Who believes "Black Power is racist

[aroundtheworld]

There are lots of non-black who help black empowerment. That's what abolitionist were.

[byz]

I think that when self-affirming - when a black person takes the attitude that they're equal, they're beautiful, they're intelligent, and they're able - then "black power" is an important and positive thing. I think that if it shifts from something which is self-affirming to something which is exclusive - for example - 'I'm black, I'm intelligent, but you're not black therefore you aren't worthy' - then it becomes narrow and racist. Though I think the latter is quite rare.

[aroundtheworld]

Queen Latifah is a black empowered person. many whites adore her b/c she is positive.

[Mike the Jedi]

Racism will exist as long as people feel the need for such a thing.

[anodyne]

aroundtheworld said:

There are lots of non-black who help black empowerment. That's what abolitionist were.

The majority of abolitionsist were racists. They didn't believe that blacks were there equals, nor did they want anything to do with blacks. They were against slavery because they believed it was morally wrong but it never crossed their mind that blacks were their equals. John Brown, Garrison, and probably Spooner are the only abolitionists I know of who felt blacks were equals to whites.

The black power movement is rather silly. It has more to do with losing one self in a group than standing out as someone who can be proud of their own achievements. I notice the people who go on about black power are not unlike those whites who go on about white power. Neither have their own achievements to be proud of so they latch on to the accomplishments of others. As if someone elses success is their own simply because they have the same color skin. Group pride is such a stupid belief.

[tonynatuzzi]

I hate it when Northern European White Nationalists try to claim the achievements of Rome and Greece when they have no ancestors whatsoever from that part of the world.I just want to beat the shit out of those types just like I feel like beating the shit out of a West African descendent trying to claim the achievements of Egypt.

[Planet Asia]

African Americans are 350-400 plus years separated from Africa culturally period so even claiming anything in West Africa is stupid. People don't have birthrights to claim any ancient civilization based on descent.

[Planet Asia]

Black Power was a political movement that arose in the middle 1960s, that strove to express a new racial consciousness among Blacks in the United States. Robert Williams, who revived the Monroe, NC chapter of the NAACP and later entered exile in Cuba and China, was the first to put the actual term to effective use in the late 1950s. Williams, who was also the first to publish the poetry of Ray Durem, used the phrase "Black Power" in the American political context.

The movement stemmed from the earlier civil rights movements, but its meaning was vigorously debated. To some African Americans, Black Power represented racial dignity and self-reliance (i.e. freedom from white authority in both economic and political arenas). To others, it was economic in orientation.

Led in some ways by Malcom X, who supplied the rhetoric, style, and attitude, the Black Power Movement encouraged the improvement of African American communities, rather than the fight for complete integration. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense were truly the vanguard of the Black Power Movement. In addition to Robert Williams, Stokely Carmichael played a key role in the formation of the ideas of Black Power. Carmichael made Black Power more popular, largely through his use of the term while reorganizing the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) so that whites would no longer possess leadership responsibilities.

Some African Americans sought cultural heritage and history and the true roots of black identity as their part of the movement. This was thought of as the "consciousness" aspect of the Black Power Movement. The classic phrases belonged to the musicians: "Free your mind and your ass will follow" (George Clinton/Funkadelic) and "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud" (James Brown). The recognition that standards of beauty and self-esteem were integral to power relations was also a significant aspect of the movement.

Other interpreters of the Black Power Movement included Harold Cruse and Amiri Baraka who dealt with the cultural-nationalist perspective of Black Power as related to the artistic realm. In his essay "The Black Arts Movement," Larry Neal explains the effects of the Black Power Movement on the Black Arts Movement (Neal, Visions of a Liberated Future). He writes, "the political values inherent in the Black Power Concept are now finding concrete expression in the aesthetics of Afro-American dramatists, poets, choreographers, musicians and novelists." Like those who emphasized "consciousness" the artists of Black Power likewise emphasized the central importance of self-representation and productive autonomy.

One main point of the Black Power Concept was the necessity for Black people to define the world in their own terms. At times this included a call for revolutionary political struggle to reject racism and imperialism in the United States. As the Black Power Concept began to grow, it also began to build resistance and condemnation from whites and from several African American organizations, including the NAACP, because of the anti-white message associated (often unfairly) with Black Power.

When the Black Panther Party began to grow in the late 1960s, it became the largest Black organization advocating Black Power. Eventually because of the continual condemnation of the theory of Black Power as a separatist and anti-white movement, along with the destruction of the Black Panthers in the early 70s, the Black Power Concept seemed to disappear. Yet, scholars of African American art and politics still see the idea of Black Power as a strong effect on the consciousness of Black America today, though its institutions have been destroyed and the radical politics largely discredited and defused. In essence, the focus on cultural autonomy and self-esteem of the Black Power Movement has survived and, not surprisingly, grown in strength.

www.umich.edu/~eng499/concepts/power.html

[galton]

tonynatuzzi said:

I hate it when Northern European White Nationalists try to claim the achievements of Rome and Greece when they have no ancestors whatsoever from that part of the world.I just want to beat the shit out of those types just like I feel like beating the shit out of a West African descendent trying to claim the achievements of Egypt.

North Europeans and West Africans are very different people. There not at all the same.

[nerdling301]

black power is just as bad as white power, they're both affirming one race's superiority over another's. What irks me is that black power is much more accepted in PC society than white power, even though i support neither. White pride is even looked upon as racist in many contexts in modern society, whereas black pride is almost expected by the population at large.

[Jack Reed]

It depends on who uses the phrase. I don't care for "black power" or "white power". They're both racially charged terms. I hope that poor Americans of every race become more empowered.

[eufrenio]

bertrand said:

eufrenio said:

Yes. It is openly racist as well, so it´s no mistery.

I guess you saw the term "Black Power" and immediately thought racist, what do you really know about "Black Power"?

Well, the Black panthers and Black Muslims, weren´t they openly racist?

[dukeofpain]

galton said:

tonynatuzzi said:

I hate it when Northern European White Nationalists try to claim the achievements of Rome and Greece when they have no ancestors whatsoever from that part of the world.I just want to beat the shit out of those types just like I feel like beating the shit out of a West African descendent trying to claim the achievements of Egypt.

North Europeans and West Africans are very different people. There not at all the same.

Then again. The northerners sacked Rome, western africans didn't sack jack. Plus they were both of the indo-european family.

[Planet Asia]

nerdling301 said:

black power is just as bad as white power, they're both affirming one race's superiority over another's. What irks me is that black power is much more accepted in PC society than white power, even though i support neither. White pride is even looked upon as racist in many contexts in modern society, whereas black pride is almost expected by the population at large.

Black power has nothing to do with racial superiority, the same with black pride. Black Separatism is another matter.

[Planet Asia]

dukeofpain said:

galton said:

North Europeans and West Africans are very different people. There not at all the same.

Then again. The northerners sacked Rome, western africans didn't sack jack. Plus they were both of the indo-european family.

Speaking a language from the same language macro-family doesn't mean people are the same racially or culturally. Romans were Romance speakers while Northerners excluding France, were Germanic speakers