Remember when we referred to each other as “Soul Sisters” and “Soul Brothers?”
To be a “Soul Brother” or a “Soul Sister” meant that a person was essentially Negro in heart, spirit, culture, and direction. It did not matter about his social status if at the core of his being he shared a commonality with others of his race he was considered a “soul brother,” and she was recognized as a “soul sister.”
No matter how high a person with “soul” climbed, he/she still shared a commonality with the rest of his brothers and sisters in the Diaspora. We saw it clearly when Barack Obama was president. On most days he was generic, the President; but there were days when we could undeniably see that he had “soul.” At his inauguration, he and his wife danced to “At Last” by Etta James and featured Beyonce and the old school prayer of Rev. Joseph Lowery. When the nation mourned the loss of lives in mass murders, we knew he had “soul” when he sang “Amazing Grace.”
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas shocked most people in our community for his lack of “Soul.” Thomas, an ultra-conservative Republican, benefited from his poverty and ethnicity as a young man. He went to college and took advantage of programs such as affirmative action that allowed him law school advantages.
When he was nominated for the Supreme Court, he wasn’t the pick of the Black community; he was no Thurgood Marshall; but we hoped that considering his past, he would have “soul.” – He proved to be just the opposite voting against “Affirmative Action” and other programs that helped him and millions of other descendants of slaves in America.
Justice Thomas was one of the first National Achievers to be universally shunned by the Black Community who stripped him of the right to call himself a “soul” brother. Scores of books have been written about his belief in interpreting the constitution literally as it was written by slave owners. When he put on the black robe, he became “a soulless” man not referred to as a “brother” by most in his own community.
Thomas, and those like him, are socially banished in our community when they break the connection that shows that in their core, other than just personal history, they share a commonality with our people. The fact that he is Republican is not a factor. There are scores of famous African-Americans who were Republicans including Hiram Revels and Edward Brooke, who were U.S. Senators, General Colin Powell, Frederick Douglass, Charles Evers, James Farmer and many more. Unlike Thomas, their approach to problem-solving may have been different, but they had the same goal which was to make sure that when the rising tide of American prosperity came, that our people would have ships on the water. They were Republicans, but they still had soul.
Locally, we have elected many African-American men and women to serve on various boards. We have elected state representatives, several judges, and two Black mayors.
Most of them served their terms and worked for the common good of the entire community without losing their connection with the needs of the underserved. Some quietly worked behind the scenes to make sure our boats would be ready for the rising tide.
Unfortunately, there are some, like Clarence Thomas, who share our history, but cannot be described as “Soul Brothers” and “Soul Sisters.”
They are what Ralph Ellison calls, “The Invisible Man.” – They are men and women who succeeded themselves, but they were invisible to the rest of their community.
We still need African-American leaders who are unbought and unashamed to be described as a “soul brother” or “soul sister.”
