The document summarizes the Gary Declaration from the 1972 National Black Political
Convention. It discusses the crisis facing Black Americans at the time, from economic struggles
to social issues like crime and unemployment. It argues that neither political party has served
Black interests and that Black Americans must pursue an independent political agenda focused on
fundamental social transformation, not just new politicians. The Gary Declaration called for Black
Americans to organize and take on the role as leaders in the struggle for liberation and the creation
of a new society centered on community and justice.
This document discusses the history of anti-black violence in America and how it has been used to control the population and working classes. It notes that lynchings and other violent acts against black Americans have been used to divide working class whites and blacks. More recently, a resurgence of anti-black violence and rhetoric has occurred as global capitalists seek to impose fascism and lower living standards to turn the world into an investment colony. However, the document argues that the creation of a large, multi-racial unemployed class provides an opportunity for working class unity across racial lines to fight back against these oppressive conditions.
The document discusses issues of race and ethnicity in the United States, including racial disparities in income, poverty levels, education levels, and health insurance coverage according to data from the US Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. It examines how political and social forces have shaped systems of racial classification over time. While progress has been made since the civil rights era, the data shows continued racial inequalities between white and black populations in areas like income, poverty, and educational attainment.
This document summarizes the history of racial segregation in the United States from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. It discusses how Reconstruction opened the door for further discrimination through Jim Crow laws and the rise of groups like the Ku Klux Klan. It then covers the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 that legalized "separate but equal" and how this led to continued segregation. The document concludes by discussing key events and figures in the Civil Rights Movement like Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders that helped challenge racial segregation and inequality.
Racial segregation in the United States stemmed from white supremacist attitudes that took hold during Reconstruction. These attitudes corrupted the goals of equality and led to oppression through policies like Jim Crow laws and segregation. Attempts at establishing equality, such as amendments and court rulings, did not succeed in overturning generations of racial prejudice and the belief in white supremacy. It was not until the civil rights movement in the 1950s-60s, sparked by events like Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, that major progress was made toward legally establishing racial equality. However, racism still persists in societal attitudes today.
1. The document discusses how race continues to permeate and divide American society despite progress made through civil rights movements and the election of Barack Obama as the first black president.
2. It argues that viewing Obama's election as signaling a "post-racial" America is premature and overlooks ongoing racial disparities in areas like healthcare, earnings, the criminal justice system, and education.
3. The changing demographics of the U.S., with minorities making up 30% of the population, have brought issues of race and immigration to the forefront of national debates.
Donald Trump's incredibly unpresidential statement on CharlottesvilleAlicia Garcia
- A white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA turned violent, resulting in one death and 19 injuries after a car rammed into counter-protesters.
- President Trump condemned the violence "on many sides" but failed to single out the white supremacists. His statement was criticized for not being strong enough against intolerance and hatred.
- The article analyzes Trump's statement and argues he should have clearly condemned the white supremacists and brought the country together instead of listing his own accomplishments.
This slide program explains the present state of divisions amongst the Americans and amongst Muslims and how islam has the capability to unite everyone.
The document discusses how mass media portrays African Americans in a negative light and perpetuates racist stereotypes. It argues that the media focuses on crimes, violence, and anti-social behavior in the black community in a distorted way. This has fostered public perceptions of African Americans as criminals. The document also discusses how the media portrayed events like the LA riots in a way that blamed the black community rather than examining underlying socioeconomic factors. It argues that the corporate structure of media leads to the promotion of racist stereotypes in order to maximize profits by dividing the working class along racial lines.
This document discusses the history of anti-black violence in America and how it has been used to control the population and working classes. It notes that lynchings and other violent acts against black Americans have been used to divide working class whites and blacks. More recently, a resurgence of anti-black violence and rhetoric has occurred as global capitalists seek to impose fascism and lower living standards to turn the world into an investment colony. However, the document argues that the creation of a large, multi-racial unemployed class provides an opportunity for working class unity across racial lines to fight back against these oppressive conditions.
The document discusses issues of race and ethnicity in the United States, including racial disparities in income, poverty levels, education levels, and health insurance coverage according to data from the US Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. It examines how political and social forces have shaped systems of racial classification over time. While progress has been made since the civil rights era, the data shows continued racial inequalities between white and black populations in areas like income, poverty, and educational attainment.
This document summarizes the history of racial segregation in the United States from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. It discusses how Reconstruction opened the door for further discrimination through Jim Crow laws and the rise of groups like the Ku Klux Klan. It then covers the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 that legalized "separate but equal" and how this led to continued segregation. The document concludes by discussing key events and figures in the Civil Rights Movement like Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders that helped challenge racial segregation and inequality.
Racial segregation in the United States stemmed from white supremacist attitudes that took hold during Reconstruction. These attitudes corrupted the goals of equality and led to oppression through policies like Jim Crow laws and segregation. Attempts at establishing equality, such as amendments and court rulings, did not succeed in overturning generations of racial prejudice and the belief in white supremacy. It was not until the civil rights movement in the 1950s-60s, sparked by events like Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, that major progress was made toward legally establishing racial equality. However, racism still persists in societal attitudes today.
1. The document discusses how race continues to permeate and divide American society despite progress made through civil rights movements and the election of Barack Obama as the first black president.
2. It argues that viewing Obama's election as signaling a "post-racial" America is premature and overlooks ongoing racial disparities in areas like healthcare, earnings, the criminal justice system, and education.
3. The changing demographics of the U.S., with minorities making up 30% of the population, have brought issues of race and immigration to the forefront of national debates.
Donald Trump's incredibly unpresidential statement on CharlottesvilleAlicia Garcia
- A white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA turned violent, resulting in one death and 19 injuries after a car rammed into counter-protesters.
- President Trump condemned the violence "on many sides" but failed to single out the white supremacists. His statement was criticized for not being strong enough against intolerance and hatred.
- The article analyzes Trump's statement and argues he should have clearly condemned the white supremacists and brought the country together instead of listing his own accomplishments.
This slide program explains the present state of divisions amongst the Americans and amongst Muslims and how islam has the capability to unite everyone.
The document discusses how mass media portrays African Americans in a negative light and perpetuates racist stereotypes. It argues that the media focuses on crimes, violence, and anti-social behavior in the black community in a distorted way. This has fostered public perceptions of African Americans as criminals. The document also discusses how the media portrayed events like the LA riots in a way that blamed the black community rather than examining underlying socioeconomic factors. It argues that the corporate structure of media leads to the promotion of racist stereotypes in order to maximize profits by dividing the working class along racial lines.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 calling for freedom and equality for all. While progress has been made, racism remains a problem in the US and worldwide in various forms. Racial profiling and hate crimes still occur regularly in America. Fear and ignorance often drive racism by causing people to act in ways outside their character against those they do not understand due to their race or ethnicity. True equality will be achieved not just by equal rights but when race is no longer a factor in how people are judged or treated.
