King's assassination confirmed the growing nationalistic belief against nonviolence. The greatest challenge came from the Black Panther Party and its ten-point program of radical reform. The U.S. government were alarmed by these demands, and agencies such as the FBI stepped up their targeting of radical black groups.
In Chapter 6, Marable analyzes the political status and labor movements of this time. He emphasizes the lack of support for the full incorporation of black laborers -- the American Federation of Teachers, for example, opposed the establishment of affirmative action programs to regulate fairness in the labor market. The Longshoresman's Association nixed equal status of black members, and the Operating Engineers Union imposed physical violence on black graduates of their apprenticeship program and therefore blocked participation of blacks in unions.
In Chapter 7, Marable explains how the success of the Second Reconstruction went hand-in-hand with failure. Socio-economic gains made over the past three decades for a small number of blacks, also brought increased poverty for much larger numbers remaining in the inner cities. It is here that Marable clearly shows how blacks reached their problems of today. In the mid-1970s, there arose a small group of what he calls the black elite who were in relatively good economic positions. Many of these individuals fled to the suburbs and white schools and professions, which put a strain on the black institutions. As the elite advanced, other blacks remained the same or declined socio-economically while remaining in the cities. U.S. black crime rose due to unemployment and other socio-economic problems, and the courts began taking a much firmer stand in urban areas: The ever-increasing rise of black inmates began with a flourish. With high psychological stress and socio-economic problems, black families began to disintegrate. President Carter's weak support of civil liberties led to further problems. If not enough, white supremacy again raised its ugly head. Finally, the election...
Furthermore, while acknowledging that there was a consciousness of whiteness and white superiority in other lands, such as England, Roediger points out that part of the Americanization process for European immigrants was to become white, and that this process involved internalizing feelings of racism and hatred towards blacks. Affirmative Action and the Politics of Race by Manning Marable Manning Marable is a pro-affirmative action author, and he begins his essay by
"When the democratic bourgeoisie of the United States were execrating Czardom for the Jewish pogroms they were meting out to your people a treatment more savage and barbarous than the Jews ever experienced in the old Russia," says one Russian in sympathy during McCay's visit (246). Claude McCay was also impressed by the "this spirit of sympathetic appreciation and response prevailing in all circles in Moscow and Petrograd. I
During the 1850s, Truth moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. At the outset of the American Civil War, Truth collected supplies for black volunteer regiments; in 1864, she traveled to Washington, D.C., where she worked to integrate streetcars (she was received at the White House by President Abraham Lincoln) (Sojourner Truth 4). Also in 1864, Truth accepted an appointment to the National Freedmen's Relief Association with responsibilities for counseling former slaves,
Another angle into Malcolm's view of white America is presented in an article in the journal Phylon, in which the authors assert that after visiting Mecca in 1964 (according to Charles E. Wilson), "...He became less and less doctrinairely antagonistic toward whites..." Malcolm is reported to have said, that morning in Mecca "...was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about 'white men'." Meanwhile, the Reverend Albert
Racial identity plays a strong role in the definition of self; Lorde recognized the importance of racial identity even in the struggle for gender equality. Her argument implicitly supports Jones' assertion that racial equality is "prior" to the cause of gender equality for African-American women. The implicit argument is that feminism could not be a united force because white women did not have the ability through their institutionalized advantages
That is, my religion is still Islam. My religion is still Islam. I still credit Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I am" (427). His philosophy was no pro-violence, he merely believed that one should not turn the other cheek when one was colonized: "The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community...The
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