(ThyBlackMan.com) “It is time now to turn with all the purpose at our command to the major unfinished business of this nation. It is time to adopt strategies for action that will produce quick and visible progress. It is time to make good the promises of American democracy to all citizens-urban and rural, white and black, Spanish-surname, American Indian, and every minority group…”
(Excerpt from the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders – 1968).
We’ve all heard and seen this song and dance before. The unwarranted abuse and killing of unarmed Black people at the hands of local authorities, the time worn narrative of “justifiable homicide,” and of course, the usual posturing of so-called Black religious leaders, rewarded with recognition in exchange for their quieting of the dissatisfied masses, have together revealed a disturbing trend regarding the current disposition of Blacks in the United States.
Within a progressively diverse society, and through the context of an increasingly globalized market economy, Black American youth are unhappy with the obsolete ideas and faint-hearted agendas advocated by yet another generation of timid Black leaders and organizations compromised by grants and philanthropic contributions. Ironically having hundreds of billions of dollars at their disposal, but failing to apply the unity necessary to exploit those dollars, go-along-to-get-along leaders, particularly of the religious ilk, employ too much compromise and too
little principle regarding the social, political and economic development of Black America.
In Ferguson, Mo., after more than 70 days of civil unrest stemming from the August, 9 2014 gunning down of unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown, and the heavy-handed militarized response against protestors, the façade of American civility has been removed as paramilitary police forces deployed tear gas, heavy weapons and armored vehicles to reestablish and impose an unjust order upon a Black people who have clearly had enough. In response, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s recently announced plan to institute a study, to address community fear, anger, and mistrust, in the name of his so-called Ferguson Commission, appears to follow on the state level what Illinois Governor Otto Kerner presided over on the national level 46 years ago.
Appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the urban rebellions in major U.S. cities between 1965 and 1967, The National Commission on Civil Disorders, also called the Kerner Commission, reported that Black frustration emanated from a lack of economic opportunity, housing disparities, and a mainstream media oriented solely to the views of the white world. Warning that America was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal,” it is clear, in 2014, that neither the report, nor its recommendations were truly designed to respect or empower Black America as an equal.
In addition to the study’s findings, the commission predicted that if nothing were done to disperse Black population centers, and to reduce Black fertility rates, cities would become majority Black entities surrounded by White suburbs by 1985. It also suggested that police departments should “develop a means to obtain adequate intelligence for planning purposes;” that “an intelligence unit staffed with full-time personnel should be established to gather, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate information on potential as well as civil disorders,” (and) that “it should use undercover police personnel and informants.”
While Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., initially praised the Kerner report for some of its pronouncements, did he recognize the potential for abuse that such a study could actually engender?
Today, it is clear there has been an active plan to disperse Black populations in most urban centers, throughout the United States, and to reduce or eliminate local Black political bases. It is also a fact that Black fertility rates have declined from an increasing trend through the 1980s, toward a flatter trend today, where Black America’s numbers have dropped below the Latino population. With these facts being true, along with the rise of mass incarceration in a privatized prison industry, what was the actual motive and intention behind the Kerner Commission in 1968, and was is the true motive and intention behind the so-called Ferguson Commission in 2014?
According to Europe’s France24 television, and an internationally televised discussion centering on the future of Black America, they referenced an October article in the U.S. news magazine, The Atlantic, regarding a piece titled: “What If Black America Were a Country?” After thoughtful examination of why European viewers would harbor such an interest in this subject, along with the facts and statistics cited throughout the piece, an astute reader should deduce that the U.S. government and European capitols both view the existence of a conscious, enlightened and empowered Black America as a threat to their long-term interests.
Following this logic, it also should be obvious that any moral appeal for Black economic empowerment; an end to government monitoring, surveillance and counter-intelligence activities; and the abolishing of the prison-industrial-complex, will fall upon deaf ears. With no incentive for the white elite to countenance a socially, politically and economically strong Black community, buying off weak and malleable Black leadership, and discouraging the concept of collective wealth and infrastructure creation, appears to serve a policy and agenda of white supremacy on a global level.
Don’t underestimate your significance on the world stage
According The Atlantic article, a 2005 RAND Corporation study used a CIA assessment based on the University of Denver’s International Futures model to measure national power. Accordingly, “the main metrics of world power used in the…assessment are gross domestic product (GDP), population, defense spending, and a less precise factor that includes innovation in technology…Black America cannot be scored on all these factors, but key indicators are examined here to approximate its standing,” the article said.
Consider the following data discussed and outlined in the piece.
Staff Writer; William P. Muhammad
Official website; http://www.wisdomhouseonline.com