The Weaponization of Black identity and Perversion of Black Radicalism
In this essay, I give my thoughts on the current state of black radicalism and explain briefly what I think an effective black radical organization would look like.
It’s safe to say that the pro-black identity tendencies of the civil right movement have won. It is now generally considered okay to have natural hair, dark skin and speak AAVE. There is still the typical primitive racism of some backward whites, but in media and in law, we have protections and there are many whites that will rally against open discrimination. The crown act has been adopted in many states including Louisiana, preventing discrimination against hair. Black faces are in many high places within Shreveport. The current district Attorney is black, half the city council is black, and we have had black police chiefs. At the Mud Bugs Festival, I observed many black female cops with hairstyles popular with black women. No one can say we haven’t won extremely solid gains.
One can also say that conditions have not changed and have indeed worsened for the greater black populations. Though we have the rise of a black professional class and a black oligarchic class, the conditions of ordinary black people have not gotten much better since the end of the civil rights movement. The median wealth of whites is 10 times greater than the median wealth of blacks. This inequality has done nothing but increase since the end of the Civil Rights era. Anyone with a brain can see this. The homicide within our nation is extremely high, matching that of Mexico with being 24 per 100,000 and 26 per 100,000 respectively. Our life expectancy continues to be below the national average, being 70.8 as of 2020 compared to 76.1. The life expectancy of a black man in Louisiana is 69 years, but potentially far lower due to the collapse in life expectancy due to covid and other deaths in 2021 and 2022. Incomes and wealth are much lower, infant mortality is higher and death/misery is prolific. These are all things we have heard a thousand times. Anyone with a brain knows of this. The question I raise is about the opposition, or the lack of it in our area. If this relationship between our Nation and the rest of the country existed in a country oppositional to the western hegemony, the United States government would be funneling millions of dollars to separatist organizations and we would see a call of succession of that groups from the country (See Sudan/South Sudan, Syria, China, etc.). Even if we take the western imperialist variable out of the equation, it makes sense to say that no people of themselves and for themselves would except these conditions. We see this in west Papua and the indigenous peoples of most Latin American countries. Any rational people will be out in the streets, take up arms and fight for themselves as a nation and as a class. This simply doesn’t happen to the extent it should in the US and essentially none in Shreveport.
The black population in Shreveport has some decent organizations fighting for it like ASAP Shreveport and Allendale strong, but these organizations are small, insignificant, and apolitical. They have made no real progress in building up a people or a movement. I believe this is due to the “win” we received in the category mentioned in the first paragraph. We largely won in the cultural field, but we have lost horrifically in the economic field. This win in the cultural field has been used by the United States security institutions and neo-liberal oligarchs to suppress us as a people form making real change. Look at the example listed in the first paragraph. Shreveport police department is stupidly diverse and to a lesser extent the Sheriff’s department, yet they have killed people since the beginning of this year. If you look at the country, police have killed the most people on record last year since serious reporting started. This win in integrating the police department was worthless in context of our current condition. Shreveport has had a string of black mayors since Cedric Glover to Adrian Perkins in 2006-2022 yet conditions have remained largely changed. We have had black faces in high places for a very long time, yet there has been little change in the black economic landscape since the Civil right movement. One could argue it has gotten worse with the rise of the Neo-Liberal era and the destruction of black businesses that occurred due to the penetration of the black market by larger white service sector capital.
