Tag Archives: Black Power

The Unforeseen Political and Economic Ramifications of Blacks Swirling their Racial Identity

Truthfully, I can’t pinpoint where my belief that self-conception is crucial to politico-economic allegiance began. It could be that politicized parents raised me. Maybe it was reading Marcus “Mosiah” Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois’ calls for Black folk to turn inward and take care of their own, or perhaps it was my grandfathers’ examples as “race men.” My belief that self-conception is a significant factor in politico-economic allegiance will never change.

The above statement is why I find US Census data indicating increasing diversity in how they self-identify so concerning. Census reports report that those reporting themselves as only “Black or African American” have declined over the past two decades from the 2000 US Census. In 2000, 93% of people self-identified as Black. Nearly two decades later (2019), that number dropped to 87% of people reporting as Black or African American, non-Hispanic. In the 2019 Census, 3.7 million (8%) reported as Black and another race, usually White, while 5% self-identified as Black Hispanic.

In a world where there is strength in numbers, the decision of some Black folks to swirl their racial identity is troubling as it signifies a shift in self-conception, the most significant factor in where one’s politico-economic loyalties rest. Now let’s be clear about this matter; I do not deny that the DNA of other races courses through the veins of Blacks; one needs to look no further than the various hues and colors that adorn our beautiful people for verification. Of course, this process began with the rape of stolen African women forcibly deposited in the Caribbean, Brazil, North American continent, and all points in-between by a host of European exploiters.

This already diverse supply of stolen Africans produced a unique cultural identity that facilitated their loose agreement that they were neither African nor European; they were Black. A term that surpasses being a mere descriptor and has transitioned into a political statement.

In time, SNCC organizer Willie “Mukasa” Ricks would mesmerize young Black activists by debuting a Black Power slogan in Greenwood, Mississippi, during the continuation of James Meredith’s March Against Fear. Radicalized segments of our community have always rallied around Blackness. Please do not think that I am unaware of the propensity of some twentieth-century Blacks to exoticize their Blackness by claiming a distant Cherokee grandmother whose DNA contribution explains why they have “good hair.” Yet, even they understood that they were Black, and that’s where their politico-economic allegiance laid. Even the most exoticized Blacks with hazel or blue eyes, fair skin, and flowing locs understood that they remained inextricably linked with other Blacks.

This new millennium effort to self-identify as something other than Black seems much different from prior attempts by Blacks to differentiate themselves. While so many groups appear to be doubling down on their political identity, there is a segment of Black folks that are desperately running from identifying with their kind and thereby forfeiting potential political and economic gains that only come through racial solidarity.

In a land where numbers matter regarding political power and the development of economic might, this secession movement threatens to weaken Black America in unprecedented ways. One can only wonder where this illogical migration away from Blackness by persons that will always be seen as Black by those they desperately seek to join will end.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

IS THE DEMAND FOR PROPER CONDUCT AND DRESS A SIGN OF ANTI-BLACKNESS? IT IS TIME TO HAVE THIS LONG OVERDUE DISCUSSION

Feel free to join MRCi (Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive) tonight (July 15, 2021) @ 7:30 (EST) — 6:30 pm (CST) for a much-needed discussion over the recent Manhood, Race, and Culture posting

HAVE WE SUNK THIS FAR?: WHY BLACK FOLKS HAVE ACCUSED THE BLACK OWNERS OF THE TURKEY LEG HUT OF BEING ANTI-BLACK

Please click the above link to read the posting that revolves around the owners of a Black-owned business being accused of anti-Blackness due to their installation of a dress code and code of conduct within their establishment. Does such a charge hold any water at all?

Tonight’s discussion promises to be a riveting one focused by us about us.

Join us as we discuss this pressing matter.

The program begins tonight (Thursday, July 15) @ 7:30 (EST) — 6:30 pm (CST). Click here to access the meeting or use the information listed below.

Meeting ID: 353 334 8869
Passcode: 1YF4BG

MLK and Black Power

There is no sensible argument that can be made to counter W.E.B. Du Bois’ statement that “the problem of the 20th Century will be the color line.” If any criticism can be hurled at this Duboisian prophecy it is that it ends too soon and should have been extended far into the new millennium.

