Well.....
Let's take a look at our communities; those communities in major cities that are overlooked, neglected, and downtrodden are generally majority minority communities that are lacking the resources that they need to strive. Now, let's think back to the Civil Rights Era and the organizations that existed with the sole purpose of fighting for equality; the NAACP, the National Urban League, Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, National Council of Negro Women, and other local and regional organizations all existed with the purpose of seeking a better way of life for minorities. So today, in 2010, what organizations are in the national limelight that are actively fighting for better communities for minorities? What organization is taking strides in promoting healthy, livable, walkable, sustainable, and just communities across the country? Better yet, what leader(s) are tackling these issues? What leaders do our communities have on the Martin Luther King/DuBois level?
What is it going to take to get back to that level of activism?
Well put..
ReplyDeleteThe civil rights movement was different because black people were united in their pain. Now black people are too busy fighting each other to ever rise even to THAT level.
ReplyDeleteI say THAT level because all we really achieved was acceptance into a system that was not designed for us. Yet even now in our individual civil wars we have amongst each other in our culture (music, movies, family life, traditions, etc), we still have not overcome.
Our neighborhoods are torn down because we do not feel ownership of the land, nor respect from the government. We feel like strangers in a foreign land. All over the world, black people are seen as "lower people".
I personally have never been arrested but there is something within me that will never feel completely safe around a police officer even today.
I say that to make the bold claim that maybe what was done in the past during the civil rights movement was not enough. Even though our families fought hard in the struggle, what they achieved was not enough because we don't have families anymore.
What we have now is a fight in a boxing ring between a black man and his wife with people of other races sitting around eating popcorn. What we have is other types of people in our ears egging us on to war against each other, attacking each others inadequacies.
We will never get back to that level of activism because we don't even have solid families anymore. No foundation.
The civil rights movement was fostered out of a need for black people to move away from bondage. It was effective, but we have moved from one form of bondage to another,neglect. There is now no accountability to anybody or anything. We live our lives the way we choose and have made horrible choses. The focus and drive of Dr. King has been replaced with, which way do I go!
ReplyDeleteIf a person doesn't have an identity then they don't know where they're going. Dr. King was great, a God send, but have we replaced him, and others, with the God of the universe? Who do we call on now-to deliver us?
Obviously, no one is stepping up, parents especially. Our kids are raising themselves and the adults, parents, want to be kids. Where is the accountability? Where is the allegiance to God?