Although equity, equality, and freedom are presented as values upheld by the United States, they have represented an empty promise to those of African descent. In a 1964 speech at the founding rally of the organization of Afro-American unity, and civil rights, Malcolm X asserted that Black people had “to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, and first here in the United States, and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary.” While Black people are no longer enslaved, there is a gap between the freedom America purports to provide its citizens and the total freedom Malcolm X alluded to. I often describe Malcolm X’s perspective as one driven by “self-determination, believing that Black people had the right to self-defense, self-worth, and self-determination.”
This is not to say that diversity, equity, and inclusion are irrelevant ideals or goals in America. They are noble concepts to live by and strive for. However, they are not the ultimate goal for Black people living in a society that has oppressed them and their ancestors and robbed them of their socioeconomic place in that society. Here is how Amiri Baraka, the revolutionary poet described the concept that Malcolm X described and the goal:
“The struggle is not simply for ‘equality’ or ‘better jobs’ or ‘better schools’ and the rest of those half-hearted liberal cliches; it is to completely free the black man from the domination of the white man.” (Baraka)
Baraka and Malcolm X are not dismissing these other goals or pursuing a more equitable, diverse society; they are just stating the ultimate destination for African people — liberation. There can be no compromise on this. When civil rights were extended to marginalized groups people, as they were to Black people in America after decades of protest and dissent, it still had its limits. These rights were uniquely American. Malcolm X and Baraka were talking about human rights, rights you have as a human being born into the world free, regardless of the country someone is born in. They were also talking about the right of human beings to have control over their bodies and their children’s bodies as free people. Circumstances might have been different had Western nations acknowledged the rights of Black people and racial minorities, but here we are living in a post-slavery, post-Jim Crow version of America that’s left stained with the legacy of systemic racism. Therefore, Black people are still left with the goal of seeking “complete independence.”
If African Americans had the power to utilize their “self-determination” and obtain “complete independence,” there would be no argument about teaching African and African American history in schools. There would be no more arguments about voting rights or equal justice under the law because the rights of African Americans would be accepted and respected. Institutions in America continue to manipulate the law and exhibit institutional control over the lives of African Americans because they are not yet “completely free.” Yet, we are moving closer each day. The proper debates are being had now.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would not dare try to cover up the truth about American history, slavery, and its racial history if “complete freedom” had been obtained. Simply put, he would not be able to get away with it if there wasn’t so much tacit support for his censorship campaign. DeSantis is trying to censor history because he knows the storm is coming. A push not simply for equality, equity, or inclusion but for self-determination. It is the same thing all free human beings savor more than anything else.
African Americans will obtain this level of independence one day, but the struggle takes course over time, it’s a process. Achieving his goal takes time; it requires diligence and persistent effort, but it is happening.
Angela Davis also noted that there is an attempt to control the narrative of history by people like DeSantis because the most recent push for equal justice in America was multiracial in nature. The Black Lives Matter movement saw its largest turnout of supporters in the summer of 2020. In large crowds of protestors of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Together, they helped to challenge the status quo in an effort to create a new type of society, one more accepting of Black people’s human rights. When asked to reflect on Malcom X’s legacy, Davis said, “Our vision needed to be broader. It had to move, Malcolm said, across the borders of nation-states. It had to be transnational. It had to be international. The framework that Malcolm urged us to use was human rights.”
Reflecting on Malcom X’s legacy reminds us that African-Americans continue to fight for complete independence, something they’ve never successfully obtained. This is not a question of diversity or inclusion either; this movement is a rejection of the status quo, a power structure controlled by white-male supremacist America. Racism is systemic, which is something that even many White males benefiting from this system realize. Americans all across the nation called for change during the “racial reckoning,” and to some degree, that change has begun to take shape. Younger generations have shown through persistent protest that they do not want the world their grandparents and great-grandparents lived in that was rooted in racism and callous level of violence. They want a different world. And that world includes “complete independence” for African Americans, as Malcolm X described.
Regardless of where things are in America, the struggle will continue until that goal is obtained.
‘ALUTA CONTINUA’
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
Escape the Act Like a Man Box | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men | Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race | The First Myth of the Patriarchy: The Acorn on the Pillow |
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