The document discusses the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City where Tommie Smith and John Carlos conducted a protest on the medal podium. During the medal ceremony for the 200m event, Smith won gold and Carlos won bronze. They each raised a black-gloved fist and bowed their heads in a Black Power salute to protest racism in the US. They wore black socks with no shoes to represent black poverty. Their protest brought attention to civil rights issues and they were suspended from the US team for bringing politics into the Olympics. Their actions were widely viewed and helped spread awareness of ongoing struggles for racial equality and justice.
McDuffie, Obama, the World, and Africa, Souls 2012Erik McDuffie
This article discusses President Obama's foreign policy towards Africa and its implications. It argues that Obama's policy enhances U.S. imperialism in Africa and fails to advance Black interests. The lack of criticism from African Americans about unrest in Libya and Mali reveals a declining sense of international solidarity. Rekindling concern for Africa must be re-centered in the Black freedom movement as the 2012 election approaches.
Harvest of Shame
Bumper crops, a price crash and debt by demonetisation,
farmers face the perils of plenty. The result: suicides, violence,
growing anger and a political minefield
Global Patriarchal Christian White Supremacy & the Road to the U.S. Capitol I...WarrenJBlumenfeld
The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance put the U.S. on a list of “backsliding democracies” in its November 2021 report. “The United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself,” the report found. Dr. Blumenfeld's presentation addresses some of the historical global roots of fascism and the social cleavages giving rise to anti-democratic leaders, which set the context for the January 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection in the U.S.
After the September 11th terrorist attacks, there were reports of hate crimes targeting Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians in the United States. These included death threats to a Palestinian American student, rocks and eggs being thrown at an Islamic center, and bottles being thrown at a Sikh taxi driver. In response, President Bush visited an Islamic center to condemn the acts of violence and reaffirm that Islam teaches peace. However, some Americans still supported increased surveillance of Arab and Muslim Americans in the period after 9/11.
Remarks by Anc president Cyril Ramaphosa at the launch of the alliance anti-r...SABC News
George Floyd's death has sparked global outrage over racism. While progress has been made since colonialism and apartheid, racism remains deeply ingrained in many societies through economic, social, and psychological dimensions that reinforce inequality. To combat racism, governments and citizens must acknowledge its existence, give voice to marginalized communities, promote respect for diversity, and condemn all acts of intolerance through education, laws, and policies that promote equality and human rights for all.
This document discusses human rights in Islam across four chapters. It begins by contrasting the Western and Islamic approaches to human rights. The Western approach developed later and rights were often not upheld in practice, while in Islam rights are granted by God and cannot be changed.
Chapter two outlines basic human rights in Islam, including the right to life, safety of life, respect for women's chastity, a basic standard of living, and individual freedom. Slavery is forbidden and one has a right to help those in need.
Chapter three covers rights of citizens in an Islamic state, such as security of life and property, freedom of expression, and equality before the law. Rulers are not above the law.
The document summarizes the civil rights movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968. It discusses how the movement aimed to outlaw racial discrimination against African Americans and restore voting rights in southern states. By 1966, the Black Power Movement enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include issues like racial dignity, economic empowerment, and freedom from white oppression. The document then focuses on the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where Tommie Smith and John Carlos conducted a protest on the medal podium for the 200 meter race by raising their fists in black power salutes to bring attention to the lack of civil rights in America. Their protest was seen worldwide and resulted in backlash, but it brought significant attention to the ongoing civil rights issues
This document discusses structural racialization and how racial disparities persist even as explicit racist attitudes and laws have declined. It argues that seemingly neutral policies and institutions can reproduce racial inequalities without racial intent. It provides examples of persistent racial disparities in areas like unemployment, incarceration, income, wealth, and concentrated poverty. It advocates using a structural perspective and systems thinking to understand how disparate impacts accumulate over time through mutually reinforcing relationships between policies, institutions, and spatial aspects of opportunity. Transformational change is needed that addresses implicit biases and links individual and community fates rather than viewing them in isolation.
A failure of perspective moral assumptions and genocideSpaceX
This book review summarizes Samantha Power's book "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide. The book examines the consistent non-response of American leaders to genocide throughout the 20th century. Power argues this is due to a "failure of imagination" - that genocide is so horrific that leaders and the public choose to look away rather than confront it. However, the book review argues the reasons are more fundamental - stemming from failures in the Anglo-American legal system's moral perspective. This legal system is based on an "ethic of justice" that focuses on individual rights and self-interest over responsibilities to prevent mass violence and protect others. The review will explore how an "ethic of care" perspective
For the most diverse generation in U.S. history, there’s no single American Dream. Ethnic and racial influences matter, in both expected and counterintuitive ways. Discover the untold story of Millennials’ ambitions in this comprehensive research initiative.
The document summarizes the 1968 Olympics protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the medal ceremony for the 200m race. It provides context for their protest, describing the growing civil rights movement in the US and their desire to bring attention to racial inequality and poverty at home. It then describes how Smith won gold and Carlos won bronze and their coordinated protest of raising black-gloved fists on the podium to represent black power and unity. This sparked international controversy and led to them being banished from the Olympic village. Their actions have since been recognized for drawing global attention to racial injustice in America.
"The Souls of Poor Folk traces the 50 years since 1968, when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and thousands of Americans, alarmed at their government’s blindness to human need, launched the Poor People’s Campaign."
"50 years later, beset by deepening poverty, ecological devastation, systemic racism, and an economy harnessed to seemingly endless war, “The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival” likewise beckons our nation to higher ground. We call upon our society to see the predicaments of the most vulnerable among us and to halt the destruction of America’s moral vision. Hundreds of thousands across the nation today stand on the shoulders of that “freedom church” of 1968. We turn to America’s history—and to the realities of our own time—not to wallow in a fruitless nostalgia of
pain. We seek instead to redeem a democratic promise enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, yet even more deeply rooted in the living ingredients of our own lives and embodied in the countless and largely unacknowledged grassroots activists who have labored to lift those founding documents to their full meaning."
The document discusses social divisions and their relationship to politics in democracies. It makes three key points:
1) How people perceive their identities is crucial - if identities are seen as singular rather than multiple, divisions are harder to reconcile.
2) The way political leaders raise demands of communities matters - demands within constitutional frameworks are easier to accommodate.
3) How the government reacts to different groups' demands is important. While political expression of social divisions is normal in democracies, accommodating diversity requires addressing injustices and marginalization.
Tim Wise, a prominent white antiracist activist, gave a talk at the University of San Francisco attended by over 600 people from both on and off campus. He criticized the idea that the election of Barack Obama meant racism was over, arguing that racial inequalities still exist in areas like wealth distribution, employment rates, and healthcare outcomes. Wise presented statistics showing racial disparities and higher unemployment rates for black and Latino groups compared to whites. He urged the audience to have open conversations about racism and consider their own racial privileges in order to make progress on these issues.
Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer argues that President Obama does not deserve credit for additional funding provided to Israel for Iron Dome missile defense systems. While military aid to Israel is typical, Fleischer says Obama has weakened the US position by aiming for neutrality between Israel and Palestinians. Fleischer believes Republican candidate Mitt Romney will gain more of the Jewish vote than past Republicans due to Obama's stance on Israel, and that Romney will show stronger leadership than Obama on confronting Iran's nuclear program. Fleischer predicts Republicans will make further gains among Jewish voters in the US and that Romney will win the presidential election in November.
This paper discusses the experiences of Black Americans and racism in the United States. It explores how Black people faced segregation, being denied access to public places and facilities that were for whites only. It compares the treatment of Black people to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, as both groups faced lynching and discrimination based on their ethnicity. The paper argues that while it is important to acknowledge the past discrimination and learn from it, Black people must let go of resentment and allow the past to inspire them to continue moving forward successfully.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help alleviate symptoms of mental illness and boost overall mental well-being.
Segregation Story: Gordon Parks Photographermaditabalnco
Gordon Parks, LIFE magazine's first black photographer, traveled to his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas in 1950 to document the impact of school segregation. He photographed various scenes around Fort Scott and other Midwestern cities showing everyday African American life. The photo essay was never published but the images have recently resurfaced after being obscure for 65 years.
Between the Covers: Langston Hughes Tribute 2010jmongo
Tribute to legendary playwright and author Langston Hughes presented on November 4, 2010 at the National Black Child Development Institute Conference in Anaheim, California.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 calling for freedom and equality for all. While progress has been made, racism remains a problem in the US and worldwide in various forms. Racial profiling and hate crimes still occur regularly in America. Fear and ignorance often drive racism by causing people to act in ways outside their character against those they do not understand due to their race or ethnicity. True equality will be achieved not just by equal rights but when race is no longer a factor in how people are judged or treated.
The document discusses the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City where Tommie Smith and John Carlos conducted a protest on the medal podium. During the medal ceremony for the 200m event, Smith won gold and Carlos won bronze. They each raised a black-gloved fist and bowed their heads in a Black Power salute to protest racism in the US. They wore black socks with no shoes to represent black poverty. Their protest brought attention to civil rights issues and they were suspended from the US team for bringing politics into the Olympics. Their actions were widely viewed and helped spread awareness of ongoing struggles for racial equality and justice.
McDuffie, Obama, the World, and Africa, Souls 2012Erik McDuffie
This article discusses President Obama's foreign policy towards Africa and its implications. It argues that Obama's policy enhances U.S. imperialism in Africa and fails to advance Black interests. The lack of criticism from African Americans about unrest in Libya and Mali reveals a declining sense of international solidarity. Rekindling concern for Africa must be re-centered in the Black freedom movement as the 2012 election approaches.
Harvest of Shame
Bumper crops, a price crash and debt by demonetisation,
farmers face the perils of plenty. The result: suicides, violence,
growing anger and a political minefield
Global Patriarchal Christian White Supremacy & the Road to the U.S. Capitol I...WarrenJBlumenfeld
The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance put the U.S. on a list of “backsliding democracies” in its November 2021 report. “The United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself,” the report found. Dr. Blumenfeld's presentation addresses some of the historical global roots of fascism and the social cleavages giving rise to anti-democratic leaders, which set the context for the January 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection in the U.S.
After the September 11th terrorist attacks, there were reports of hate crimes targeting Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians in the United States. These included death threats to a Palestinian American student, rocks and eggs being thrown at an Islamic center, and bottles being thrown at a Sikh taxi driver. In response, President Bush visited an Islamic center to condemn the acts of violence and reaffirm that Islam teaches peace. However, some Americans still supported increased surveillance of Arab and Muslim Americans in the period after 9/11.
Remarks by Anc president Cyril Ramaphosa at the launch of the alliance anti-r...SABC News
George Floyd's death has sparked global outrage over racism. While progress has been made since colonialism and apartheid, racism remains deeply ingrained in many societies through economic, social, and psychological dimensions that reinforce inequality. To combat racism, governments and citizens must acknowledge its existence, give voice to marginalized communities, promote respect for diversity, and condemn all acts of intolerance through education, laws, and policies that promote equality and human rights for all.
This document discusses human rights in Islam across four chapters. It begins by contrasting the Western and Islamic approaches to human rights. The Western approach developed later and rights were often not upheld in practice, while in Islam rights are granted by God and cannot be changed.
Chapter two outlines basic human rights in Islam, including the right to life, safety of life, respect for women's chastity, a basic standard of living, and individual freedom. Slavery is forbidden and one has a right to help those in need.
Chapter three covers rights of citizens in an Islamic state, such as security of life and property, freedom of expression, and equality before the law. Rulers are not above the law.
The document summarizes the civil rights movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968. It discusses how the movement aimed to outlaw racial discrimination against African Americans and restore voting rights in southern states. By 1966, the Black Power Movement enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include issues like racial dignity, economic empowerment, and freedom from white oppression. The document then focuses on the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where Tommie Smith and John Carlos conducted a protest on the medal podium for the 200 meter race by raising their fists in black power salutes to bring attention to the lack of civil rights in America. Their protest was seen worldwide and resulted in backlash, but it brought significant attention to the ongoing civil rights issues
This document discusses structural racialization and how racial disparities persist even as explicit racist attitudes and laws have declined. It argues that seemingly neutral policies and institutions can reproduce racial inequalities without racial intent. It provides examples of persistent racial disparities in areas like unemployment, incarceration, income, wealth, and concentrated poverty. It advocates using a structural perspective and systems thinking to understand how disparate impacts accumulate over time through mutually reinforcing relationships between policies, institutions, and spatial aspects of opportunity. Transformational change is needed that addresses implicit biases and links individual and community fates rather than viewing them in isolation.
A failure of perspective moral assumptions and genocideSpaceX
This book review summarizes Samantha Power's book "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide. The book examines the consistent non-response of American leaders to genocide throughout the 20th century. Power argues this is due to a "failure of imagination" - that genocide is so horrific that leaders and the public choose to look away rather than confront it. However, the book review argues the reasons are more fundamental - stemming from failures in the Anglo-American legal system's moral perspective. This legal system is based on an "ethic of justice" that focuses on individual rights and self-interest over responsibilities to prevent mass violence and protect others. The review will explore how an "ethic of care" perspective
For the most diverse generation in U.S. history, there’s no single American Dream. Ethnic and racial influences matter, in both expected and counterintuitive ways. Discover the untold story of Millennials’ ambitions in this comprehensive research initiative.