For many of our countrymen, it is Race that remains their rallying point. Even when aware of how variables such as class, gender, and sexual identity impact their lives, it is Race whose reign resembles that of King Cotton during this nation’s period of chattel slavery. Considering the centrality of Race in American lives, a reasonable argument could be made that there is no more frightening combination of words in the English language than “Black Power”. Above all other word combinations, Black Power and the philosophies flowing from it have proven to be reliable rallying points for those who support the concept as well as those that oppose even the mention of such matters. I am sure that you can imagine the polarization that occurred during the highly contentious identity politic driven 1960s when SNCC worker Willie (Mukasa) Ricks changed the ideological trajectory of the fight for racial equality in Greenwood, Mississippi when he taught sharecroppers “Black Power” slogans instead of the standard call for “Freedom Now”.

This moment was so impactful on the movement that not even movement patriarch Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr., was able to ignore its arrival.

The debut of “Black Power” slogans stoked increasingly paranoid Whites’ fears of roving revenge-minded attacks by young Blacks. This moment tells us far more about the psyche of Whites in this nation than it says about angry Blacks who have rarely responded to centuries of exploitation, denigration, and marginalization at the hands of an oppressor with organized counter-attacks. Most agree that when White America’s fears were heightened, it was MLK’s advocacy of non-violent civil disobedience that provided significant psychological comfort to White’s who were bracing for the arrival of vengeful blood-thirsty Black Powerites desirous of revenge for past transgressions.

It would not be a stretch to argue that in the paranoid mind of many Whites, MLK was needed to control “irrational blacks” who refused to accept their second-class citizenship status. King’s utility grew in the mind of White America every time a media outlet juxtaposed King against Malcolm X or some other expression of Black Power politics. Many Whites, and a few Blacks, naively considered MLK as a necessary evil capable of quelling Black Powerites.

Considering this nation’s penchant for displaying episodes of dementia regarding matters of Black liberation, I will take a moment to define what Black Powerites were seeking to convey during their calls for “Black Power.” The most accepted definition of “Black Power” during the volatile 1960s is provided by Charles V. Hamilton and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture). According to Hamilton and Carmichael,

Black power is concerned with organizing the rage of black people.…Black power (1) deals with the obviously growing alienation of black people and their distrust of the institutions of this society; (2) works to create new values and to build a new sense of community and of belonging; and (3) works to establish legitimate new institutions that make participants, not recipients, out of a people traditionally excluded from the fundamentally racist processes of this country.[i]

The concept of Black Power rests on a fundamental premise. Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks. By this, we mean group solidarity is necessary before a group can operate effectively from a bargaining position of strength in a pluralistic society. Traditionally, each new ethnic group in this society has found the route to social and political viability through the organization of its own institutions with which to represent its needs within the larger society . . . the American melting pot has not melted. Italians vote for Rubino over O’Brien; Irish for Murphy over Goldberg, etc.[ii]

Over a half-century after its creation, this definition remains relevant as it still reflects the political realities facing a politically powerless and economically marginalized Black America.

The arrival of “Black Power” politics into the volatile 60s political economy was so significant that MLK realized that ignoring the matter was an incorrect action. Many would-be shocked to learn that the integrationist-minded “Prince of Peace” offered limited support for “Black Power” politics. According to Dr. King,

[t]here is nothing essentially wrong with power. The problem is that inAmerica power is unequally distributed. This has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through love and moral suasion devoid of power and white Americans to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience….  [I]t is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times.[iii]

{Black Power activists} must use every constructive means to amass economic and political power. This is the kind of legitimated power we need. We must work to build racial pride and refute the notion black is evil and ugly. But this must come through a program, not merely through a slogan…The words ‘black’ and ‘power’ together give the impression that we are talking about black domination rather than black equality.[iv]

Black Power is a call for the pooling of black financial resources to achieve economic security.… Through the pooling of such resources and the development of habits of thrift and techniques of wise investment, the Negro will be doing his share to grapple with his problem of economic deprivation. If Black Power means the development of this kind of strength within the Negro community, then it is a quest for basic, necessary, legitimate power.[v]

Attempts to ignore MLK’s ideological maturation after the “March on Washington” dooms them to a limited understanding of both the Civil Rights patriarch and the larger struggle for “the liberation and salvation of the Black nation.”  

Dr. King’s always evolving political priorities have created “blind spots” for supporters and critics of one of the most important figures of Black America’s twentieth-century struggle for first-class citizenship. If nothing else, this moment serves as definitive proof of our collective need to study, study, and study some more. Failure to do so guarantees our inability to understand a past that serves as the foundation for a present that has yet to correct the misunderstood past.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture 2020.

I thank you and appreciate you visiting Manhood, Race, and Culture.

