In literally the last piece I penned, I talked about the obvious foolishness of asserting that I was in a position of supremacy to black folks.

I stated as my primary argument, that there are a good many of black folks I see as being in far better positions than am I.

My point wasn’t to say they were better off in terms of financial wellbeing, being in better neighborhoods, more handsome or prettier than me or anything as shallow as all of that. Rather, I had it in mind to indicate that the individuals in question were people I respected, and in some (maybe all to some degree) cases, people I counted as mentors and folks to emulate.

It’s no coincidence that some of the “shallow” things I wasn’t talking about, are often ways in which these folks are also better off than me.

It’s true, you can make yourself more handsome or attractive, but you pretty much get what you get from a “baseline perspective” where that’s concerned. Wealth or a better neighborhood on the other hand, is more a matter of choice—of decisions you make over time, that “translate into” a better life.

I’ll acknowledge too, that I find the individuals about whom I spoke handsome, beautiful and/or distinguished as much by their attitudes as any facet of the physicality. Don’t get me wrong, none of them would be considered ugly if you never heard them speak, but I still maintain a part of that is a matter of things like comportment.

Here’s the thing though, if you tried to tell me that any of the folks I named (the list was Dr Thomas Sowell, Dr Walter E Williams, Mr Larry Elder, Mr David J Harris JR, Mr Terrence K. Williams, and Mrs Candace Owens) were somehow inherently superior to me, I wouldn’t be able to do much but laugh at such an idea.

The idea of “black supremacy” is equally silly to me as is the idea of white supremacy. To say that any of the mentioned individuals are in any sense superior to me as a matter of birth or inheritance—acknowledging genetics as a thing that may make them superior in some fashion—is about as ridiculous a thing as I can conceive.

That’s not to say that the listed people (and a good many more) don’t have many ways in which they are superior to me, just that they’re not typically matters of birth or family.

The dirty little secret that so many either plain don’t know, or want to ignore, or fail to accept, is that the majority of rich and intelligent people in modern society did not get there as a result of their familial affiliation. Rather, they worked their rear ends off. That also largely applies to people who have amassed fame through one endeavor or other.

I’m not saying there are not those who “ride on the coattails of” their forbearers. As a rule though, unless they’ve figured out how to, or have someone to help them to, understand how to keep what they have or gain what they lack, folks doing so are about as likely to end up in not-so-pretty places as people staring in low positions.

It’s often true that in a single generation the wealth or other “riches” accrued by the pior rung, can totally disappear. There’re ways to do things to make this less likely; barring such strategies though, this is as probable an outcome as not.

Equally important, the idea of white or black supremacy doesn’t hold up to inspection on the simple fact that both black and white folks of very low station, have—in a land of such opportunity as the United States proves to be—done what would be considered virtually miraculous things in some fraction of a lifetime.

Of course, the converse is also true. People who have come from relatively high birth, have totally bombed when it came time for them to stand at center stage. As with people who started out on the wrong side of the tracks, it made precious little difference that they were black, white, asian, or whatever.

There are those that make the argument that black folks have different (and possibly more extreme) challenges than do white folks and others. Whether that’s the case or not, people like Justice Clarence Thomas, Ms Oprah Winfrey, Mr Barak Obama, and Dr Sowell, consistently prove one can surmount the odds regardless the obstacles.

Are things more difficult for black folks that for white people? I would be the last to say I had any expertise in that. I can tell you that the one-time (I don’t think he’s still in that position) CEO of Starbucks seems to have had more than a few, pretty serious obstacles in his way on the road to that level of success. And to be sure, he’s far from alone in the white community.

In the end though, I’m pretty convinced that a person who makes it his or her business to push towards that which he or she desires, making sure to weigh the benefits and risks of particular courses of action along the way, is more likely to make his or her way to that desire, than is someone who doesn’t act in such a fashion.

I’m equally fairly sure that the color of his or her skin may be a factor, but is not the be-all-end-all determinant of success.

I’m the first to agree that we have various problems here in the U.S.—as, I imagine, does every country on the planet—with the existence of things like racism. Like anyone worth anything in my way of thinking, I would love to see all of those issues disappear, never to be seen again.

Am I likely to see their demise? Not so much.

That being said, if you think because a bunch of black folks are successful in a variety of ways in which I would love to excel myself, I’m going to cry, “Black Supremacy!” You can rest easy. That’s not going to happen.

As I said before, I applaud the success of black persons in society every bit as much as white people (sometimes more, if they’re people whose ideas and ideals I support to a greater degree, for example). Is this how you look at life? I hope so! If not, you still have time to change your heart and mind.

Thanks for reading, and may your time be good.