The Gantt Report
The 2013 Black power struggle in the United States is basically the same as it was in 1513. Some Blacks want to become more and more integrated into American society and moral systems and some Blacks hate American society and American ways.
It seems like it has always been a power struggle in the Black community.
Back in slavery days, on every plantation you had a Fiddler, an Uncle Tom or a Sambo who insisted that the slave master was a “good” master and the best place for Black people was wherever the slave masters and overseers wanted the slaves to be. But you also had the Nat Turners, the Denmark Vesseys and the Harriet Tubmans that declared that “anywhere is better than here” on the master’s plantation.
During the Jim Crow era and during the early civil rights movements you had W.E. B. Doubois, a Harvard graduate that was one of the founders of the mostly white National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, on one hand and on the other philosophical side, Booker T. Washington, a strong advocate for Black self-determination.
One of the major contrasts between the two leaders was their approach to education: Washington felt that African-American schools should limit themselves to industrial education topics such as agricultural and mechanical skills. However, Du Bois felt that black schools should also offer a liberal arts curriculum (including the classics, arts, and humanities), because liberal arts were required to develop a leadership elite.
Leadership elite? How many Gantt Report readers look at self-proclaimed so-called Black leaders of today as being elite? Anyway, let’s move on.
Subsequently, American Blacks continued to disagree about how to promote and encourage Black power and political progress.
At the time of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Southern Christian Leadership Conference and similar peace-loving groups, Black Americans could also consider supporting Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Huey Newton and the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and other activist groups.
Today, most so-called Black leaders don’t want Black progress, they want a job. They want the exploitative politician to hire them. They want the oppressive corporation to hire them. And, they want the imperialist press to give them a talk show to discuss topics that interest white Americans or TV shows that will make fun of Black people and depict Black men as clowns and comedians and depict Black women as alcoholics and street fighters.
If others hate Minister Louis Farrakhan, so-call modern-day Black leaders will hate him too. If politicians hate Muammar Gaddafi, mis-educated Black leaders will hate Gaddafi too. If Fox News hates Black journalists, columnists and communicators, so-called Black leaders will hate them too.
Whatever Black people want to do in 2013 nothing can be done unless Black people do it themselves. If we want to integrate or separate, we have to do it ourselves. If we want to blend in or opt out of American economics and politics we have to find a way to do it ourselves.
Every racial and ethnic group knows that there is power in unity. We can’t come together and get things we want and do things we want because conflicting solutions are holding us back.
If you want to be a Black leader in an American 2013 capitalistic system your task is simple, be a Black leader that can generate jobs and money for the Black masses.
Sucking up to get reelected and sucking up to get a job for your self is not being a true leader! To reduce yourself to a 2013 political, social and moral puppet will not solve the Black power struggle situation.
