THE DEMANDS THAT WE MADE WERE NOT ENOUGH…
At the end of the day, we still have no reservations; there is no more Black Wall Street, both Detroit and Chicago are under political attack, and Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue is no longer the richest Black neighborhood in America, overflowing with productive families and businesses. When I say we have no reservations, I am not suggesting that Black Americans should have been placed on the same kind of reservation system forced upon Native people. I am speaking about land, sovereignty, and something tangible that belongs collectively to us. Something that could have supported true self-determination.
The Civil Rights Movement was considered successful because it appeared that we got what we wanted: “Equality.” We were no longer considered 3/5ths of a human being; we are people. The idea of pursuing a post-secondary education as a Black person is now a real option and not just figments of a dream. We obtained the right to vote if we choose to do so, and we can patronize any establishment that we’d like. However, I can’t help but question in the back of my mind, “Is this what we really fought for?”
As I look at how our rights are slowly but surely being chipped away at, I can’t help but wonder: was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 one of the things that helped pacify Black America and redirect our fight before it grew into something much bigger? I am not saying that I have some smoking-gun document proving that was the intention behind the law. I am saying that when I look at what Black people were demanding, what more radical Black movements later began demanding, and how aggressively those movements were targeted, I cannot help but question whether reform also served as a pressure-release valve.
Was the end of the Civil Rights Movement the beginning of the death of the Revolution?
That’s a bold question to ask. I’ll explain what I mean. Think about it. Jim Crow had to be addressed because the long-standing issue of “equality” would have only fueled Black America’s rage and fight even more. Black Amerikkka would have grown even angrier. In the midst of that rage, we may have grown to be more powerful. Our strengthened sense of community could have grown even tighter. That is a major threat.
In only a matter of time, we may have realized that we wanted something more solidified than just access to this land, a place in America’s politics, or a mention in its history books. We may have grown to truly want our own. Not simply inclusion, but ownership. Not just access, but power. Not just equality inside somebody else’s system, but the ability to build and control institutions of our own. That realization alone would have been problematic.
So when I say that Jim Crow was “abolished” and yet somehow still survived in other forms, I am talking about the possibility that once racism became less obvious, it also became easier for people to believe the fight was over. If we cannot spot Jim Crow instantly, then Jim Crow does not look like a threat to us and all appears to be well.
With that being said, we’ve gotten too comfortable. Don’t get me wrong; we made power moves and even hit billionaire status, but when you look at the state that “we” were in by 2014: WE’VE BEEN HAD. We deserve so much more. Sorry Barack Obama, but a Black president never did and never will mean everything to me.
THIS IS AMERIKKKA…
Can you say “Hostile Takeover”?
The saying that “Black people can’t come together and do anything” plays on my nerves all the time. The issue really isn’t “Black Unity.” The real issue is the fact that when that sense of community is reached, Black America has historically been treated as a threat to white supremacy and to the established order.
We saw versions of that in the treatment of Malcolm X and other Black leaders who developed real political influence. The Nation of Islam had structure, discipline, organization, and reach. Malcolm eventually moved beyond the NOI and began speaking internationally about Black liberation and human rights. Whether people agreed with him or not, that kind of political growth mattered.
The false imprisonments of members of MOVE and the targeting of members of the Black Panther Party are testaments that Black people absolutely can come together collectively for the greater good of our community. We have done it before. That realization itself is POWER.
Black America went under attack through programs such as America’s COINTELPRO, the Counterintelligence Program. The FBI used surveillance, infiltration, informants, disruption, and other tactics against political and social organizations, including the Black Panther Party.
COINTELPRO existed before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but its targeting of Black nationalist and Black liberation organizations intensified during the same broader era in which Black political consciousness was growing. I do not believe those developments should be looked at in isolation from one another. The government was willing to grant certain legal reforms while also aggressively targeting movements that demanded more than integration. That is the part that makes me question everything.
When you start talking Black nationalism, self-determination, economic independence, community control, or anything that removes complete dependence on the American system, suddenly you are viewed very differently. Just look at Marcus Garvey. He was building an international movement around Black nationalism, economics, pride, and self-determination. He was gaining influence, and that influence was seen as dangerous.
The Revolution was aggressively targeted after Black America flexed a glimpse of that power during the Civil Rights era and the years surrounding it. What I mean by “the death of the revolution” is not that Black resistance literally died. Black resistance continued. Black organizing continued. Black people continued fighting. I am asking whether the direction of the fight changed. Did integration become the destination when liberation had the potential to become something much bigger? Did we begin measuring progress by how much access we had to America instead of how much power we possessed independently of it? That is the question.
The reformation of Jim Crow, because Jim Crow never completely died, along with the deaths, imprisonments, surveillance, infiltration, and destruction of some of our most influential leaders and organizations, changed the trajectory of Black political power, in my opinion.
They gave us what we wanted at the time for several reasons. Who knows where Black people would have been if we kept going. Maybe Black nationalism would have become normal. Maybe economic independence would have become the standard. Maybe community-controlled institutions would have grown stronger.
Maybe we would have demanded land. Maybe we would have demanded political structures that went beyond representation. Maybe we would have eventually questioned whether simply having access to America was enough. And that is where my theory of pacification comes from.
I am not arguing that civil rights victories were meaningless. They were not. People fought, bled, went to jail, and died for rights that Black people should have had from the beginning. What I am questioning is whether legal equality became the finish line when it should have been one step in a much larger fight for liberation.
Our present day is reverting to a time in history that my generation cannot completely identify with. That’s the double-edged sword of living under no ceilings. You relax. You begin to lose touch with your inner fight. At times, it is easy to underestimate your own strength. Then one day, you awake… My question is, after living life where the sky is pretty much the limit, can we pick up the torch and continue on with the movement, or are we too preoccupied with social media and celebrity gossip?
With all that is going on, what is the next move for Black America? Now that we have seen Trayvon Martin get zero justice, Marissa Alexander punished after defending herself, and Michael Brown’s death send the world into an uproar, it is hard not to look at what is going on with Black America today and wonder: What happened?
I had to end this article but there is STILL so much to say…
–BlaqKharma