The document summarizes the 1968 Olympics protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the medal ceremony for the 200m race. It provides context for their protest, describing the growing civil rights movement in the US and their desire to bring attention to racial inequality and poverty at home. It then describes how Smith won gold and Carlos won bronze and their coordinated protest of raising black-gloved fists on the podium to represent black power and unity. This sparked international controversy and led to them being banished from the Olympic village. Their actions have since been recognized for drawing global attention to racial injustice in America.
"The Souls of Poor Folk traces the 50 years since 1968, when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and thousands of Americans, alarmed at their government’s blindness to human need, launched the Poor People’s Campaign."
"50 years later, beset by deepening poverty, ecological devastation, systemic racism, and an economy harnessed to seemingly endless war, “The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival” likewise beckons our nation to higher ground. We call upon our society to see the predicaments of the most vulnerable among us and to halt the destruction of America’s moral vision. Hundreds of thousands across the nation today stand on the shoulders of that “freedom church” of 1968. We turn to America’s history—and to the realities of our own time—not to wallow in a fruitless nostalgia of
pain. We seek instead to redeem a democratic promise enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, yet even more deeply rooted in the living ingredients of our own lives and embodied in the countless and largely unacknowledged grassroots activists who have labored to lift those founding documents to their full meaning."
The document discusses social divisions and their relationship to politics in democracies. It makes three key points:
1) How people perceive their identities is crucial - if identities are seen as singular rather than multiple, divisions are harder to reconcile.
2) The way political leaders raise demands of communities matters - demands within constitutional frameworks are easier to accommodate.
3) How the government reacts to different groups' demands is important. While political expression of social divisions is normal in democracies, accommodating diversity requires addressing injustices and marginalization.
Tim Wise, a prominent white antiracist activist, gave a talk at the University of San Francisco attended by over 600 people from both on and off campus. He criticized the idea that the election of Barack Obama meant racism was over, arguing that racial inequalities still exist in areas like wealth distribution, employment rates, and healthcare outcomes. Wise presented statistics showing racial disparities and higher unemployment rates for black and Latino groups compared to whites. He urged the audience to have open conversations about racism and consider their own racial privileges in order to make progress on these issues.
Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer argues that President Obama does not deserve credit for additional funding provided to Israel for Iron Dome missile defense systems. While military aid to Israel is typical, Fleischer says Obama has weakened the US position by aiming for neutrality between Israel and Palestinians. Fleischer believes Republican candidate Mitt Romney will gain more of the Jewish vote than past Republicans due to Obama's stance on Israel, and that Romney will show stronger leadership than Obama on confronting Iran's nuclear program. Fleischer predicts Republicans will make further gains among Jewish voters in the US and that Romney will win the presidential election in November.
This paper discusses the experiences of Black Americans and racism in the United States. It explores how Black people faced segregation, being denied access to public places and facilities that were for whites only. It compares the treatment of Black people to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, as both groups faced lynching and discrimination based on their ethnicity. The paper argues that while it is important to acknowledge the past discrimination and learn from it, Black people must let go of resentment and allow the past to inspire them to continue moving forward successfully.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help alleviate symptoms of mental illness and boost overall mental well-being.
Segregation Story: Gordon Parks Photographermaditabalnco
Gordon Parks, LIFE magazine's first black photographer, traveled to his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas in 1950 to document the impact of school segregation. He photographed various scenes around Fort Scott and other Midwestern cities showing everyday African American life. The photo essay was never published but the images have recently resurfaced after being obscure for 65 years.
Between the Covers: Langston Hughes Tribute 2010jmongo
Tribute to legendary playwright and author Langston Hughes presented on November 4, 2010 at the National Black Child Development Institute Conference in Anaheim, California.
The document discusses the State of Black America report published by the National Urban League. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the report and discusses how it has become a benchmark for examining racial equality in America. It highlights some of the offerings from the 2016 report, including a complete website with data and analysis, a web series discussing the key findings, and the full report which is available online. It also discusses the Equality Index included in the report, which tracks racial equality using metrics in areas like economics, health, education, social justice, and civic engagement. The Equality Index for 2016 shows that black Americans have 72.2% of the equality that white Americans have. The document calls for a "Main Street Marshall Plan"
The document provides a detailed history of African Americans from 1619 to 2008. It covers major events and developments such as the first slaves brought to America in 1619, the Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation in the 1860s, and Barack Obama becoming the first African American president in 2008. It also includes sections on demographics, education statistics, religion, cultural influences, and traditions like Kwanzaa. In over 20 sections, the document presents a comprehensive overview of the people, events, challenges, and accomplishments within the African American community throughout American history.
Black History Month is observed each February to celebrate the achievements of African Americans. It began as Negro History Week in 1926, proposed by Dr. Carter G. Woodson to honor black history and contributions. Woodson chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It was later expanded to a full month. The presentation discussed important abolitionists, civil rights leaders, inventors, scientists, athletes and shared the history of the presenter's family dating back to slavery and the post-Civil War period.
The document summarizes two important events in African American history - the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln that freed slaves in Confederate states, and the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech. It provides historical context for both events, including the struggles that led to them, key people involved, and their lasting impacts in advancing civil rights and equality.
Traditional African clothing and styles have influenced African American fashion and culture since the 1960s. Common women's styles include vibrant dresses and suits, while men often wear natural hairstyles. Soul food originated from inexpensive ingredients used by African Americans and now some traditional dishes use healthier options. Popular African American music genres are hip-hop, R&B, rap, jazz, and blues. African American art was influenced by African, European, and American traditions and has contributed greatly to modern American arts. Many African American holidays like Juneteenth and Kwanzaa celebrate their heritage and culture.
African American culture is rooted in African traditions but is a unique blend with some European American influences. Family and church are core values, with kinship bonds extending to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. While Protestant Christianity is most common, some African Americans also practice Islam, Catholicism, or traditional African religions. Culturally competent care requires understanding the impact of historical discrimination and showing respect for health beliefs, which may include spiritual causes of illness and home remedies in addition to biomedical treatment. Diet plays an important role, as traditional soul foods can increase risk of obesity and related diseases if not prepared healthfully.
Myth Making of Political Parties / Divide and control / the Constitution sh...Robert Powell
Exposes political parties for their deception and manipulation of society. Prejudice of emotional rhetoric, and the strategy of divide and defeat. Hegelian strategy in destroying America. Occupy as Hegelian tool. Chaos as strategy against middle America. Millennial citizens must move to protect Constitutional values. Why the Constitution? The two parties? Better to call them the Committers & omitters. What ideological persuasion?
Well, the Democrat Party initiated the KKK, killed thousands and blamed the Republicans. The Republicans were anti-slavery and pro- civil Rights. The control mechanism, is "Psychopolitics" a tool to disguise an objective from the masses. The atheistic, Global Governance thoughts erupted in 1873 with Cecil Rhodes and a few other megalomaniacs. The elite, truly have no souls, their "God" is wealth. You and I
if we let this continue, will simply be slaves of another kind. Rest assured, if the renewal, and removal of corruption does not succeed, you literally will be receiving
your favorite color kneepads in the mail.
