Pan-African Empowerment: Books Not Bars (The Racial Injustice of Mass Incarceration)

What Exactly is Black Power?

The term “Black Power” has been traced to a speech given in 1965 by then New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. The actual ideology behind the term "Black Power" came well before that, as its ideals can be seen in the movement of Marcus Garvey and the Harlem Renaissance of the early 1900s.

The Black Muslim movement, which began in the 1930s, also promoted the philosophy of racial solidarity and pride. But it was not until the 1960s that Black Power gained broader acceptance in black America when Stokely Carmichael (aka, Kwame Ture), the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) co-opted James Meredith’s attempted Freedom March through the state of Mississippi in 1966. Then in 1967, Carmichael (Kwame Ture) published Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, a manifesto that called for Blacks in America to embrace a new attitude and strategy regarding civil rights. He wrote,
"(Black Power) is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations, and to support those organizations. It is a call to reject the racist institutions and values of this society."

Carmichael’s (Kwame Ture) belief was that in order for American born Africans (African-Americans) to gain equality, they had to create strength and unity among themselves. Once those things were accomplished they would then be able to negotiate with whites from a position of strength rather than dependency. The Black Power movement of the 1960s gained a wide following for obvious reasons.

What is the Pan-African Empowerment Blog/Website?

This is a forum where communities and activists may come together to exchange ideas, develop kinship, and work towards rebuilding neighborhoods. Let’s begin to work together towards eradicating our problems. We can do this, if we work together. If you are a part of a successful movement within your community, please share your success with others, on this forum. Your success is our success. We need to learn and borrow from one another within our various communities. Lets rebuild together!
*DONT FORGET TO SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM TO CHECK OUT SOME INFORMATIVE VIDEO CLIPS*

Let's Reclaim Our Communities

There are so many issues that are often marginalized and ignored by the mainstream media, as well as by “mainstream” politicians. Many of these issues adversely affect underserved and governmentally neglected communities. Failing to refer to these neighborhoods as governmentally neglected communities takes the pressure off the system which had/has so much to do with their creation and status. Residing in so many of these communities are people of color (mostly African-American & Latino). They reside in these segregated neighborhoods with an often unequal distribution of resources which are frequently found in suburban and predominately white communities. These types of systemic unequal distribution of resources will continue to keep America bifurcated in to the "haves" and "have nots". Any truly "progressive" citizen (regardless of race) should feel compelled to help create the level "playing field" on all fronts for all people.

However, many communities of color face unequal public educational institutions, unequal livable housing opportunities, unequal job opportunities, a lack of distribution of wealth, and unequal community based resources. All of the aforementioned categories have contributed to an overall deterioration of the community infrastructure. Many who are reading these words, right now, know this all to well. It often infuriates us and places a heavy burden on our collective psyches. Many are angered by the gross negligence the government, in general, has placed upon our communities. The lack of various resources has had deleterious affects upon the lives of scores of men, women, and children within so many governmentally neglected neighborhoods. Many of these factors have created (understandably) a climate of hopelessness.

We must not lose hope…ever. We may not have the financial capital and resources that are owed to our communities; however we have an abundance of social capital. We have each other. We have our community, our village. This form of capital is far more precious than any mineral known to man. Our social capital has the ability to rise up and reclaim our communities via community activism and engagement. We can rebuild our communities by way of community based programs and solutions. We can start mobilizing one another to become politically active to reclaim our local government, one community at a time. We need to start supporting one another and the politicians who have our best interests at heart. We need to begin to create a new leadership that will sustain our communities for generations to come. We need to start building more businesses and supporting many community based businesses that exist now.

The solutions to our problems and issues needs to be approached from various fronts. However, we cannot do this indivdually. We need each other. The whole notion that we are a village dates back to ancient Africa and is still present and functioning in so many Pan-African Communities. This is what this blog sets out to do…create more Pan-African based communities throughout the US and the world. Africa has given the world so many gifts. We need to, once again, utilize some of those gifts within our very own communities. Now is the time we, together, start making a difference, one community at a time.

This blog is a networked forum where communities and activists may come together to exchange ideas, develop kinship, and work towards rebuilding governmentally neglected neighborhoods. This forum should serve as a platform to exchange information that is critical to our collective struggles toward community improvement and liberation. Particular facets of American society do a good job in isolating various communities from one another. We need to break down these walls of communication, together, and begin to work together towards eradicating our problems. We can do this, if we work together. Please share your ideas with each other, establish fellowship, and remain solution oriented. If you are a part of a successful movement within your community, please share your success with others, on this forum. Your success is our success. We need to learn, from you, what worked and what didn’t work, so we can begin to borrow from one another within our various communities.

We need to approach the studying of critical issues in a very serious manner. If we do a serious examination of the critical issues that afflict our communities most of us will recognize that there is a significant deficiency of attention that has been given to us by many of our elected officials. Absence of universal healthcare, the absence affordable and livable housing, police brutality, militarism of our schools, dilapidated schools, wealth disparities, and fallacious media representations are a few of the things that routinely affect our communities. We need to galvanize our communities. We need to mobilize our communities. We need to unify our communities. We need to begin to, once again, embrace what it truly means to be a Pan-African.

We need to reclaim and embrace our effulgent history. By doing this we will be able to learn from the lessons our ancestors taught through their struggle and prosperity. Those lessons can be applicable today. Those lessons can, and will, give us the inspiration, further improved organization, and strategy we can use to endure and truly overcome, via unification and collective political action. Those lessons are what we need to be teaching one another and to our children.

We need to unify, start, and/or support truly progressive political parties. And once we unify ourselves then we can begin to unify with other progressive people from a myriad of backgrounds and races. In my estimation, the unification of any group of historically oppressed people needs to come from within, and on the grassroots level. The unification of people of color needs to be paramount. This idea is not unprecedented. The great Malcolm X spoke of this Black Unity. His words and life continue to inspire me and so many others to work towards improving communities of color throughout the country...and the world.

If it takes a village, we must be that village that not only raises our children but raises ourselves…in total unity!

Pan-African Empowerment

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Books Not Bars (The Racial Injustice of Mass Incarceration)

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