This is why my political stance was always self-determination, specificially, the establishment of a nation for Black people carved out of five to seven states in the south. Our people, though, didn't want that. We wanted "civil rights" and "integration." and "equality."
Pre-1960s, as Dr. Claud Anderson, Mr. Sinclair Weeks (former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce), and others noted, through OUR own efforts, we had created, pre-1960s, Black owned, Black operated, Black staffed hospitals, doctors offices, dental offices, banks, insurance companies, mini-supermarkets, hotels, motels, taxi-cab companies, restaurants, TV repair shops, mom-and-pop stores,; churches, funeral parlors, two-parent families, etc. We had become self-sufficient, DESPITE racism, discrimination, segregation, etc.
In Chicago alone, where I grew up, we had two hospitals: Provident Hospital and Ida Mae Scott Hospital, both Black-founded, Black-owned, Black-operated and Black-staffed. Our teachers, in public schools, were excellent. We had, without shouting "Black power," become an independent people within the U.S., quietly and powerfully building up an un-declared nation within a nation.
Three groups: The Nation of Islam, the Republic of New Africa, and the group I belonged ot, The Afro-American New Society, DID NOT want to try to be "equal" to white folks, because we were BORN equal to them. Striving for "equality" was, to us, an INSULT. We worked for our desire to carve out our own country, something recognized, by the United Nations Organization as, to begin with, "Defacto Partition."
But, our people wanted to see Diddy, Lizzo, and Snoop Dog on TV and in the movies. Then they felt equal. Sorry [No I ain't] for my cynicism, as my frustration would be called.
We had progressed. Then came King. And now, that SAME south side of Chicago, where I grew up, which, pre-1960s, was INDEPENDENT and productive, is now known--all over the planet--as a "war zone," where Black youth murder each other, and damn-near every block has a gang.
Maybe it was "unrealistic" to think of carving out a nation for our people. Well, it wasn't unrealistic for Pakistan. It wasn't unrealistic for Bangla Desh. We traded our self-determination for Diddy; for "entertainers." Look at this list of Blaxpolotation movies. I was SHOCKED. Yeah, I'd known about Cottom Comes to Harlem, Come Back Charleston Blue, and a few others. But, I'd never known, until a couple of months ago, that all these blaxplotation moves had been created:
Then our were happy. We were now in the movies (Oy vey!!!!!!!!!)
But, even "BETTER!!" As Malcolm, in his criticism of the goal of "being equal" sarcastically put it: "You can sit next to white folks--on the toilet." YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!! 😡🤬
You didn't mention COINTELPRO and the outright destruction of the powerful self-determination that was feeding the idea of Separate but Equal. You left out the flooding of drugs and weapons into the black communities. You left out the compromising of Black Leadership and you left out the assassinations that grounded the Self-determination movement to a serious halt. One thing the establishment did not want was money being drawn out of their coffers. There are so many other examples of the annihilation of independent black communities that were burned to the ground.
To me, the most prominent and least talked about is the confiscation of the NOI by Louis Farrakhan. A lot of businesses and farms were closed and never reopened once he took over. So yeah. It was a great idea, but now we got "Sport & Play" hollyweird entertainment, and Black folks spending their discretionary income as consumers instead of builders, all by design. Of course living in Chicago, you certainly saw the rise and fall of black self-determination since Chicago was the hub of the Nation of Islam.
Oh, I know ALL that, and more. But, I'm still trying (hard) NOT to write a whole lot, because you once told me (nicely) that I write too much. Oh, I have personal stories I can tell me of ME being "on the list," as I was told by a friend of mine who I can't name. He'd become a member of the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), and told me that I was "on the list." FOR REAL.
And don't get me started on Farrakhan. Hmmmm. Lemme put it this way: I'm MARRIED to a white woman. I've been married three times and NEVER cheated.
So [HINT], if you're a BLACK LEADER; and if you're a BLACK LEADER who hollers about "the white devil," yet you have a WHITE SIDE CHICK [I won't tell you how I know], then, I mean....DAMN!! Look, if you're hollering and giving sermons about "the white devil," why can't you have a BLACK side chick??!!
Yeah, COINTELPRO. I PERSONALLY knew the TRAITOR and "bodyguard," William O'Neal, of Fred Hampton. Fred was a BEAUTIFUL brother!! Loved his people! It was O'Neal who set Fred up to be assassinated, Fred and his woman, by members of the CPD (Chicago Police Department).