Response one –pol-8Note_three or four references for your respon.docxronak56
Response one –pol-8
Note_three or four references for your response
Herbert Hoover once stated, the business of America is business, and the best business practice would be to ensure that all its people have a chance to participate in the American Dream. America’s business is the people’s business; full participation in the nation’s economic life, business, or government. The American Dream consists of tenets about achieving success, about material well-being, religious freedoms, membership in elective office, and a successful family. The American dream is being inclusiveness in the melting pot. I remember “at least for me,” growing up in the deep south during the 60s and 70s. As a young child our community was black, we shopped at black owned businesses, we ate dinner at black owned restaurants, we even went to drive-theaters in the mid-60s as a form of social entertainment. I was old enough to remember when schools were first integrated due to the 1954 Supreme Court decision “separate but equal” being ruled unconstitutional. If I can remember, so can a lot of others, and not just domestically.
The United States Constitution was written with a focus on race and gender. The men who wrote the constitution were escaping persecution as well. America was founded on race and gender issues, wars, aristocratic oppression, and religious persecutions. They developed a government system for the people, and by the people. Individuals we elect bring regional biases to the federal government. They been adjudicating or legislating racism since the first congress convened. Take the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime, or the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed citizens’ rights (only selected few) to make and enforce economic contracts, and to purchase, sell, or lease property. Women were not even given a public voice either. The 14th Amendment declared all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. to be citizens. The 15th Amendment forbade State’s to deprive their citizens of their right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and one last example, the “First Ku Klux Klan Act (Civil Rights Act of 1870), prohibited discrimination in voter registration based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude, etc. Several States adopted Black Codes, and Jim Crow laws to suppress their minority populations. Frozen in time, once proclaiming “I have a Dream” during his historic march on the nations capitol, Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech has been endlessly reproduced and selectively quoted over the years and, yet, his speeches retain their majesty of justice, but seem to have lost their political effectiveness over time.
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A Capsule of Black Electoral Politics in America
1. “A CAPSULE OF BLACK ELECTORAL POLITICS IN AMERICA”
From the Gary Declaration, National Black Political Convention, 1972
To
“Rejecting the Language of White Supremacy”
This RBG Learning Series includes an eloquent and cogent historical chronology of the topic from the re-construction era
forward by Chairman Omali Yeshitela – entitled “Obama, the Elections and the Struggle for Justice, Peace, a Better Life and
Black Power”
See: Black is Back Coalition Conference, Newark, New Jersey (2012)
http://www.blackcommentator.com/143/143_cover_white_supremacy.html NBPC, Bobby Seale, left, and Jesse Jackson talk, Saturday night, March 12,
1972, at the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana.
Muhammad Ali points to newspaper headline to prove that he's not the only one Washington, D.C.- Howard University, remained shut down as rebellious
protesting the Vietnam War, March 1966. students continued to try to force radical changes in the federally supported
school's administration, March 22, 1968.
“A CAPSULE OF BLACK ELECTORAL POLITICS IN AMERICA” Page 1 of 13
2. Gary Declaration, National Black Political Convention, 1972
Source: http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/documents_us/gary_declaration.htm
THE BLACK AGENDA
The Gary Declaration: Black Politics at the Crossroads
Introduction
The Black Agenda is addressed primarily to Black people in America. It rises naturally out of the
bloody decades and centuries of our people's struggle on these shores. It flows from the most
recent surgings of our own cultural and political consciousness. It is our attempt to define some
of the essential changes which must take place in this land as we and our children move to self-
determination and true independence.
The Black Agenda assumes that no truly basic change for our benefit takes place in Black or
white America unless we Black people organize to initiate that change. It assumes that we must
have some essential agreement on overall goals, even though we may differ on many specific
strategies.
Therefore, this is an initial statement of goals and directions for our own generation, some first
definitions of crucial issues around which Black people must organize and move in 1972 and
beyond. Anyone who claims to be serious about the survival and liberation of Black people must
be serious about the implementation of the Black Agenda.
What Time Is It?
We come to Gary in an hour of great crisis and tremendous promise for Black America. While
the white nation hovers on the brink of chaos, while its politicians offer no hope of real change,
we stand on the edge of history and are faced with an amazing and frightening choice: We may
choose in 1972 to slip back into the decadent white politics of American life, or we may press
forward, moving relentlessly from Gary to the creation of our own Black life. The choice is
large, but the time is very short.
Let there be no mistake. We come to Gary in a time of unrelieved crisis for our people. From
every rural community in Alabama to the high-rise compounds of Chicago, we bring to this
Convention the agonies of the masses of our people. From the sprawling Black cities of Watts
and Nairobi in the West to the decay of Harlem and Roxbury in the East, the testimony we bear
is the same. We are the witnesses to social disaster.
Our cities are crime-haunted dying grounds. Huge sectors of our youth -- and countless others --
face permanent unemployment. Those of us who work find our paychecks able to purchase less
“A CAPSULE OF BLACK ELECTORAL POLITICS IN AMERICA” Page 2 of 13
3. and less. Neither the courts nor the prisons contribute to anything resembling justice or
reformation. The schools are unable -- or unwilling -- to educate our children for the real world
of our struggles. Meanwhile, the officially approved epidemic of drugs threatens to wipe out the
minds and strength of our best young warriors.
Economic, cultural, and spiritual depression stalk Black America, and the price for survival often
appears to be more than we are able to pay. On every side, in every area of our lives, the
American institutions in which we have placed our trust are unable to cope with the crises they
have created by their single-minded dedication to profits for some and white supremacy above
all.
Beyond These Shores
And beyond these shores there is more of the same. For while we are pressed down under all the
dying weight of a bloated, inwardly decaying white civilization, many of our brothers in Africa
and the rest of the Third World have fallen prey to the same powers of exploitation and deceit.
Wherever America faces the unorganized, politically powerless forces of the non-white world, its
goal is domination by any means necessary -- as if to hide from itself the crumbling of its own
systems of life and work.
But Americans cannot hide. They can run to China and the moon and to the edges of
consciousness, but they cannot hide. The crises we face as Black people are the crises of the
entire society. They go deep, to the very bones and marrow, to the essential nature of America's
economic, political, and cultural systems. They are the natural end-product of a society built on
the twin foundations of white racism and white capitalism.
So, let it be clear to us now: The desperation of our people, the agonies of our cities, the
desolation of our countryside, the pollution of the air and the water -- these things will not be
significantly affected by new faces in the old places in Washington D.C. This is the truth we
must face here in Gary if we are to join our people everywhere in the movement forward toward
liberation.
White Realities, Black Choice
A Black political convention, indeed all truly Black politics must begin from this truth: The
American system does not work for the masses of our people, and it cannot be made to work
without radical fundamental change. (Indeed this system does not really work in favor of the
humanity of anyone in America.)
