In the recent past, when a Black family suffered an atrocity at the hands of the State and it got public exposure, they would find a Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, or Militant organization to rally around them and advocate for justice. But that’s only if they were poor.
When a more well-to-do Black family got bitten by the System they would go to the established Negro Civil Rights organizations like the NAACP, to have them advocate for justice. The NAACP was notorious for refusing to aid poor, undereducated, Blacks, and any other Blacks that would been seen as an embarrassment to the image of Negro Blackness the NAACP wanted to display. No lie, check the history.
The tragedy is, we’ve fallen so far in this day it’s frightening.
Today when a Black family suffers a State supported atrocity there is not real Black organization with the power to help then and push the system to give them some level of justice. We gave up our independent and pretend-independent (i.e. NAACP) when we “won” integration. We ain’t got shit that’s worth shit now.
We used to have powerful Black figures and organization on the public stage, individuals like Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, and even Dr. King were in the newspapers and on the TV on a regular basis; we had real Radical Scholars getting mainstream exposure; but that’s all gone, we gave it up for Integration.
Now when we suffer atrocities, we have to find a fucking celebrity to surround the family, an entertainer, a ball chaser, or an entertainer who parades around like a Black Leader (Sharpton), this is a sick, sad joke!
Look at the parents of Trayvon and Mike Brown to see what I’m talking about.
We really need to understand what this means for our community. I ain’t saying the celebs didn’t rep back in the day, but it was our Organizations that carried the struggle, not the celebs. We need to rebuild our Organizations, now.
I’m glad to once again be part of a Pan-Africanist organization.
“Organize, organize, organize!” – Kwame Ture