Who is to blame for this. The blame lies on many political tendencies and groups, but primarily the black bourgeoisie that has reaped most of the benefits of our limited integration. The black bourgeoisie has accepted American neo-liberalism as their gospel and have supported organization that promote a neo-liberal perversion of black identity. The power that we have as a people is extensive, especially in our influence in pop culture, yet the black elite has moved in step behind this Western supremacist colonial state in its fight against our brothers and sisters in the global south. Just look at the current head of US Africa command and the creation of US Africa Command by the Obama administration. Just look at the sorry excuse of “African Americans” that surround the Biden administration. Look at the coons that have made up the congressional black caucus and their lockstep behind the 1994 crime bill. In the media, look at the Black Panther Movie and the demonization of black radicalism portrayed by kill monger. Look at the stupidity of the last mayoral election in Shreveport where the black candidates, in opposition to Perkins, handed this city’s mayoral position back to reactionary Broadmoor whites. Look at Black Lives Matter organizations. Some local organizations do very good work, but it is a largely neo-liberal “protest movement” masquerading as black radical organization. Look at the degenerate BLM National Organization. These people; Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi are best to symbolize the neo-liberal black elite and it’s perversion of black radicalism. They are fundraisers for themselves of themselves solely. They have no interest of helping people who live in Stoner Hill, Allendale, MLK or Hollywood.
Where has discontent flowed to. It has moved to cultish, ridiculous, reactionary organizations like criminal gangs, religious cults mascaraing as black radical organizations and worship of certain black bourgeoisie. The list of reactionaries, reactionary tendencies and organizations is endless, but the point has been made. These groups and people have no real plan, they don’t study our condition and experiment to find a solution as any serious organization would do. They pervert the names of our heroes and prophets, bastardize their messages and organizations and draw on the worst excesses of previous organizations like the Black Panther Party.
Some words must be said of apolitical, non-profits that have some semblance of focus on the black community. Some do good work like ASAP Shreveport and Allendale Strong, but the apolitical nature of these organizations and the self-imposed limitations of these organizations are their fatal flaw. Without politics, they will inspire no one. These types of organizations are simply the incomplete skeleton of an opposition to neo-liberalism and colonialism within Shreveport at their best. At their worst, they are simply members of the non-profit industrial complex, billionaire appendages that fill the social gap of a defunded and defunct welfare state and suppress true opposition. They will come and go. They will either fade away and another organization will replace them, be coopted, or continue to be small and obscure.
There is no genuine black radical organization in Shreveport. The closest are more likely in Jackson, New Orleans, and Dallas area. In fact, there are no radical organizations in general in Shreveport to form an opposition. Why is that? Most blame belongs to the terrorist regime that the black community experiences every day, suppressing any true opposition. Some blame must be placed on black radical organizations themselves. They have become inbred cults largely out of touch with most people. Examples are the African Peoples Socialist Party, Cooperative Jackson, etc. They are also extremely limited in ambition and inspiration. Many are too dependent on white support and validation. We don’t need a rainbow coalition; we don’t need to hold hands and sing about acceptance of others. We don’t need to limit our actions to make sure petite bourgeoisie feel like they are safe. We need a black organization that will do anything to reach a defined goal in the realm of black liberation. We need a political, rational, pro-black, socialist organization that will do anything it takes to win. We need an organization that is cohesive and able to instill discipline within its members and be ambitious to the point of being power hungry. An organization that will not do too much or do too little, just what the situation needs. I don’t know what that will look like, but we will know it when we see it.
References:
1. Racial Wealth Gap:
https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/
2. Black Homicide victimization rate:
https://vpc.org/black-homicide-victimization-in-the-united-states-state-rankings/\
3. Mexico Homicide Rate:
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/homicides-in-mexico-statistics/#:~:text=Mexico%20homicide%20rate%202015%20to%202021&text=improvement%20since%202014.-,Despite%20recent%20improvements%2C%20Mexico's%20homicide%20rate%20remains%20near%20historical%20highs,day%20on%20average%20in%202021.
4. Shreveport Killed by Police: https://www.ktbs.com/news/officer-involved-shooting-is-fourth-this-year-3-deadly/article_53a7ba4c-e2f4-11ed-a25e-93495d977114.html
5. Black in Louisiana: https://measureofamerica.org/louisiana2020/#:~:text=Women%20in%20Louisiana%20can%20expect,of%20Black%20men%2C%2069.5%20years.
6. Shreveport Police Themselves:
https://policescorecard.org/la/police-department/shreveport
7. Police are Trigger Happy:
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
8. BLM:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter#Structure_and_organization
9. NFAC: