As I sit here this morning watching the CNN of Michael Jackson I am swelling with pride in the accomplishments of “mah people.” These folks directed themselves towards excellence and were able to demonstrate that excellence on the world stage

–Michael Jordan (did it with a frown)

–Magic Johnson (did it with a smile)

–Colin Powell (did it with a uniform)

–Oprah Winfrey (did it with information)

–Michael Jackson (i’m not really sure how he did it)

–Barrack Obama (i’m not really sure how he did it)

These people of course (and others) achieved something that I will call “universal mainstream acceptance.” These great individual achievements of course did not occur in a vacuum, they were achieved on the back of those who came before them.

For example, Obama’s candidacy could not have happened, had it not been for Jessie Jackson’s candidacy 25 years earlier. Colin Powell’s success in the military and in government could not have happened had it not been for the careers of men like Gen. Benjamin O. Davis & Ralph Bunche. Magic Johnson & Michael Jordan’s “universal mainstream acceptance” wouldn’t have happened without the careers of Julius Erving, Earl Monroe & others.

My point is that these achievements happened because of the blood, sweat & tears of other people that created opportunity for talented/hard working people to use as a springboard for their own unique success.

I was discussing this concept with someone here yesterday and he reminded me that although this is quite true of Black American’s who are in the public eye, it’s also quite true of Black American achievement in general over the last 20 years.

The one thing that all of these success stories have in common is that these achievements all come from individuals who are born of something that I will refer to as “the civil rights generation.” That is people who were brought up in a manner and thus have a mentality that suggests that they have a role to play in the overall struggle. That somehow their success can quite literally be traced back to other people who sacrificed in order for them to have a chance to achieve excellence. These people are driven towards excellence and when you tell them that what they want to do can’t be done, they then proceed to accomplish the impossible.

I too am a member of this “the civil rights generation” and as a kid growing up in Brooklyn, the achievements and sacrifice of “local heroes” people like Jackie Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Elston Howard, Adam Clayton Powell, Spider Lockhart, Constance Baker Motley, Lew Alcindor, Bob Teauge, Willie Mays, Lena Horne, Gil Noble and others were certainly “rammed down my throat.”

In addition to those local folks, there were many others that my family made sure that I met and whose “secrets for success”, I internalized. Successful Black Americans who were teachers, artists, doctors, engineers, policeman, and more. These are people whose names would be unknown to the general pubic, but who all sought and achieved “excellence” within the scope that they were permitted to do so.

All of these people (famous and not famous) had an influence on me and my behavior as I moved forward in the world and tried to establish my own mark within it.

On a day like today I am reminded of that and I remember those people and their struggle.

But I am also reminded of just how much things seem to have changed.

It seems to me that over the past 10-15 years, we have moved from “the civil rights generation” and the pursuit of excellence to an era where we are in the “pursuit of mediocrity.”

And it seems that we are perfectly content to “pursue mediocrity” with a vengeance. In fact we aren’t just content with “mediocrity”, but we are overjoyed when we achieve “mediocrity.” It makes me sick when I start to dwell on it for more than a few moments, just how far we have fallen. Some folks love to dwell on the “self-mutilation” that Michael Jackson did to himself. I think that the “self-mutilation” that Black Americans have done to themselves over the past 10-15 years is far worse than anything that Michael Jackson did to himself.

In the work of Michael Jackson we saw the attempt and very often the achievement of excellence. That was a part of his make up, even when he was a little boy, it was there for everyone to see and of course we could all see it. And we can certainly see it in the work of others from his generation, both famous and not famous.

It’s clear to me that we went wrong someplace. It’s even more clear just when and how we went wrong.

“We have met the enemy and it’s us…”
–Pogo