The three community organizing strategies that I pick, which I think can help change anti-blackness are: Political education, Legal and legislative change and Direct action. Political education is to educate people about anti- blackness and get them to be aware. This strategy is to change a person view about black, one person at a time and slowly people will naturally and surly be anti- blackness and a new norm will be in place that is fair. I feel that this is a good strategies because education is a key to knowledge, knowledge leads to knowing not only about anti-blackness but also knowing what the enemies’/ people we are fighting against knows. We need education to not only inform people about anti-blackness but also teach them to question …show more content…
This is link to Political education because laws and policy can be learned and teach from education. Like I said before knowledge is the key to fight back. By knowing and learning the laws and policy of society, we can fight back by stating what was right and what is wrong. This is a peaceful strategy with a little force. This strategy start by focusing on the higher social class people in society and then works its way down to middle and lower class peoples. I feel that this is a good second strategy because we are trying to reason with the people. Instead of demanding that black people/ African Americans are being treated unfairly and listing the unfair points, this strategy lets the people see the list of unfair points and how it is related to the laws and policy that is currently in place. If we have these two point, we can truly say that blacks were treated unfairly and people can based that on the rules/ laws and policy that are already in place. Or we can ask for change in the current laws and policies by basing them on the many event that happened. This is where knowledge also comes into play, knowledge of history and our current situation we can fight back by saying what law or policy are already out dated and needs to be
The years between 1954 and 1965 represent the coalition of two movements that forever changed the landscape of American Politics. The Civil rights movement and the black power movement established two separate thrusts for black civil and political equality. Understanding how each movement saw race relations in the United States helps to further explain the goals and how each movement influenced one another. In the following pages I am going to detail the leaders of the Black Power and Civil rights and how under their philosophy grew movements influenced by one another that forever changed the American political environment.
After putting up with political discrimination for decades, many African Americans were willing to “raise the terrible weapon of self-defense.” (The New Negro) Although they should have received equality promised to them after the Civil War, they were left empty handed and instead struggle against biased laws. Their demand for political progress itself is a step forward because white people supporting political equality were uncommon and groups such as the Ku Klux Klan intimidated them out of doing it. Their peaceful protests, and reasonable pleas were often overlooked and ignored. With their demands neglected and scoffed at they wanted to prove they were serious. By refusing to accept their problems forcefully they would not be thought of as bluffing. The problem with this is that even though there were African Americans demanding it, they were a minority and many white people did not want to help them because they benefitted from it and racism was still rampant. One evidence of white people benefitting from racism was when Wining Boy tells a story of how after an African American buys land with berries growing, the former white owner would “go and fix it with the law
Although the conclusion of the Civil War during the mid-1860s demolished the official practice of slavery, the oppression and exploitation of African Americans has continued. Although the rights and opportunities of African Americans were greatly improved during Reconstruction, cases such a 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson, which served as the legal basis for segregation, continue to diminish the recognized humanity of African Americans as equal people. Furthermore, the practice of the sharecropping system impoverished unemployed African Americans, recreating slavery. As economic and social conditions worsened, the civil rights movement began to emerge as the oppressed responded to their conditions, searching for equality and protected citizenship.With such goals in mind, associations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which came to the legal defense of African Americans and aided the march for civil rights reforms, emerged. By working against the laws restricting African Americans, the NAACP saw progress with the winning of cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which allowed the integration of public schools after its passing in 1954 and 1955. In the years following the reform instituted by the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the fervor of the civil rights movement increased; mass nonviolent protests against the unfair treatment of blacks became more frequent. New leaders, such as Martin Luther King, manifested themselves. The civil rights activists thus found themselves searching for the “noble dream” unconsciously conceived by the democratic ideals of the Founding Fathers to be instilled.
The problem in the black community is its inability to be united and stay united. This is not the fault of the people but instead the system that fosters them. Many attempts have been made to assimilate to the system as well as to change the system. In the end neither has worked for the black community, that is why I propose that the United States Government declare complete Anarchy. That being the last resort and complete extream theory I do believe that civil disobedience whether violent or nonviolent has proven itself successful but has not got the results that are really
Throughout the millenia, there have been several revolutionaries who have prefered the actions of nonviolence protest to that of violence. These ranks include those of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and the list goes on and on. However, in modern day America, African Americans are constantly fighting for more rights and equality. In 1865, the 13th ammendment was passed and slaves were given citizen ship. Since then, there has still been racism amongst the people and battles for equality. On the other hand, another form of revolution is that of violence and to force your voice to be heard. The most prominent person for the African Americans was that of Malcolm X. He voiced his opinion very strongly and made his voice heard amongst his opposers as well as his followers. These two methods are very different, but in the end, Malcolm X made a stronger point to benefit the African American's.
During the period of 20 years between 1950 and 1970, black Americans were able to improve their level of civil rights. Therefore, it is logical to say that they were at least partly successful in achieving their civil rights. This was accomplished through a variety of ways, two commonly used techniques being legal strategies and non-violent direct action. However, because they were unable to attain complete equality, there must have been factors that worked against the civil rights movement. One of these factors was the use of violence as a means of protest.