If you enjoy the content that you find here at Manhood, Race, and Culture.

It would be greatly appreciated if you would consider purchasing one of the following books.

Reconsidering the post-March on Washington Martin Luther King Jr.

I deplore how society lays aside historical figures and their profound contributions to our society for 364 days out of the year, only to revisit them on an annual basis as if they are Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is arguably the foremost victim of such antics.

As society sits poised for yet another MLK breakfast or program, I am going to expound on one of my most frequent refrains regarding Dr. King. The statement that I am referring to is my belief that the “I have a Dream” speech delivered on August 28, 1963, has proven in retrospect to be King’s worst moment. 

The faces of the vast majority of people transform when they hear the above critique of Dr. King’s most memorable moment before an audience of 250,000 people. During robust lectures, I often follow that statement with brother Malcolm’s somewhat humorous quip that the A. Philip Randolph organized March on Washington “…was a circus, with clowns and all.”

Although I frequently use Brother Malcolm’s quip, I do not agree with his summation. Yet, I do harbor issues with this moment that have nothing to do with the content of Dr. King’s speech on this momentous occasion. My problem revolves around the reality that this moment was so big that most mistakenly freeze Dr. King in this moment and use it as a guide to understand his entire public life. Those harboring this belief are in grievous error. If one did not know any better, they could be led to believe that Dr. King was assassinated moments after his much-celebrated speech as the remaining portion of his life is rarely discussed. Unbeknownst to many, Dr. King’s prophetic voice was not silenced by an assassin’s bullet until 1968, nearly five years after his impassioned speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Despite the flawed historical recollection of a gullible American public, Dr. King’s legacy did not end on August 28, 1963. Most would be shocked to learn that “the Prince of Peace” never stopped evaluating and growing ideologically during this volatile period of this nation’s existence.

Consider for a moment that when faced with growing White resistance in the wake of Lyndon Baines Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights (1964) and Voting Rights (1965) Acts, Dr. King understood that Whites were unwilling to share political power or economic resources with anyone. This political climate led King to issue the following indictments toward both the nation and the movement he headed.

“[W]ith Selma and the Voting Rights Act one phase of development in the civil rights revolution came to an end. A new phase opened, but few observers realized it or were prepared for its implications. For the vast majority of white Americans, the past decade — the first phase — had been a struggle to treat the Negro with a degree of decency, not of equality. White America was ready to demand that the Negro should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination. The outraged white citizen had been sincere when he snatched the whips from the Southern sheriffs and forbade them more cruelties. But when this was to a degree accomplished, the emotions that had momentarily inflamed him melted away,

When negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared. Negroes felt cheated, especially in the North, while many whites felt that the negroes had gained so much it was virtually impudent and greedy to ask for more so soon.

The practical cost of change for the nation up to this point has been cheap. The limited reforms have been obtained at bargain rates. There are no expenses, and no taxes are required, for Negroes to share lunch counters, libraries, parks, hotels, and other facilities with whites…

Negroes of America had taken the President, the press and the pulpit at their word when they spoke in broad terms of freedom and justice . . . The word was broken, and the free-running expectations of the Negro crashed into the stone walls of white resistance.

Whites’ increasing resistance to racial equality in the public arena, let alone any degree of racial justice, forced King’s hand. In his search for a path to securing racial equality, MLK was forced to address the growing nihilism within the Civil Rights Movement that was most forcefully articulated by a rising tide of young Black Powerites. The shifting political winds were so significant that Dr. King felt compelled to issue the following statement regarding Black Power politics.

There is nothing essentially wrong with power. The problem is that in America power is unequally distributed. This has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through love and moral suasion devoid of power and white Americans to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience…. [I]t is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times.

Black Power is a call for the pooling of black financial resources to achieve economic security.… Through the pooling of such resources and the development of habits of thrift and techniques of wise investment, the Negro will be doing his share to grapple with his problem of economic deprivation. If Black Power means the development of this kind of strength within the Negro community, then it is a quest for basic, necessary, legitimate power.

It is indeed time that those interested in this nation securing racial justice re-evaluate MLK’s legacy by placing some attention on his post-March on Washington speech era. Such action is crucial for anyone seeking to expand their understanding of King, Black Power, and the pursuit of racial justice. Hopefully, you do not think that Dr. King was the type of man to waste any portion of his life. Trust me when I say if you think that about Dr. King, you need to re-evaluate your entire understanding of “the Prince of Peace.”

James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.