10.21.08
Black Power: A Citizen’s Subconscious
Color power fosters sentiments of resistance, rebellion and intimidation. ‘Color power’ in this sense symbolizes movements that are rammed down citizen’s throats. Some examples are Green Power (bs-environmental push), Brown Power (making illegal’s U.S. citizens), White Power (elite Caucasianism), etc. During the 2008 presidential election ‘Black Power’ is an intimidating power dancing in the subconscious of U.S. citizens.
Black Power is Obama’s Achilles heal. Although he’s only one-half black and was a child during Black Power’s heyday, his candidacy is being politicized as a black thing. Understanding how people were intimidated through the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s by the ‘Black Power’ movement is the key to understanding intimidation is not racism.
While Black Power was a righteous movement in itself, it invoked negative emotions in many U.S. citizens. Fear and anger leading to intimidation has surfaced with Obama. Intimidation is at the root of many voters’ motivation. Some see Obama’s candidacy as ‘Black Power’ raising its ugly head anew or as a culmination of the original Black Power movement.
Racial pride fueled the Black Power movement. It grew out of the Civil Right’s movement that had steadily gained momentum through the 1950s and 1960s. The Black Power movement marked a turning point in black-white relations in the United States. Many citizens believed that an anti-American sentiment accompanied Black Power ideology.
Color is only skin deep but the perception of color penetrated the soul of Black Power leaders. Kwame Ture (then known as Stokely Carmichael) and Mukasa Dada (then known as Willie Ricks) were the first to use Black Power as social and political slogans. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam felt that racial self-determination was a critical and neglected element of true equality.
http://law.jrank.org/pages/4776/Black-Power-Movement.html
Citizens of the 50s and the 60s remember Black Power movements. They remember Stokely Carmichael for his use of the phrase “Black Power,” which in the mid-1960’s ignited a white backlash and alarmed an older generation of civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They remember Martin Luther King, Jr and his “I have a dream” speech. Unfortunately, many thought that it was only a black dream. Everyone else that heard the speech shook it off as Black Power going civil.
Citizens remember being intimidated and blamed for slavery occurring earlier in U.S. and in world history. The result of Black Power getting militant caused citizens to think: “Why are you attacking me?” “Sorry, I wasn’t alive then”. “I’m just trying to make a living to support my family.”
Carmichael’s call for black power galvanized many young blacks because it sounded anti-white, provocative and violent. This struck fear into many whites. Carmichael’s speeches became more provocative. “When you talk of black power, you talk of building a movement that will smash everything Western civilization has created.”
http://www.interchange.org/Kwameture/nytimes111698.html
That sounds like something Islamic terrorists say today. Is Carmichael’s Black Power resonating in the subconscious of U.S. citizens today?
Carmichael questioned, will white people overcome their racism and allow for that to happen in this country? If not, we have no choice but to say very clearly, “Move on over, or we’re going to move over you.”
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/stokely_carmichael_blackpower.html
If you don’t vote for Obama you’re being labeled a racist. Is this Carmichael’s intimidation?
Carmichael is not alone. Former Black Panther Party leader Kathleen Cleaver, as of 12/03 a Yale law professor, told a young audience that “we are fighting against today’s ‘neo-colonial structure’ that committed terrorist acts through both covert and overt acts. We’ve come to the legal end of white supremacy. But, quiet as it’s kept, the United States does have a neo-colonial structure.”
http://advance.uconn.edu/2003/031201/03120103.htm
When Obama calls for unity and change, who do U.S. citizens hear? Some hear Carmichael calling “for black people in this country to unite,” (not as Americans by as blacks). Some hear Cleaver’s hate for ‘neo-colonial structure’ that is America. Or will they hear Walter Mosley. In 2006 he wrote: “We (blacks) are a racial minority in a country where racism is a fact of life, a country that was founded on economic and imperialist racism.”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060227/mosley
Is Obama’s change part of the Black Power movement, “we will overcome”? On Election Day, we will find out how many U.S. citizens are still intimidated by the ‘Black Power’ movement. Or will the thought of ‘Black Power’ in itself cause a resistance to vote for even ‘one-half’ of Obama.