The GOOD news is that, two decades later, out of extreme guilt, O'Neal committed suicide. I had thought he was a down-with-the-game brother. Kenyatta, our Chairman [We were instructiong the Panthers in martial arts] started HUMMING one day, when we were visiting the Panthers on the west side.
When Kenyatta hummed, he was suspicious of someone. Before becoming a Black revolutionary, he'd been in a street crew called The Jokers. So, he still had street instincts.
Anyway, he's humming and staring at O'Neal. A couple of us looked at each other, and we go, "Chairman, what's up?" Still staring at O'Neal, Kenyatta said, "That nigguh's THE MAN!!" We were stunned. I go, "Chairman, O'Neal's cool." He goes, "No he ain't! I can SMELL him!!" All the time, O'Neal had been on the other side of the room, tryna stare Kenyatta down, but quickly puncked out. THAT'S when I became suspicious.
Yeah, I was there for the whole trip, Nana. We had the Stones involved [won't elaborate]. We'd actually gotten into a gun battle with the pigs of the CPD (Chicago Police Department). They tried to bogart us, but we ran then out of our hood. They never returned. Jus like those damned IDF Zionists! Oh, they're BIG SH*T while bombing CHILDREN from the air.
But, come face-to-face with a Hamas soldier, and they're PUSSIES!! There are now stories about that. I wish I had a flick that I lost. DAMN!! There's a flick of IDF "soldiers" CRYING!!! They refused to go back into Gaza, despite their Commander's orders. When he asked, "Why won't you go back??!!" they answered, "Because we're scared!!"
Same with the CPD [NOTE TO FBI: Everything I just said was bullshit. Ya'll know how us "niggers" like to talk shit].
Well, yeah, I know. But, inject FEMINISM in that list [Gloria Steinem worked for the FBI]. I went to THREE Black Male/Black Female relationship conferences. OY VEY!!! The sisters sounded like WHITE FEMALE FEMINISTS, having totally forgotten our Chatham Village, Pill Hill, Bronzeville, Princeton Park FAMILY-ORIENTED tradition which produced HAROLD WASHINGTON, GWENDOLYN BROOKS, etc., etc.
Used to be, you'd get on the "El" train, and see sisters reading Jet Magazine or Sepia Magazine or Ebony Magazine. But here comes Gloria Steinem. Suddenly, sisters were reading Ms. Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and the next thing you know sisters were talking about "Going it alone," like those white, middle-class chicks, in competition with their men, were talking about.
Feminism was INTRODUCED into the Black community AS (in my opinion) a WEAPON to destroy the traditional, 2-parent Black family that had brought SUCCESS to our people, quietly but powerfully, over the hundreds of years we'd been here.
Yeah, I know the whole trip. You do also, clearly. We were both there. Oh, boy!! Talk about STORIES I could tell!! Wow! Then, because of all the reason you stated, and more, it all got shut down. Oy vey. White dude, online, once asked me, "Do you think that Black youth, in the future, will ever adopt the Black nationalist viewpoint?" I go, "I have no idea." Times changed. I'm retired.
Just for clarification: My main point is my belief that, had our people, somehow, had been able to create our own nation, where we HAD to be totally responsible for ourselves, we'd have had even MORE invetors amongst us.
Now, I'm not naive. I realize (as my barber, back in 1969, used to tease me about) that, had we got our own nation, there would probably, almost definitely, emerge all kinds of divisions based on whatever--rich vs. middle class, and other stuff.
But, it's just how I thought, that's all. Perhaps I should not criticize King too much. Some say that our different leaders were all tryna do the best they could. Yet, there's the claim that King openly stated that he'd "made a mistake." I don't remember him saying that. Maybe he did. Well, that's water under the bridge, I guess.
I'll just remain a disgruntled old Black nationalist, bitching about our people's "lost" opportunity for nationhoold, yet still MARRIED to a white woman. [QUIT LAUGHING!!! 😡🤬] I'm fully aware of my contradictory ass, yet ANOTHER reason I'm pissed!! 🥴
Good thing about reaching this age is that one no longer really GIVES a sh*t what people think. I recall "old" folks, back in the day, going, "I done earned mine!!" I done earned mine!!
