When the opportunity has been present, the black bourgeoisie has exploited the Negro masses as ruthlessly as have whites. As the intellectual leaders in the Negro community, they have never dared think beyond a narrow, opportunistic philosophy that provided a rationalization for their own advantages.
A part of the black bourgeoisie seems to be committed to developing, or attempting to develop, a form of capitalism within the black community, or the black colony as we call it. As far as the masses are concerned it would merely be trading one master for another. A small group of blacks would control our destiny if this development came to pass.
A small percentage of the blacks owned slaves; they were our first black bourgeoisie. But what we have today are their spiritual descendents. And just as the earlier black slaveholders fail to alleviate the suffering of their slaves, so today the black capitalists (those few in existence) do nothing to alleviate the suffering of their oppressed black brothers.
Black capitalism is a hoax. Black capitalism is represented as a great step toward black liberation. It isn’t. It is a giant stride away from liberation. No black capitalists can function unless they play the white man’s game. Worse still, while the black capitalist wants to think he functions on his own terms, he doesn’t. He is always subject to the whims of the white capitalist. The rules of black capitalism, and the limits of black capitalism are set by the white power structure.