Dr. Carlotta Miles
“Black in America 2,” a two-night special introducing America to prominent men and women of color, is a continuation of “Black in America” which debuted on CNN in 2008.
Dr. Carlotta Miles, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychoanalyst according to Vitals.com, has lived a life of privilege, yet has also struggled with the obstacle of racism.
“We are the invisible people because we don’t match the stereotype. The stereotype for black Americans is failure, poverty, failure, victimization and mediocrity.,” Miles explains to the reporter, Soledad O’Brien.
For the past 23 years, Dr. Miles has hosted the annual Tuxedo Ball, to fight this generality and celebrate the success of families like hers that have worked hard for their achievements and defied the limitations that stood in their way. It is a weekend of socializing and networking for prominent black families across the country.
“These people all had graduate degrees at a time when most people didn’t have college degrees,” she said of family portraits in her “family hall of fame” that date back to 1850s.
GET MORE INFORMATION ON DR. CARLOTTA MILES
Dr. Carlotta Miles (philadelphiacompact.org)
I think Black people are happy when other Blacks achieve, at least I am.
Too bad this elite group of Blacks would not have welcomed a young Barack Obama even as a Harvard student into this so called group of invisible people, their Tuxedo Ball or its network of achievers, because he neither had the family background or the money required to part of this upidy group!
No one knows where the next success story will come from in Black America.
Unfortunately events like the Tuxedo Ball are simply the black version of the “whites only” country clubs that so many upwardly mobile blacks longed to belong to. Calling successful blacks invisible because they don’t fit the stereotype underscores both the class and skin color issues that have plagued the black community since before reconstruction. Unfortunately Mr. Obama’s candidacy and ultimate ascension to the Presidency has simply underscored the sad fact that some in the community seek strife rather than unity, elitism rather than community. It is one thing to be proud of your achievements and another to relegate others to the back of the bus because of them.
I agree….personally I can say that being from Cameroon West African, I would never have know about this side of the world had it not be for Dr. Niles and her beautiful mother they give us (Mom, sister and brother) a chance to come to America and be able to sit at someone’s table and be able to talk about being Black in America and everyday I thank God for them and I will forever appreciate her and her family for giving me that voice.
Dr. Carlotta Miles Speaks About Being “Black in America” « Vitals… http://tinyurl.com/yhfynh2
I was insulted to find that wealthy blacks actually need to join together to feel as if they are excepted. They gather to give themselves a sense of whiteness the way this was portrayed on CNN. Why aren’t these same people taking this “Tuxedo Ball” and sharing their experiences with those less privledged? Why do wealthy blacks feel that they have to alienate themselves from the less fortunate to feel accomplished? Do blacks that are lower on the finacial scale deserve less of a chance to progress than those who are financially set. Why is this ball for those that have so much…where are they in life that they themselves aren’t aware of people like them. As a person stated before this is segregation of your own…same as whites did blacks and are doing blacks today. All you are doing is making yourself look whiter in black eyes and a wannabe in the eyes of whites. You can never be white, even with your TUXEDO BALL, and your high salaries. What are you to do when you fall and those same lower-class blacks that you alienate become your boss. Or you have taken a loss and you are no longer available to the TUXEDO BALL….will those attendees have your back or will those that were excluded have to help you? Look in the mirror and see yourself for who you are because you have never seen a UHAUL TRUCK following a HURSE!!! You can’t take it with you!!!
I think some are missing the point. Those children are not the black “Paris Hiltons” of the world running around buying Gucci. The parents are trying to show them how to be good people by giving back to the community while showing them that they are not the ONLY kid doing well in school etc. ALL children need to know that there is someone out there just like them. If your parents are on drugs, been in jail or you have been molested, you need a support network of kids who have been through the same thing. Why is it so hard to understand that a black kid attending Harvard, Yale, Princton or MIT needs a support network of people just like him? In my mind, it speaks to the closed mindedness of the have-nots, not the haves.