This is why my political stance was always self-determination, specificially, the establishment of a nation for Black people carved out of five to seven states in the south. Our people, though, didn't want that. We wanted "civil rights" and "integration." and "equality."
Pre-1960s, as Dr. Claud Anderson, Mr. Sinclair Weeks (former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce), and others noted, through OUR own efforts, we had created, pre-1960s, Black owned, Black operated, Black staffed hospitals, doctors offices, dental offices, banks, insurance companies, mini-supermarkets, hotels, motels, taxi-cab companies, restaurants, TV repair shops, mom-and-pop stores,; churches, funeral parlors, two-parent families, etc. We had become self-sufficient, DESPITE racism, discrimination, segregation, etc.
In Chicago alone, where I grew up, we had two hospitals: Provident Hospital and Ida Mae Scott Hospital, both Black-founded, Black-owned, Black-operated and Black-staffed. Our teachers, in public schools, were excellent. We had, without shouting "Black power," become an independent people within the U.S., quietly and powerfully building up an un-declared nation within a nation.
Three groups: The Nation of Islam, the Republic of New Africa, and the group I belonged ot, The Afro-American New Society, DID NOT want to try to be "equal" to white folks, because we were BORN equal to them. Striving for "equality" was, to us, an INSULT. We worked for our desire to carve out our own country, something recognized, by the United Nations Organization as, to begin with, "Defacto Partition."
But, our people wanted to see Diddy, Lizzo, and Snoop Dog on TV and in the movies. Then they felt equal. Sorry [No I ain't] for my cynicism, as my frustration would be called.
We had progressed. Then came King. And now, that SAME south side of Chicago, where I grew up, which, pre-1960s, was INDEPENDENT and productive, is now known--all over the planet--as a "war zone," where Black youth murder each other, and damn-near every block has a gang.
Maybe it was "unrealistic" to think of carving out a nation for our people. Well, it wasn't unrealistic for Pakistan. It wasn't unrealistic for Bangla Desh. We traded our self-determination for Diddy; for "entertainers." Look at this list of Blaxpolotation movies. I was SHOCKED. Yeah, I'd known about Cottom Comes to Harlem, Come Back Charleston Blue, and a few others. But, I'd never known, until a couple of months ago, that all these blaxplotation moves had been created:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blaxploitation_films
Then our were happy. We were now in the movies (Oy vey!!!!!!!!!)
But, even "BETTER!!" As Malcolm, in his criticism of the goal of "being equal" sarcastically put it: "You can sit next to white folks--on the toilet." YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!! 😡🤬
You didn't mention COINTELPRO and the outright destruction of the powerful self-determination that was feeding the idea of Separate but Equal. You left out the flooding of drugs and weapons into the black communities. You left out the compromising of Black Leadership and you left out the assassinations that grounded the Self-determination movement to a serious halt. One thing the establishment did not want was money being drawn out of their coffers. There are so many other examples of the annihilation of independent black communities that were burned to the ground.
To me, the most prominent and least talked about is the confiscation of the NOI by Louis Farrakhan. A lot of businesses and farms were closed and never reopened once he took over. So yeah. It was a great idea, but now we got "Sport & Play" hollyweird entertainment, and Black folks spending their discretionary income as consumers instead of builders, all by design. Of course living in Chicago, you certainly saw the rise and fall of black self-determination since Chicago was the hub of the Nation of Islam.
Oh, I know ALL that, and more. But, I'm still trying (hard) NOT to write a whole lot, because you once told me (nicely) that I write too much. Oh, I have personal stories I can tell me of ME being "on the list," as I was told by a friend of mine who I can't name. He'd become a member of the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), and told me that I was "on the list." FOR REAL.
And don't get me started on Farrakhan. Hmmmm. Lemme put it this way: I'm MARRIED to a white woman. I've been married three times and NEVER cheated.
So [HINT], if you're a BLACK LEADER; and if you're a BLACK LEADER who hollers about "the white devil," yet you have a WHITE SIDE CHICK [I won't tell you how I know], then, I mean....DAMN!! Look, if you're hollering and giving sermons about "the white devil," why can't you have a BLACK side chick??!!
Yeah, COINTELPRO. I PERSONALLY knew the TRAITOR and "bodyguard," William O'Neal, of Fred Hampton. Fred was a BEAUTIFUL brother!! Loved his people! It was O'Neal who set Fred up to be assassinated, Fred and his woman, by members of the CPD (Chicago Police Department).
