By
BRENT STAPLES Published: February 11, 2007
Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama gives autographs to supporters after a rally at Hilton Coliseum on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Kevin Sanders)
Those of us who were born black in the years just after World War II had front-row seats for the collapse of American apartheid. We started out confined to all-black communities and schools at a time when skin color was still destiny. But as segregation gave way, many of us were vaulted out of this sequestered world and into colleges, jobs and walks of life that had been closed to us pretty much since the nation’s founding.
The rush of upward mobility produced the inevitable identity crisis, which led in turn to endless discussions about the meaning of blackness in a world where skin color was beginning to matter less and less.
At their best, these discussions, held in college dorm rooms at night, were probing, serious and heartfelt. At their worst, they turned into lectures by the race police — ’60s-era ideologues who characterized blackness not as a matter of individual interpretation or choice, but as a narrow set of attitudes and experiences that were said to make up the authentic black identity.
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Dan Gilbert, Chairman and Founder of Quicken Loans Inc. and the majority owner of the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team has founded an entrepreneur boot camp on the campus of Wayne State University.
