The Chicano and The Black Power Movements

3047 Words7 Pages

The 1960’s comprised of many different movements that sought the same goal of achieving equality, equality in means of: political, economical, and social equality. Two similar movements emerged during this era that shared the same ideologies: the Chicano and the Black Power Movement. Both shared a similar ideology that outlined their movement, which was the call for self-determination. The similar experiences that they had undergone such as the maltreatment and the abuse of power that enacted was enacted by the dominant Anglo race helped to shape these ideologies. Despite their similar ideology, they differed in how they achieved this goal, by either obtaining political participation or going to the extreme as using force to achieve their goals and moving to literally governing their own selves. Although the Chicano and Black Power Movement sought for self-determination, they differed in the tactics they used to obtain this goal. The Chicano and Black Power movement’s call for self-determination emerged due to the broken promises made to them by the American Government. After the Mexican-American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe was supposed to provide Mexican Americans with protection of their land and certain rights such as education, citizenship and the freedom to practice religion. The government never owned up to these promises. Instead Mexican-Americans were forced to assimilate into the American culture, their land stripped away from them, and they were not recognized as citizens. Promises made to the African-American community by the American government were also left unrecognized. Prior to the era of civil rights movement African-Americans had already been struggling under the white power dating back to the years of ... ... middle of paper ... ... Vol 27, No.4. Gulford Press, (1963): 415-432, http//www.jstor.org/stable/40400980 Grandjeat, Charles Yves. “ Nationalism, History and Myth: The Masks of Aztlan,” Confluencia, Vol6, No. 1 (Fall 1990):19-32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27921957 McCutcheon, Priscilla. “Returning Home to Our Rightful Place: The Nation of Islam and Muhammad Farms,” Elsevier (2013): 61-70 doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.05.001 Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996. Munoz, Carlos. Youth Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement. London: Verso, 1989. Ogbar, Jeffrey. Black Power Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2004, 124. Pinon, Fernando. Myths and Realities: Dynamics of Ethnic Politics. New York: Vantage Press, 1978.

Open Document