It’s Aunt Jemima’s Fault

By Patrick Hall

(Blame my raisin' on my name
Blame my name on my raisin'
Blame my lack of knowing better on public education
Blame smoke on the fire
Blame fire on the smoke
Blame the fight on the bouncer that couldn't take a joke
But it ain't my fault)

I’ve been a country music fan since my days in St. Mary’s, Alaska, back in the 1970s.¹   It was the only thing on the jukebox in this small Yupik Eskimo bush town. You could either listen to country, or Fleetwood Mac. God, I hate the song Rhiannon, but I digress.  

I must have heard the Brothers Osborne song, (It ain’t my Fault) dozens of times over the years. However, I never paid much attention to its lyrics.  During my 5:45 AM spin class, the song was played as part of our spin rotations.  Of course, the song was about having an excuse for the litany of things that oftentimes go sideways in one’s life. To cite the lyrics, “it ain’t my fault.”

Today, we have a significant portion of Americans who seldom take responsibility for their actions. Their mode of operation is to blame any present-day afflictions or setbacks as the fault of some convenient outside force. What has gone wrong in their lives is inevitably the fault of others; or the maliciousness of some outside group or socio-cultural phenomena.  Current political and public policy is often based on the “it ain’t my fault” philosophy. Too many groups are claiming or competing to assert the most favored victim status. Everyone’s a victim or perpetually oppressed by systemic forces beyond their control.

In the Post-Civil Rights Era, Black Americans and their political class have become Jedi Masters of this way of thought. It has bred an entire generation of African Americans to cry racism as the basis of why there seems to be an ossified black underclass. This is despite the over 6 Trillion dollars spent on the Black community as part of the Great Society Programs beginning in the Johnson Administration.  If black children are not taking advantage of free education in public schools or our nation’s colleges, it is because of institutional racism and pernicious micro-aggressions.  If blacks commit felonies and homicides at a rate far above any other groups in America, it is quickly attributed to white racism and privilege. If many African Americans still reside in a damaged urban area, it is once more, not their fault. This is despite statistics, that show newer African groups, who have come to America in the Post-Civil Rights Era, have consistently outpaced “legacy black Americans” in income levels, education acuity, and socio-political prowess. Many of the new blacks from a place like West Africa, the Caribbean, and South America show a higher rate of intact family units.  This is despite the racism that still exists.  Unfortunately, many within the legacy black community have been hobbled by their political class. Over the past two generations, black politicians have done more to enrich themselves than to uplift the urban communities, that they supposedly serve.

Organizations like BLM to the NAACP have championed, if not nurtured the “It ain’t my fault” mentality.  Successful African Americans like Barrack Obama, sports and business icons, as well as black politicians like Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the “Savant of bad historical homology”, continue to propagate the non-sense that systemic racism and white privilege are major impediments to Black progress.   Just because some white person or relative may use the “N-word” at a family gathering, this doesn’t make them a certified racist. Maybe an insufferable jerk, but hardly a racist.  

Here is a difficult message for many within the Black community to accept. Despite what blacks have suffered, real or imagined, this excuses them from very little.  You are responsible for your success or failure in this opportunity society called America.  

Black political class, academicians, and the cultural left should equally curtail such feckless virtual signifying antics, like removing the picture of Uncle Ben or Aunt Jemima from grocery items. These pointless theatrics do little to address the complex problems afflicting many Black Americans. Problems that have little or nothing to do with racism, systemic or otherwise. Blacks from all social classes need a collective kick-in-the-butt and are told in no uncertain terms to go after, and take advantage of the opportunities (no guarantees) that America offers all its citizens.

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1. Patrick Hall, “MLK believed there was ‘no slave nor free’ in Christ. A trip to Alaska taught me there’s no Black, white or Eskimo either,” America (January 18, 2021).

[Patrick is a retired University Library Director. He is graduate of Canisius College and the University of Washington where he earned Masters Degrees in Religious Studies Education, Urban Anthropology and Library and Information Science.  Mr. Hall has also completed additional course work at the University of Buffalo, Seattle University and St. John Fishers College of Rochester New York. He has published in several national publications such as Commonweal, America, Conservative Review, Headway, National Catholic Reporter, Freedom's Journal Magazine and American Libraries. He has published in the peer reviewed publications, Journal of Academic Librarianship and the Internet Reference Services Quarterly. From 1997 until his retirement in January 2014 he served on the Advisory Board of Urban Library Journal, a CUNY Publication.]