black people as victims is, counterintuitively enough, a white supremacist. That when black people thrive, their success should be downplayed, not celebrated.

As the Brookings Institution put it, “progress is the largely suppressed story of race and race relations over the past half-century.”

Because despite what you may have heard, black people aren’t entirely hopeless.

During a recent appearance on The View, Senator Tim Scott pointed out that in 1965, the unemployment rate for African Americans was about 15%. Today, for the first time in American history, it’s below 5%. He notes that 45 years after the appearance of the first black news anchor, every major network (even Fox News!) has African American and Hispanic hosts. He recalls that when his mother was born, only 10% of African Americans got high school diplomas. Today, it’s over 90%.

Elsewhere, Coleman Hughes points out that in the past twenty years, the incarceration rate for black men aged 20–29 has fallen by just under 60%. And for 18–19-year-old black men, it’s fallen by 72%.

Over the same period, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to black students is up 82%, the number of master’s and associate’s degrees has more than doubled, and over 60% of black adults, at all levels of education, report more financial success than their parents. That’s a higher percentage than both white and Hispanic adults.

In 1940, 60% of black women worked as domestic servants. Today, that same percentage hold white-collar jobs, out-earning white women from similar economic backgrounds. In 1958, 96% of Americans opposed interracial marriage. Today, that figure is 6%. The same year, 44% of white people said they’d move if a black family moved in next door. Today, it’s 1%. On and on.

Some people will read these facts and feel as if they’re under attack. They’ll rack their brains for evidence of black struggles or handwave these examples of progress away as trivial. They’ll react as if allowing even a moment of positivity is a betrayal.

But we can acknowledge all the above progress without pretending that racism no longer exists.

The problem is, we limit progress if we convince ourselves that racism is the sole cause of our struggles. If we’re so mired in negativity that we lose confidence in ourselves. If, like Whoopi Goldberg, we’re determined to pretend that “black people are still where we were under the Emancipation Proclamation.”

I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there were many black, female, multi-millionaire EGOT winners in 1865.

Afro-pessimism is yet another obstacle that black people have to overcome. Another belief system that teaches us that we’re “less than.” Another weapon aimed exclusively at people who look like us. Only this time, frustratingly enough, some people seem eager to point it at themselves.

And the more we repeat this doctrine of self-defeat, the more comfortable we become with treating blackness and victimhood as synonyms, the more we insist that the world is forever against us, the more black people, especially young black people, will believe it.

But the truth is, despite centuries of obstacles, black people have overcome. Despite chains around our ankles and knees on our necks, black people have risen to the highest offices in America. Despite giving themselves a 400-year head-start, the racists are losing.

If you’re looking for cause for Afro-optimism, what more do you need to hear?

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