Black America needs a new political strategy for teaching the simplest of political strategies. Now, I do not want you to think that the above quip is a slight for the droves of Black political leaders who have failed to guide our people down the path to liberation since President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965). The sloping shoulders of Black political leaders should not hold all of the weight for Black America’s political failings. For decades, they have called for our people to become more active in local politics. Unfortunately for the cause of Black Liberation, Blacks have by-passed local political races in favor of more glorious, yet less impactful, national campaigns.
The message of “think nationally but act locally” has been one that has been ignored by too many Black voters and seized by their avowed enemies.
The importance of local politics has been heard, considered, and acted on by groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three percenters. Groups that have dedicated their entire existence to ensuring that America serves the interests of white men above all other groups.
White supremacist organizations understand that there is a more reliable and efficient means of gaining control of schools and cities than the treasonous actions of January 6. They know something that those who understand the path to Black liberation have understood for decades. Control of city councils, the mayor’s office, and school boards equal city control. The way to gain control of these pillars of local political power is political solidarity, voter education, voter registration drives, and vote casting.
Nothing more, nothing less.
The Proud Boys increasing appearance at local political events and school boards may be just the thing that Black America needs to see to understand this rudimentary political strategy. According to Jeremy Bertino, a member of a North Carolina chapter of the Proud Boys
The plan of attack if you want to make change is to get involved at the local level.
It is time that Black America took to heart the wisdom of Chicago-based Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton who observed that “war is nothing but politics with bloodshed and politics is nothing but war without bloodshed.” Blacks must realize that they must fight the angry horde seeking to curtail their freedom and right to live. Failure to do so reveals you as a cowardly fool and traitor to the Race, and all that civilized people hold sacred.
We must increase our engagement and understanding of local politics because it matters mightily in the battle for Black survival. I am pretty confident that if Marcus Mosiah Garvey were with us, he would implore us in the following manner. “Up You Mighty Race, Achieve What You Will!!!!!!!”
Get active in your local communities because it matters more than you will ever understand.
James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.
©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021
Too often locals do not understand the cost of non-participation! The African American locals are too concerned about how the others perceive them as being non-confrontational! African Americans must learn to create environments that are conducive for others to join them as alias!
What a great simplistic analysis of what is currently happening in American politics today. As I observe our political environment, I realize that the most radicalized groups of people are receiving the most political attention giving them strong political influence, none greater than the MAGA movement.
If you observe the years, dating back to the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, the political chess pieces that have been placed from the federal congress, the Supreme Court judges, state Senators, and even city political officials, you will see that politicians have moved up through the ranks to the state and federal level waiting for the opportune time unite under their organization’s banner. There has been a mission statement, a verbatim, an agenda and sworn allegiance to one another in the organization.
Jan. 6, 2021, we saw them tactically perform a full on assault on our nation’s capital in an attempt to overthrow the certification of the electoral votes that declared Joe Biden the winner of the parietal election. Senators rehearsed their lines in an academy award winning performance as those who were insiders and affiliates of this conglomerate of organizations portrayed to be ignorant of the plot of Jan. 6 prior to that date. They even went as far as to publicly speculate about and do everything short of accuse their chamber members of conspiratory treason. Then, after the months passed, the story seemed fade from headlines and they seemed to “get away with murder”.
This was a plan that was put in motion almost 20 years before it was fully realized. In the black community, the key factors that were needed for such a political move, consistency, trust, loyalty, effective communication, patience, we lack on a large scale. We lack trust on a mass scale to pull resources together for a large scale political move. We lack consistency and effective communication to establish a verbatim that we as a black community can unite under without the feeling of us forfeiting our individual cultural identities. We lack mass scale loyalty to a central ideology that can unite us politically.
When you combine these with economic depression and an unbalanced judicial system against blacks, we have major obstacles against us that are preventing us from becoming a centralized movement.
The simplistic plan outlined here I believe is an effective start to establishing a verbatim that all black people can commit to without compromising ones unique cultural identities. The communication must be improved to get that simplistic message out covertly to black people, find politicians who align with those views and utilize local government to start aligning our chess pieces, like that which was done in Ga. Then we must develop the trust to give resources to fund those leaders and initiatives like voter registration and voter rights info sessions for felons, elderly, the disabled, and out of district voting.
– James Runnels IV