In light of such realities, we come to Gary and are confronted with a choice. Will we believe the
truth that history presses into our face -- or will we, too, try to hide? Will the small favors some
of us have received blind us to the larger sufferings of our people, or open our eyes to the
testimony of our history in America?
“A CAPSULE OF BLACK ELECTORAL POLITICS IN AMERICA” Page 3 of 13
4. For more than a century we have followed the path of political dependence on white men and
their systems. From the Liberty Party in the decades before the Civil War to the Republican
Party of Abraham Lincoln, we trusted in white men and white politics as our deliverers. Sixty
years ago, W.E.B. DuBois said he would give the Democrats their "last chance" to prove their
sincere commitment to equality for Black people -- and he was given white riots and official
segregation in peace and in war.
Nevertheless, some twenty years later we became Democrats in the name of Franklin Roosevelt,
then supported his successor Harry Truman, and even tried a "non-partisan" Republican General
of the Army named Eisenhower. We were wooed like many others by the superficial liberalism
of John F. Kennedy and the make-believe populism of Lyndon Johnson. Let there be no more of
that.
Both Parties Have Betrayed Us
Here at Gary, let us never forget that while the times and the names and the parties have
continually changed, one truth has faced us insistently, never changing: Both parties have
betrayed us whenever their interests conflicted with ours (which was most of the time), and
whenever our forces were unorganized and dependent, quiescent and compliant. Nor should this
be surprising, for by now we must know that the American political system, like all other white
institutions in America, was designed to operate for the benefit of the white race: It was never
meant to do anything else.
That is the truth that we must face at Gary. If white "liberalism" could have solved our problems,
then Lincoln and Roosevelt and Kennedy would have done so. But they did not solve ours nor
the rest of the nation's. If America's problems could have been solved by forceful, politically
skilled and aggressive individuals, then Lyndon Johnson would have retained the presidency. If
the true "American Way" of unbridled monopoly capitalism, combined with a ruthless military
imperialism could do it, then Nixon would not be running around the world, or making speeches
comparing his nation's decadence to that of Greece and Rome.
If we have never faced it before, let us face it at Gary. The profound crisis of Black people and
the disaster of America are not simply caused by men nor will they be solved by men alone.
These crises are the crises of basically flawed economics and politics, and or cultural
degradation. None of the Democratic candidates and none of the Republican candidates --
regardless of their vague promises to us or to their white constituencies -- can solve our problems
or the problems of this country without radically changing the systems by which it operates.
The Politics of Social Transformation
So we come to Gary confronted with a choice. But it is not the old convention question of which
candidate shall we support, the pointless question of who is to preside over a decaying and
unsalvageable system. No, if we come to Gary out of the realities of the Black communities of
“A CAPSULE OF BLACK ELECTORAL POLITICS IN AMERICA” Page 4 of 13
5. this land, then the only real choice for us is whether or not we will live by the truth we know,
whether we will move to organize independently, move to struggle for fundamental
transformation, for the creation of new directions, towards a concern for the life and the meaning
of Man. Social transformation or social destruction, those are our only real choices.
If we have come to Gary on behalf of our people in America, in the rest of this hemisphere, and
in the Homeland -- if we have come for our own best ambitions -- then a new Black Politics must
come to birth. If we are serious, the Black Politics of Gary must accept major responsibility for
creating both the atmosphere and the program for fundamental, far-ranging change in America.
Such responsibility is ours because it is our people who are most deeply hurt and ravaged by the
present systems of society. That responsibility for leading the change is ours because we live in a
society where few other men really believe in the responsibility of a truly human society for
anyone anywhere.
We Are The Vanguard
The challenge is thrown to us here in Gary. It is the challenge to consolidate and organize our
own Black role as the vanguard in the struggle for a new society. To accept that challenge is to
move independent Black politics. There can be no equivocation on that issue. History leaves us
no other choice. White politics has not and cannot bring the changes we need.
We come to Gary and are faced with a challenge. The challenge is to transform ourselves from
favor-seeking vassals and loud-talking, "militant" pawns, and to take up the role that the
organized masses of our people have attempted to play ever since we came to these shores. That
of harbingers of true justice and humanity, leaders in the struggle for liberation.
A major part of the challenge we must accept is that of redefining the functions and operations of
all levels of American government, for the existing governing structures -- from Washington to
the smallest county -- are obsolescent. That is part of the reason why nothing works and why
corruption rages throughout public life. For white politics seeks not to serve but to dominate and
manipulate.
We will have joined the true movement of history if at Gary we grasp the opportunity to press
Man forward as the first consideration of politics. Here at Gary we are faithful to the best hopes
of our fathers and our people if we move for nothing less than a politics which places community
before individualism, love before sexual exploitation, a living environment before profits, peace
before war, justice before unjust "order", and morality before expediency.
This is the society we need, but we delude ourselves here at Gary if we think that change can be
achieved without organizing the power, the determined national Black power, which is necessary
to insist upon such change, to create such change, to seize change.
Towards A Black Agenda
“A CAPSULE OF BLACK ELECTORAL POLITICS IN AMERICA” Page 5 of 13
6. So when we turn to a Black Agenda for the seventies, we move in the truth of history, in the
reality of the moment. We move recognizing that no one else is going to represent our interests
but ourselves. The society we seek cannot come unless Black people organize to advance its
coming. We lift up a Black Agenda recognizing that white America moves towards the abyss
created by its own racist arrogance, misplaced priorities, rampant materialism, and ethical
bankruptcy. Therefore, we are certain that the Agenda we now press for in Gary is not only for
the future of Black humanity, but is probably the only way the rest of America can save itself
from the harvest of its criminal past.
So, Brothers and Sisters of our developing Black nation, we now stand at Gary as people whose
time has come. From every corner of Black America, from all liberation movements of the Third
World, from the graves of our fathers and the coming world of our children, we are faced with a
challenge and a call:
Though the moment is perilous we must not despair. We must seize the time, for the time is ours.
We begin here and how in Gary. We begin with an independent Black political movement, an
independent Black Political Agenda, and independent Black spirit. Nothing less will do. We
must build for our people. We must build for our world. We stand on the edge of history. We
cannot turn back.
Source: "The National Black Political Agenda," in Komozi Woodard, Randolph Boehm, Daniel
Lewis, ed., The Black Power Movement, Part 1: Amiri Baraka from Black Arts to Black
Radicalism (Bethesda, Maryland: University Publications of America, 2000), microfilm, reel 3.
“A CAPSULE OF BLACK ELECTORAL POLITICS IN AMERICA” Page 6 of 13
7. Issue 143 - June 23 2005
As we move toward an historic national Black convention in the first quarter of 2006 – “Going
back to Gary,” as convener William Lucy, President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
phrased it, referring to the 1972 National Black Political Convention in that Indiana city – it is
imperative that we reexamine the language of our political discourse. Otherwise, we will wind up
talking nonsense – or worse, speaking against our own interests.
