The Oklahoma Eagle

EDITOR’S NOTE: Speech given at the Greenwood Cultural Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 19, 2008 by James R. Ellis, Jr., Ph.D. Laboratory of Bioengineering and Physical Science, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892

This is a response to the statement on the occasion of our 50th anniversary that we, The Booker T. Washington High School of Tulsa, Class of 1958, wish to be known as “A compassionate class that gives back.”

Lucille has given an excellent statement of the occasion. I have no argument with that. What I wish to discuss is how we should be compassionate and give back.

At our last reunion, three years ago, our esteemed classmate John Long made many of the points I consider important. Although I was not privileged to hear him in person, because of a previous commitment for that day, I have watched CDs of it generously provided by Leon Wilson and Ina Adams. It is fitting that we honor the memory of his contributions to the community with scholarship - a clear way to give back. This action provides immediate funds and financial support.

For young, and some not-so-young African-Americans, giving back includes emotional support. This includes caring for many-faceted individuals and groups. It often involves aiding them in finding their identities as well. This should involve support and promises of continuing support. However, our compassion should be a form of unconditional love or caring. The support should not be. Support should be conditional. For example, compassion for someone who is addicted to drugs or violence should not lead to support for the addiction or involvement in violent behavior.

We should try to give support for values and attitudes that are positive in the world ahead. E.g., learning technical and linguistic skills is good. You do not have to forget or deny your heritage to do so. History or heritage tells where you have been. The technical skills are an important determinant of where you can go.
Let us start with our general history. We should tell the next generation(s) the stories that we know, and pass on the stories that we have heard. We have lived through some of the greatest changes that any group in history has seen. Technically, the changes have been mind-boggling.

Consider a few examples:
1) When we were born, a 500 pound bomb was big, and a machine gun was a weapon of significance. Now thousands of people can be killed by relatively small groups that are hardly visible politically. A few governments can end civilization as we know it in minutes.

2) When we were born, smallpox, tuberculosis, polio and similar plagues raged over the world. Sulfa drugs were miraculous. Now, only a few drug-resistant forms of these diseases worry us a little. We have been through the penicillin miracle and there are vaccines that are so effective that many childhood diseases hardly matter to most people.

3) For us, in high school or earlier, typing a paper was a big deal. We didn’t even think of typing ordinary homework or letters.
• Now, a savvy teen-ager can create a publication-quality document on almost any subject in a few minutes. Searching the literature on a topic took weeks or months in a library; now it takes a few minutes on a PC. So, given this range of environments, how do we give back specifically? Here are some ideas.

1) Tell the next generation(s) how much attitudes have changed in a lifetime. We started in a system where the world was perceived to be 90 percent white and good, and 10 percent black, and bad. That is what many of the things we read and heard were based on. Our parents’ and grandparents’ generation had to raise us, without letting us believe this, in an environment where challenging that thinking openly could be hazardous to their health. What a monumental task they faced!! Let those coming along know how much work has been done, even if it is not obvious now.

2) Try to give them a sense of what I call ‘viscosity’. Much or our good life requires a lot of effort, perseverance, and cooperation, even if it is not obvious to the current beneficiary or user. Everyone has to contribute; there is no free lunch. Those with bad habits, bad records, and poor education are not going to do well in the world of the immediate future even if many opportunities are supposed to be open to all regardless of background.

3) Encourage them to have a sense of both long-term and recent history. I like to consider the following pairing of events. One time when I came back to Booker T., shortly after 1958,1 mentioned, while talking to a class, that I was majoring in electrical engineering. One of the boys in the class asked a very good question: “Where do you expect to get a job like that around here?” I gave the names of a couple of companies that could use EE technical skills; but we all knew that the probability of my getting a job was small, at best. In less than two months, about 50 years later, we will have an election where there is a very strong chance that an African-American may be elected President of the United States and take office shortly after 2008. That is an incredible change.

4) Encourage them to be vigilant  Many of the advantages we now have can easily be lost. If you look back in history 500 to 800 years, the whole notion of European superiority in the world doesn’t exist.

However, wars, subjugation, and inhumanity did exist, over most of the world. On a smaller scale, we have recently seen how many of the systems of checks and balances that make our environment so individual-friendly can be compromised, or even wiped out, in the interest of large-scale security and comfort.
Finally, celebrate our accomplishments. When we were in elementary school, Negroes, spell it as you will, were widely regarded as a different species in America, especially in the South. Starting when we were in junior high school, on through our 30s, there were a lot of ‘firsts’. Many of us were the first Negroes or blacks or African-Americans to go to certain schools, to work in certain industries, to hold certain positions. That was often hard. Sometimes being second was even harder. Because, if the first one hadn’t failed, some of the ‘friends’ I call ’status-quo liberals’ would get very nervous. Where was this all leading?