(ThyBlackMan.com) The black freedom movement is officially dead. Don’t blame me for saying out loud what every conscious person has realized for years. The tremendous efforts and sacrifices made by those involved in the civil rights movement – whether Dr. King, brother Malcolm, the contributions of organizations like the Black Panther Party and their leaders Huey Newton and Frank Hampton, the list could go on and on, have been wasted and it’s all over now.
The nation didn’t know it then, but it’s very clear today, that the social and political agitation by blacks in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s to end racial segregation and institutional racism represented the best and last hoorah for blacks hoping to change the dynamics of a country that has perpetually accommodated them as stepchildren, and oftentimes far, far worse.
But why is the black freedom movement dead, and who killed it? It would be simplistic to point to the continued racism which exist in America as the culprit, but not only would this be simple, it’d be disingenuous too. When the movement for equal rights were at its most robust blacks were being swept down streets with pressure hoses and beaten bloody by police regularly; our women were being raped by vigilante terrorist
organizations like the Klu Klux Klan; the black community was experiencing countless acts of racially-motivated violence, and the assassination of our best thinkers and leaders, but nevertheless these despicable acts never drowned out the collective of black voices demanding freedom and equal treatment under the law.
Times have changed and none for the better, certainly not when we consider the overall apathy and passivity concerning racial justice within the black community. Too many black children are ignorant to the ways systemic racism operates to exploit them. Black youth often hold the belief that the fight for racial justice, which ultimately means economic equity, is not worth undertaking because racism is not a major problem anymore. In other words, black youths have taken on the philosophy espoused by those on the political right who claim America to be a colorblind society where equal opportunity for success exist for those who wish to possess it through hard work. How did we get to this point?
It is no secret the so-called “War on Drugs” has decimated the black community. These onerous police practices have ripped black families apart by taking black men out of the home and into the penal system. Recent studies have shown the majority of these drug arrest and convictions the past 30 years were for simple possession of illegal substances, i.e. the federal government has successfully criminalized being a black drug user.
This has left three generations of black boys and girls alone to fend for themselves, many growing up to follow in the same footsteps of their parents by abusing drugs and landing themselves in jails and prisons. The only twist is that black children today suffering deprivation murder one another at an alarming rate. The National Guard needs to be in Chicago as we speak. The majority of blacks look on with resignation sitting idly by while death envelops them whole. We don’t give a damn.
I hear so-called “respectable” blacks tripping all over their wingtips accusing the culture of hip-hop for our children being killers. But this type of passing the buck is the reason why we’re in the position we occupy. It’s time to look in the mirror, and stop pointing out symptoms rather than diseases. People like CNN’s Don Lemon, who appears to be one of the biggest proponents for black respectability politics as cure for black problems, believes if blacks just pull up their pants and refrain from using ebonics and loitering and littering opportunities would begin to rain down like delectable manna for all to consume and prosper. But this is just more slave narrative wrapped in a prettier bow; a philosophy that allows whites to shape the image and behavior of black people, while promising that conformity will produce paychecks, but history has shown such checks have always been stamped insufficient funds.
Hip-hop is not the problem, the way our children dress is not the problem; the violent music and lyrics, and movies is not our problem; we are our problem and our own worst enemy because we refuse to trust one another. Black people have bought the lies the white world has told them about themselves. Paraphrasing James Baldwin, “[Blacks] have become the nigger the white world needs to exist.” Those like Lemon are still deluding themselves believing if blacks just transform into the image of white respectability, wholesale acceptance into the white world will soon follow. Of course this agreement also means keeping mouths glued about institutional racism and the injustice machine which continues pumping out inequities in America’s educational, political, and economic institutions.
The black middle-class still teaches their children this malarkey, and is half the reason why the majority of black young people who avoid the ills of the corner and actually graduate high school and go on to college and earn degrees are useless in the black freedom movement once entering the world of work. These black professionals have bought the bullshit in bulk and despise the black poor, even blame them for their own condition of disenfranchisement.
Of course the other side of this equation is those occupying the ghettos. No one chooses to live in a ghetto, one is forced there or born there. The ghetto is where dreams go to die and are replaced with lies instead. It is a lie that black children born poor will never be successful leaders. It is a lie that single-parent households, by their very nature, guarantees children will be ill-equipped and unprepared to face life’s challenges. Blacks were enslaved for hundreds of years and still found a way to not only survive, but free themselves mentally, spiritually and economically from the very system that sought to destroy them. Not all blacks did, but enough succeeded to prove that it’s possible.
Those that prospered did so by collaboration with other black people. The success of black communities in the early twentieth century like “Black Wall Street” in Tulsa, Oklahoma found self-sufficiency despite homegrown terrorism, institutional racism, and black’s favorite excuse for failure today, “haters,” because they were willing to trust one another, they knew for damn sure whites meant them no good. These pioneers pooled the little resources they had together and used the skills acquired through the heinous institution of chattel slavery to shape the world in their own image, and create an industry backed solely by the black dollar. The contrast of these past victories to today’s resignation, excuse-making, and crabs-in-a-bucket mentality is striking.
This combination of educated but useless blacks with those who allow the worst aspects of certain subcultures like rap music and the entertainment industry to shape their mindset of perpetual contention between one another, all for fleeting moments in the fame game, is the reason why the black freedom movement is dead. Blacks will never win this way. No war can ever be won absent soldiers; no revolution exist absent bloodshed. Blacks remain sidetracked by all the wrong things, frittering away time trying to dance a jig in the white man’s theatre. All money isn’t good money, and the number of blacks willing to sell themselves back into slavery is at an all-time high.
The global image of black people is a laughing stock. From America to the U.K; China to South America, and everywhere in between, blacks in general are considered commodities to be consumed and bartered to enrich the lives of non-black people. The age of the internet has only exacerbated and accelerated this downward spiral. Too many poor black children believe stardom is the ticket to a better life. Whatever it takes to escape the projects they’re willing to do, whether it means clapping their butts on Youtube or clapping guns on the corner, nothing is off limits; dignity a curse word.
Far too many blacks have sold out, and become caricatures – it affects us all. Surely those who despised the very existence of African people wouldn’t have gone through such elaborate systems throughout history to destroy us if those Africans walking off the slave ships possessed the same disregard for self-worth, dignity, and brotherhood like blacks do today. The untold tale of the Middle Passage is that Africans did not submit to the insidious institution of slavery without a fight, blood was spilled, throats were cut – don’t for a second believe white slave merchants weren’t thrown overboard along with black babies. It took relentless effort to break the spirit and will of African people, it wasn’t freely offered. The black freedom movement is dead because blacks no longer want freedom they want finance.