The New Negros of today are the “Old Crowd Negros” of the 1920s.
Both the New Negros of the past and today are Integrationist, the are very diffrent; because the New Negros of today would have been classical Sambos in the 1920s, or “Old Crowd Negros.”
New Negros in the 1920s wanted “Black progress,” they were sincere, but fatally flawed in their analysis and agendas.
In the 1920s there was an idea that Black people could be full and respected citizens of the United States of America; that our citizenship and loyalty to this nation would afford us equal standing under the law, equal opportunity in the economy, and equal access to education, services, and jobs.
Most Liberal New Negros concluded that the obstacle to our full integration in America was our lack of education and our failures to demonstrate to Whites in America our abilities to be equal Brothers and Sisters in this “One Nation, Under God.” The Liberal New Negros concluded that if secured (White) education, produced great literature and art, contributed to the national economy, fought bravely in the US Armed Forces, and all that other shit; Whites would see that were are not “sub-human,” but equal to them.
The Liberal New Negros didn’t just encourage the Black masses to get good schooling, or be dutiful laborers (not matter how degrading the job); they wanted us to talk, dress, think, and breath America; “I too Sing America!,” was their motto.
You are gonna hear all kinds of Black Integrationist and (Modern) New Negros pile all this other shit onto the New Negro ideology and movement, but this integration shit was at the core of it. New Negros wanted full assimilation and integration in America.
Now, I don’t wanna dis our ancestors, they were working with the information and analysis they had at the time, most of them; but we don’t honor them by repeating their mistakes.
Garvey, was never officially a New Negro but he was active in that era and all active “Negros” were grouped in with the New Negro movement, even if the Liberal New Negros rejected them; as they did Garvey. Garvey would have been identified as a Militant Negro, a Separatist Negro; and a New Negro. Even Garvey came to the false conclusion that if the Black man (and women) demonstrated the ability to organize, pool our resources, govern a nation, and construct a national economy; then Whites would respect us and allow us a seat at the table of human civilization. Garvey wanted to integrate as a Race into the “Community of Nations,” and the Global Economy.
They all mistakenly thought the White Oppression was in some way rooted in White failure to see or understand Black potential; and that we should strive to demonstrate our true and full potential to them.
This is a rough overview of the New Negro philosophy, but this is what it was. There are many others, who didn’t hold to the New Negro philosophy and agenda but were lumped in as New Negros; Blacks who didn’t seek integration, or to prove shit to Whites, they only wanted their basic human dignity and to be left the fuck alone. Often the New Negros would embrace these “Angry Negros,” these uneducated Negros, when it served their larger New Negro Agenda, and would dump them, or side with Whites against them when it served the New Negro Agenda. So you will find Militant Blacks of the 1920s, the entire post-Reconstruction era called ‘New Negros,’ but they were not.
Today we should know better, that it ain’t about us, they don’t oppress us, or exclude us cuz we Black, they do what they do because of whatever internal flaws in their culture and collective psyche. Our job is not to integration into any of their Systems and Institutions, nationally or globally, but to erect Systems that stand in direct opposition to Global White Domination, and to dismantle all Systems of oppression, not reform them.
Today, New Negros still struggle for full integration with Whites, and they attack anyone they see as obstructing them for full integration, they also seek to prove to the Whites that they are loyal and worthy of integration. That’s why they attack poor Blacks, cuz they fell that their “ghetto” behavior makes us all look back, and thus showing us unworthy of integration. They ignore the oppression that’s at the root of Black poverty and dysfunction (cuz acknowledging that would also make them unworthy). They also mock, demean, and attack Pan-Africans, “Hoteps,” Black Militants, or any Blacks who resent and resist White Domination, for the same reasons; it makes Blacks look unworthy. Also, fighting “bad Blacks” further shows their own worthiness.
In the 1920s New Negroism was a severely flawed movement; but it was also an umbrella title given to all active Black people, even if they didn’t hold to the core of the New Negro Integrationist ideology and agenda.
In the 2000s New Negroism is open treason, it is the Old School Uncle Tom employing more effective methods to undermine or subdue the Black masses on behalf of White Domination.