In the 33 years since the Gary convention, corporate-speak has become ever more deeply
embedded in the national conversation, reflecting the assumptions and aspirations of the very
rich, who have vastly increased and concentrated their power over civil society. This alien
language saturates the political culture via corporate media of all kinds, insidiously defining the
parameters of discussion. Once one becomes entrapped in the value-laden matrix of the enemy’s
language, the battle is all but lost. We cannot strategize ourselves out of the racist-corporate coil
while ensnared in the enemy’s carefully crafted definitions and points of reference.
“Going back to Gary” must mean going back to straight talk, from the African American
perspective. The political consensus among the Black masses remains remarkably consistent, but
has been relentlessly challenged since 1972 by 1) the rise of a small but vocal corporate class of
African Americans who see their own fortunes as linked to larger corporate structures, and 2)
aggressive corporate subsidization, beginning in the mid-Nineties, of a growing clique of Black
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8. politicians who define Black progress in terms of acceptance among rich, white people.
Thus, the internal contradictions in African American politics have greatly multiplied since Gary.
This has not occurred because of increasing conservatism among a much enlarged Black middle
class over the last three decades – a corporate-concocted slander for which there is no factual
evidence – but by the determination of Big Money to impose an alternative leadership on the
recalcitrant Black masses.
Time for confrontation, not celebration
The 1972 National Black Political Convention took place in an atmosphere of euphoria over the
demise of Jim Crow, which unleashed the shackles of those Black social sectors that were
prepared to take advantage of new opportunities, and empowered a new set of politicians who
found themselves in majority Black jurisdictions. When the call to convention went out,
everyone was welcomed, and as many as 5,000 showed up. Although much worthwhile political
work was accomplished, the general atmosphere was celebratory. We were “Movin’ on Up” to
“Celebrate Good Times.” Most believed there “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now – We’re on the
Move.”
Essentially, the Gary-era Black discussion centered on consolidation of the gains made during
the previous civil rights decade. Short shrift was given to those who had called for deep
structural change in the United States, whose demands (and often, lives) were snuffed out by
U.S. police and intelligence agencies amidst the carnival of No-Mo’-Jim-Crow. There seemed to
be great promise for Black America under a post-segregation regime – and certainly there was,
for some. As long as that promise seemed attainable, demands for basic change in American (and
world) power relationships were deemed by the upwardly mobile African American sectors as
passé, distractions, quaint, but dated.
This self-satisfied analysis was encouraged by a (mostly) white corporate class that harbored
larger plans for total world domination: for the absolute, planetary rule of money. By the mid-
Nineties, important elements of this class finally got over their reflexive racism – the aversion to
sitting in a room with more than a few Black people – and invited some Black folks to join the
club.
In 1972, Black collaborators had to work hard to get paid even a pittance to advance the
corporate agenda that is inextricably entwined with the ideology of White American Manifest
Destiny. Today, they are actively solicited, and handsomely paid in monetary, media and
political currency. Corporate-speak is mimicked in many high places of Black American society.
For example, corporations dominated the leadership-selection process of our largest mass
organization, the NAACP. Corporations have always had a special place in the National Urban
League. Corporate influence has reached unprecedented levels among members of the
Congressional Black Caucus – while most members stand firm with the historical Black
Consensus. And corporations have created out of whole cloth a number of purportedly “Black”
organizations, such as the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), which serve the
interests of Wal-Mart and the rightwing Bradley Foundation – and are now also subsidized by
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9. the Bush regime.
Under Bush, the Black clergy have been subjected to wholesale cooptation, through the Bradley
Foundation-invented Faith Based Initiatives bribery schemes. This massive subornation of a
critical Black institution resulted in only a net two percent change in Black party affiliation –
from nine percent to eleven percent Black GOP voters in 2004. The base remains steadfast, but
the leadership institutions have been infected by corporate and Republican money.
Even so, the major Black Baptist denominations this year reaffirmed their allegiance to the
“social gospel” that is our proudest legacy, and has generated and encouraged so many other
movements that have pushed the envelope of civilization.
Who, then, should be welcomed to the next “Gary” convention, tentatively scheduled for March,
2006? Everyone, just as in 1972.
It is the job of the conveners and organizers of the next National Black Political Convention to
set the terms of the Great Black Debate. In large part, this is a function of language – to craft a
language that is not infested with assumptions born of white privilege, imperialism, war-
mongering, and anti-social ideology. In other words: Let’s talk Black. Among our own people,
that kind of conversation wins the day, every time. Amen.
The apologists, collaborators, and opportunists cannot confuse us if we speak directly to the
issues that our people care about most deeply. Let the turncoats come – and be exposed. Some
may even be saved.
No rule of law?
It is at times of crisis that precise language becomes most important. The Bush regime has
plunged the entire planet into crisis – their grotesque version of globalization. While serving as
White House counsel, the current Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzalez,
derided the Geneva Convention – the basis of international law, and codified as U.S. law – as
“quaint.” The 2002 Gonzalez memo signaled that the regime was preparing to launch, not a War
on Terror, but a war against world order, and against the rule of law within U.S. borders. We
must reject his proclamation, in precise language that affirms the magnificent wording of the
Geneva Convention, which outlaws aggressive war and upholds the right of all peoples to self-
determination. That means get out of Iraq now, and no further threats to the independence and
self-determination of other nations.
Black America is the firmest national constituency for peace, having opposed U.S. adventures
abroad in greater proportions than any other ethnic group. We arrived at this more civilized state
of being through our own gory experience of White American Manifest Destiny, which declared
that a Black person has no rights “that a white man is bound to respect.” George Bush is acting
out this vicious dictum on a global scale, and we know it. Therefore, we must tell the truth, as
the masses of Black folks understand it: the United States is an aggressor nation in the world, and
we demand that it cease, immediately. The problem in Iraq is not U.S. casualties, which are the
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10. result of George Bush’s crimes, but the predicate crime of U.S. aggression, a violation of
international law.
Mass Incarceration is Genocide
Black America has always stood for the rule of law, despite the fact that American law has so
often ruled against us. It does so every day, in vast disproportion to the anti-social behavior of
some African American individuals. Guantanamo Bay is, indeed, part of an international “gulag”
of American prisons, dotting the globe, as Amnesty International has declared. But the largest
“gulag” in the world is in the United States – half Black and only 30 percent white, in a 70
percent white country. Fully one out of eight incarcerated human beings on earth are African
American, the casualties of an internal war that has not ceased since the Euro-American
aggressions against Africa. Rather, it escalates.
At our next grand convention, we must state in no uncertain terms that the real crime wave is
being committed against us by all levels of U.S. governments, which have placed Black people
under surveillance for the purpose of incarcerating them, and devised laws that impact most
heavily on our communities. Mass Black incarceration is a legacy of slavery and, therefore, a
form of genocide. “We Charge Genocide,” again – because our social structures are being
deliberately destroyed through government policy. Our language must make that plain.
This language is not meant for the oppressors’ ears, but for those of our own people. Black
conventions are meant to mobilize Black people. Others are invited to take note. Our object is to
galvanize African Americans to take action.
Our history tells us that others follow our lead. Therefore, as a people that believe in the oneness
of humanity, we are obligated to lead. We must reject the entire edifice of language that justifies
a U.S. war machine that costs more than all the rest of the world’s militaries, combined, and then
claims there is no money for the people’s welfare. We know where the money is: it is engaged in
criminal, global corporate enterprises, such as war. We demand these enterprises cease, and that
the national treasure be redirected to domestic concerns, and to righting the wrongs that the
oppressors have inflicted on humanity throughout the planet – including the wrongs committed
against Black people in the United States.
We must not argue on corporate terms, about the “affordability” of national health insurance, or
housing. We have a right to life, and to live somewhere. There will be no negotiation. Human
rights trump property rights and corporate rights and warmonger rights. State it clearly.
A real social contract
Corporate politicians and media deploy the code words of “working people” and “middle class”
to mean “white people” as the “deserving” members of the national community. We must reject
such language, which is intended to exclude all Black people, including those who work, but
explicitly dismisses the unemployed. We must not accept that corporate decisions to eject or bar
people from the workplace, should have moral authority or political effect. All citizens have a
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11. right to live a decent life. We must demand a national minimum income, in addition to living
wage standards.
The cost of the Iraq war and related U.S. military deployments would finance a fundamental
change in the average American’s life expectations – and life span. Nobody needs such a change
more than Black folks. The rich can afford it. We need to say so, and dare the rich to go to some
other country with their money. Nobody else wants them, and nobody else will fund their
military, which is the savior of their holdings.
We must directly confront the idea – the unquestioned Holy Grail of corporate politicians and
media – that corporations have the rights of citizens. Black and brown metropolises (the top 100
largest U.S. cities have non-white majorities) are at the mercy of corporate barons who shape the
urban landscape to fit their profit-driven needs. Inevitably, they move in white people, the
process that we call “gentrification.” This process is mostly unchallenged, yet it decides where
Black people will live and work, and whether we will preserve the majorities that allow us to
even contemplate meaningful democracy in urban America. While we are still majorities in these
places, we must take action to exercise the powers that cities possess, in the service of our
people. There must be a movement for Democratic Development – development that serves the
people who already live in the city. This is perhaps the greatest challenge that faces the next
National Black Convention because, if it turns out anything like Gary, in 1972, there will be
plenty of Black politicians in attendance who have not done a damn thing to preserve the assets
of the cities they nominally oversee, or to protect their own electorate from being displaced by
corporate power. So be it. We must tell the truth, because our people are in crisis.
There is no solving the problem of urban education, unless we can force the sharing of education
funds. White people in the mass have shown over the last four decades that they will not share
classrooms with us. But they must share the money, to correct the gross disparity between
suburban and urban schools. Integration is not a one-way street, but citizenship is a shared status.
We must state clearly that we are entitled to equal funding – that is, funding adequate for a white
suburban district, and additional monies to deal with problems that suburbs don’t have.
There are many other issues that must be tackled as we struggle to escape the Race to the Bottom
that has been initiated by multinational corporations, and is politically empowered by the
historical racism of white Americans, and made lethal by the military power of the U.S. state.
The conveners of the next Black Political Convention should keep the agenda as efficient as
possible, knowing that our assembled folks will add a plethora of resolutions. But keep our eyes
on the prize. Black folks understand racism, but the whole world is getting an education in
unbridled corporate behavior, that leads to famine, wars, and the dismantling of social services
worldwide – including the United States, which is intentionally being made to fail as a society.
In the current configuration, globalization means corporate rule – by the gun, if necessary.
Privatization is part and parcel of the deal, a divvying up of the spoils. National rights and the
rights of minorities are all subservient to the rights of capital. Voting rights go down the toilet.
We must teach a lesson in resistance, and give guidance to action – for our own people, and to
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12. those who look to us for leadership in the desert that is the United States.
If we are to Speak Truth to Power, we must aim our words with precision.
Black knowledge as a weapon
The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists is ideal for the mission that faces us, since Black
unionists have an intimate understanding of both corporate ruthlessness and the racist
machinations that white privilege has found so successful through centuries of plunder and rule.
Black unionists know the animal up close, and have smelled his foul breath. They also know the
weaknesses of white co-unionists, who are quick to claim white privilege and abandon class
solidarity. These are lessons learned painfully – but become weapons in the hands of those
committed to struggle.
We must not accept the legitimacy of the current rulers of the United States. They are thieves:
stealers of elections; of the bodies of a million imprisoned African Americans; of the minds that
are enfeebled by their corporate media; of the countries that they treat as plantations, and feel
they can invade at will; and thieves of the productive capacity of the world, which grows every
year, but fills only their own bank accounts.
The predatory lenders of the United States have stolen a half trillion dollars from the pockets of
African Americans, according to anti-racist reporter Tim Wise. They have also stolen whole
continents, and converted their populations into low-wage slaves whose labor is used as a
weapon against workers of the United States, including the dwindling number of Black workers
fortunate enough to have jobs.
The global tentacles of multinational corporations are not a logical consequence of human
civilization, but a construction of predators, whom we know all too well. It is our task to uphold
civilization, against the corporate machine that would crush all humans underfoot. We know the
feeling. We’ve been crushed before, and reel from the butt of the gun. But still we rise, to indict
the criminals.
And we, alone, have a constituency that is ready to march – if we tell them where and why to go.
Let us choose our words carefully.
Reaffirm the Black Consensus
We are not looking for drama, but for clarity. The corporations and their war machines are
providing the drama. A nation and world in crisis need clarity. Black America retains the power
to speak, in the terms of our elders who identified with – and were – the Wretched of the Earth.
On this coming Fourth of July, remember the words of Frederick Douglass, our greatest thinker
and leader of the 19th Century, who spoke in the darkest hours of our people’s oppression, in
1852:
“I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never
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13. looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July!”
Frederick Douglass’s words were not popular with his white audience, but they buoyed the
spirits of a people seeking freedom. They resonate with us now, when the “character and conduct
of this nation never looked blacker.”
We can end this madness, but not without great exercise of discipline, and the precise use of
language. Much of it has already been written. But we must write the next version of our
destiny…and act on it.
Glen Ford and Peter Gamble, Co-Publishers of BlackCommentator.com, are writing a book on
Barack Obama and the Crisis in Black Leadership.
Related reading / downloads:
Black is Back Coalition AFRICAN JUDAS: Barack What is African Internationalism,
Conference, Newark, New Jersey Obama and the Politics of White Political Education Led by
(2012) Supremacy Chairman Omali
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