Black Power
From Social Justice Wiki
“It is ludicrous for the society to believe that temporary measures can long contain the tempers of an oppressed people. And when the dynamite does go off, pious pronouncements of patience should not go forth…That dynamite was placed there by white racism and it was ignited by white racist indifference and unwillingness to act justly.”
While the phrase “Black Power” over the course of history has metamorphosed into a heavily loaded term with historical connotations, the idea was first coined and elucidated by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton in their text Black Power. Hamilton was an intellectual by training. He had received his law degree and his PhD by the time he joined with Carmichael to write the text and was one of the first black professors to teach at an Ivy League school. The two represented a dynamic duo and the book represented a shift away from the doctrines of nonviolence and integration advocated in the mainstream of the civil rights movement towards one of self-determination.
More information:
Criticism of Civil Rights Movement
Discussion:
Should black liberation movements today avoid coalitions with other organizations that may not have the same end goals? Is Carmichael's theory on the impossibility of an equal alliance between blacks and whites still relevant and true today? Join us in the discussion room to share your thoughts.