Self-Determination
From Social Justice Wiki
In order to throw off these shackles, blacks must redefine themselves as “African-Americans and as black people who are in fact energetic, determined, intelligent, beautiful, and peace-loving”. More concretely, they call for political modernization which necessitates rejecting the middle-class American values that perpetuate racism, founding a third political party apart from the bipartisan system that fails to represent blacks, and finally incorporating more black people into political participation. Black Power as they defined it was not a new or groundbreaking doctrine, but one that previous black leaders had called for on various occasions. However, they called more vehemently for fighting the tokenism that was developing in politics and for the creation of black-founded, black-run, and black-supported organizations and industries. This self-determination is the key to fighting institutional racism and uplifting African Americans. While Black Power deals with ideological issues, such as redefining what it means to be black, the text calls for structural reform. Carmichael and Hamilton uniformly see housing, employment, and education as largest impediments to black people and, if reformed, the keys to liberation.