(Buchanan, Blue Lives Matter) Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the board among political self-education and a social identity crisis, the Black Lives Matter group is pushing for a civil rights movement and is hell bent on shaking the political pillars and releasing this country from its current cycle of violence and silence. (Sidner-Simon, The Rise of Black Lives Matter: Trying to break the cycle of violence and silence) Amid other routes, this plan has the possibility to take flight and soar, but the more likely solution will be that like its predecessors, it will most likely founder due to a government well versed in uprisings, and will leave is as a nation beaten black and
We believe that the congress of the United States should pass a Civil Right's Legislation for Black Rights. We have been freed from our slavery but that is not enough. The congress has passed the right to free us from slavery; why shouldn't they go the rest of the way and grant us all of our rights as a U.S Citizen? Currently, we are in limbo. We do not have the right to own property, to vote, or to become educated or any of the natural rights given to a citizen. We are free men and it means nothing. We are not protected from the Black Codes that the Southerners have made against us. Because of the Black Codes we can not enjoy the freedom we have been graciously granted. We need help in overcoming these new codes. President Lincoln has said on this topic: "And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such state government in relation to the freed people of such state, which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National Executive" (Lincoln, 19). The African-American race is no less qualified as a person than anyone else. We can do jobs just as well as the whites, if not better, since we have been doing their dirty work for years. The Freedmen's says "His personal rights as a freedman once recognized in law and assured in practice, there is little reason to doubt that he will become a useful member of the great industrial family of nations. Once released from the disabilities of bondage, he will somewhere find, and will maintain, his own appropriate social position" (Final, 26).
However, much more than that, a change in society is even more indispensable. The only way of possible making a change in the situation is to make a change in the root of the problem: racism and education. A lot of people still have racism implanted on their heads, and that kind of mentality needs to be modified immediately. And combined to that, a reform in the education system is also needed, in a way that would be equal for everyone, no matter race, sex or age. That change needs to be made before those children grow up because even though a strong educational basis is not a guarantee of success, it is for sure the key for it. Trying to transform the situation after those children become grown-ups is even harder since they would have already spent an enormous part of their life failing because of the lack of knowledge and education they got when
In summation, the different strategies for dealing with the problems of poverty and discrimination faced by Black Americans were to get a good education, advance in economic/industrial skills, and have their voices heard in the white community.
The number one problem in for Black societies is the lack of economical development. True, there are Black owned business, but the businesses do not provide longevity in the communities. For example, in my community there was a soul food restaurant that just open up and before you could blink an eye it seem as if some on else other than Black American bought out the owners. Eventually that business will be passed down through the bloodline of whoever bought it and the person who has sold it has depleted the profit that they made form the business. That profit would have bestowed money that could have provided different venues of business therefore supplying more jobs in the community. Black Americans can build an economic standing community by increasing blacked own businesses, investment, money management, and the reduction of governmental policies that are race specific. In other words the government must provide equal access to quality education, employment for all Americans ( Williamso 332). Our present economic status can be blame on our past if there is blame is to be made. Other races are able to identify with home countries to improve their economic status, for example thr...
According to Martin Luther King Jr., “There are two types of laws: there are just and there are unjust laws” (King 293). During his time as civil rights leader, he advocated civil disobedience to fight the unjust laws against African-Americans in America. For instance, there was no punishment for the beatings imposed upon African-Americans or for the burning of their houses despite their blatant violent, criminal, and immoral demeanor. Yet, an African-American could be sentenced to jail for a passive disagreement with a white person such as not wanting to give up their seat to a white passenger on a public bus. Although these unjust laws have been righted, Americans still face other unjust laws in the twenty-first century.
In order to make a case that the Black Power Movement was a logical extension of the African American freedom struggle based on the longstanding African American strategies and goals for change, it is important to look at the longstanding strategies and goals, and compare them to the Black Power movement, using the examples of strategies taken by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) in Alabama. Knowing this, it can be determine whether the Black Power movement built upon those strategies, or went against them. There are several noteworthy strategies used in this comparison. The names of these strategies are based off of the people who are synonymous with them. They comparisons are as follows: W.E.B DuBois’ Talented Tenth Plan, Booker T. Washington’s “Cast down your bucket” Plan, Thurgood Marshall’s Legal Campaign, and Dr. Martian Luther King Jr.’s Non-Violence Movement. In addition to determining whether or not the Black Power movement utilized these strategies, it is equally imperative to ask, assuming that the movement went against these strategies, if it was practical or logical, given the circumstances faced by SNCC and the LCFO, not to implement them.
The Association of Black Psychologist (ABP) (2013) defines colorism as skin-color stratification. Colorism is described as “internalized racism” that is perceived to be a way of life for the group that it is accepted by (ABP 2013). Moreover, colorism is classified as a persistent problem within Black American. Colorism in the process of discriminatory privileges given to lighter-skinned individuals of color over their darker- skinned counterparts (Margret Hunter 2007). From a historical standpoint, colorism was a white constructed policy in order to create dissention among their slaves as to maintain order or obedience. Over the centuries, it seems that the original purpose of colorism remains. Why has this issue persisted? Blacks have been able to dismantle the barriers faced within the larger society of the United States. Yet, Blacks have failed to properly address the sins of the past within the ethnic group. As a consequence of this failure, colorism prevails. Through my research, I developed many questions: Is it right that this view remain? How does valuing an individual over another cause distribution to the mental health of the victims of colorism? More importantly, what are the solutions for colorism? Colorism, unfortunately, has had a persisted effect on the lives of Black Americans. It has become so internalized that one cannot differentiate between the view of ourselves that Black Americans adopted from slavery or a more personalized view developed from within the ethnicity. The consequences of this internalized view heightens the already exorbitant mental health concerns within the Black community, but the most unfortunate aspect of colorism is that there is contention on how the issue should be solved.
The fight for equality has been fought for many years throughout American History and fought by multiple ethnicities. For African Americans this fight was not only fought to gain equal civil rights but also to allow a change at achieving the American dream. While the United States was faced with the Civil Rights Movements a silent storm brewed and from this storm emerged a social movement that shook the ground of the Civil Right Movement, giving way to a new movement that brought with it new powers and new fears. The phrase “Black power” coined during the Civil Right Movement for some was a slogan of empowerment, while other looked at it as a threat and attempted to quell this Black Power Movement.