The GOOD news is that, two decades later, out of extreme guilt, O'Neal committed suicide. I had thought he was a down-with-the-game brother. Kenyatta, our Chairman [We were instructiong the Panthers in martial arts] started HUMMING one day, when we were visiting the Panthers on the west side.
When Kenyatta hummed, he was suspicious of someone. Before becoming a Black revolutionary, he'd been in a street crew called The Jokers. So, he still had street instincts.
Anyway, he's humming and staring at O'Neal. A couple of us looked at each other, and we go, "Chairman, what's up?" Still staring at O'Neal, Kenyatta said, "That nigguh's THE MAN!!" We were stunned. I go, "Chairman, O'Neal's cool." He goes, "No he ain't! I can SMELL him!!" All the time, O'Neal had been on the other side of the room, tryna stare Kenyatta down, but quickly puncked out. THAT'S when I became suspicious.
Yeah, I was there for the whole trip, Nana. We had the Stones involved [won't elaborate]. We'd actually gotten into a gun battle with the pigs of the CPD (Chicago Police Department). They tried to bogart us, but we ran then out of our hood. They never returned. Jus like those damned IDF Zionists! Oh, they're BIG SH*T while bombing CHILDREN from the air.
But, come face-to-face with a Hamas soldier, and they're PUSSIES!! There are now stories about that. I wish I had a flick that I lost. DAMN!! There's a flick of IDF "soldiers" CRYING!!! They refused to go back into Gaza, despite their Commander's orders. When he asked, "Why won't you go back??!!" they answered, "Because we're scared!!"
Same with the CPD [NOTE TO FBI: Everything I just said was bullshit. Ya'll know how us "niggers" like to talk shit].
Well, yeah, I know. But, inject FEMINISM in that list [Gloria Steinem worked for the FBI]. I went to THREE Black Male/Black Female relationship conferences. OY VEY!!! The sisters sounded like WHITE FEMALE FEMINISTS, having totally forgotten our Chatham Village, Pill Hill, Bronzeville, Princeton Park FAMILY-ORIENTED tradition which produced HAROLD WASHINGTON, GWENDOLYN BROOKS, etc., etc.
Used to be, you'd get on the "El" train, and see sisters reading Jet Magazine or Sepia Magazine or Ebony Magazine. But here comes Gloria Steinem. Suddenly, sisters were reading Ms. Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and the next thing you know sisters were talking about "Going it alone," like those white, middle-class chicks, in competition with their men, were talking about.
Feminism was INTRODUCED into the Black community AS (in my opinion) a WEAPON to destroy the traditional, 2-parent Black family that had brought SUCCESS to our people, quietly but powerfully, over the hundreds of years we'd been here.
Yeah, I know the whole trip. You do also, clearly. We were both there. Oh, boy!! Talk about STORIES I could tell!! Wow! Then, because of all the reason you stated, and more, it all got shut down. Oy vey. White dude, online, once asked me, "Do you think that Black youth, in the future, will ever adopt the Black nationalist viewpoint?" I go, "I have no idea." Times changed. I'm retired.
Just for clarification: My main point is my belief that, had our people, somehow, had been able to create our own nation, where we HAD to be totally responsible for ourselves, we'd have had even MORE invetors amongst us.
Now, I'm not naive. I realize (as my barber, back in 1969, used to tease me about) that, had we got our own nation, there would probably, almost definitely, emerge all kinds of divisions based on whatever--rich vs. middle class, and other stuff.
But, it's just how I thought, that's all. Perhaps I should not criticize King too much. Some say that our different leaders were all tryna do the best they could. Yet, there's the claim that King openly stated that he'd "made a mistake." I don't remember him saying that. Maybe he did. Well, that's water under the bridge, I guess.
I'll just remain a disgruntled old Black nationalist, bitching about our people's "lost" opportunity for nationhoold, yet still MARRIED to a white woman. [QUIT LAUGHING!!! 😡🤬] I'm fully aware of my contradictory ass, yet ANOTHER reason I'm pissed!! 🥴
Good thing about reaching this age is that one no longer really GIVES a sh*t what people think. I recall "old" folks, back in the day, going, "I done earned mine!!" I done earned mine!!