Black Group Economics vs. White Liberalism as Means of Black Empowerment
There is constant talk about what is needed in the Black community to facilitate Black empowerment. Many, including myself, have gone to great lengths to identify the ills of the Black collective and create solutions that can be systematically implemented across multiple spectrums of influence.
With all that has been presented, there is a topic that is almost taboo among blacks — the concept of freeing ourselves from the ideological grasps of White Liberalism. Blacks have shifted from being a group that supported the Republican party 150 plus years ago after receiving our quasi-freedom to being predominantly supporters of the Democrats without anyone understanding how it happened.
To understand how this happened, I suggest you read Not a Tea Party but a Confederate Party.
Neely Fuller, Jr. once said that until you understand Racism White Supremacy, how it works and how it operates, everything you think you understand will only confuse you. That statement has never been more relevant than it is today. We must gain an understanding of how racism works within this two-party political system to gain a lucid perspicacity of what it will take to break free of the cycle of perpetual poverty that has held us in check.
Far too many Blacks have been mesmerized by the soothsaying of White Liberals who promise us trinkets of provision and secure dwelling, but consistently obfuscate our people when it comes to discussing the true elements of empowerment. Until we see White Liberalism as one leg supporting the foundation of institutional racism in this country, we will continue to find ourselves bewildered by our current circumstances.
It is not White people who have the answers to the problems of Blacks, that is something we must discover and determine for ourselves. The power that requires permission and external assistance is not power at all. We cannot be dependent on anyone else and ever be empowered as a people.
Finally, our empowerment will not come through considerations given what the White power infrastructure offers us, but what we create, build and sustain ourselves. Black empowerment will not look like most of us envision it, because most of us envision it through the lens of White supremacy!
There must be an Afrocentricic idea through which we gain an understanding of the inner workings of institutional racism, not to operate within its constructs but to systematically dismantle it while building an edifice of our own.
~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.
Click here to support the Black Men Lead rite of passage program for young Black males!
Building a Better Black Man
We cannot elude the reality associated with the current state of Black manhood. We can’t pretend that African American adolescents and young adult males are reigning terror on inner-city Black neighbors for power and territory they don’t own.
In significant numbers, we can’t pretend that Black men have not found it an acceptable course of action to procreate and then abandon their progeny. We cannot pretend that the second leading cause of death for Black females between the age of 15 and 44 is intimate partner homicide (predominantly at the hands of Black men).
We can’t pretend that Black men have not deemed to be acceptable to openly degrade and disrespect the Black woman. He has detached himself from his responsibilities as protector, provider, leader and more.
The only way that we overcome this social deficit is to address the issue early in life before our young Black males become contaminated with erroneous ideologies and values. This is done through proper and comprehensive racial socialization, and the best way to do that is a universal rite of passage mechanism. I created the Black Men Lead rite of passage program to provide young Black males across this country with access to the type of engagement and stimulation that will build a Better Black Man…
Click here to support the Black Men Lead rite of passage program for young Black males!