How did Black politics fail the last 50 years post civil rights and voting rights act? What should we have done better?

[Scustin Bieburr]

The problem was that the people ultimately trusted the politicians more than their own neighbors. Black america has a strong tradition of mutual aid. Whether its parents groups, neighborhood councils, churches, or community programs started by people who live in the same neighborhood(basically like how the black panther party started). Things like block parties, church fundraisers etc. Were organic tools of self governance and problem solving. The irony about the word "anarchism" is that most people dont actually know what it means and only understand anarchism through a capitalist framework(if there are no people at the top making the decisions for others without consulting them, the result is violence and chaos. Its similar to an office manager thinking if he isnt telling people what to do, nobody would be able to use their brains).

The form of organizing i described above is what anarchism actually looks like. It is a way of organizing people based off their ability to contribute and their relationship to the community they live in. Everyone gets a say because everyone has a stake in the outcome. We had this going on for centuries and it was how we were able to defend ourselves and pool our resources together to take care of our most vulnerable.

What happened was all that got colonized by the democratic party, and demonized by the republican party(with basically no push back from thr democrats). They started showing up to churches, fundraisers, parties etc. And using them as photo ops. Despite how much he's changed, some people still haven't forgiven Roland Martin for the literal tap dancing he did for Hilary Clinton in 2016. Obama is ironically a tier-1 political operator when it comes to defending the status quo and defusing any progressive sentiment in black communities. He has been deployed as a tool to defuse any sort of justified anger and attempts at organizing based off that anger(e.g. him pulling up to the church that got shot up by a white supremacist to sing amazing grace at the memorial, him distancing himself publicly from Jeremiah Wright who accurately described white America's evil actions internationally and at home, and most recently him telling NBA players not to go on strike in solidarity after George Floyd's public murder by police) real institutional change occurred through black labor unions, mutual aid societies, community defense programs, education groups, etc. We need to rebuild them, frankly the way things are going, we wont have a choice they will have to be rebuilt so we can survive just as we did in the past.

 

[⠀X ⠀]

This is what happens when we don’t hold our politicians accountable.

 

[Yapdatfool]

The next step of political evolution would be forming and funding lobby groups to promote and protect interests of the group.

That didnt happen.

Or a black American political 3rd party (think green party but by and for black americans specifically).

That also didn't happen.

Both can still happen though we have enough financially to pool to do it IMO.

But I agree, where is the black american super PAC? Where are the black american PAC's?

 

[desjardins]

This will always and forever be a brain dead take

You can’t build shyt as second class citizens in a country you pay taxes in

Right

I'm sick of people romanticizing the segregation era. So stupid and not supported by any data

Despite the progress in racial wealth convergence in the decades after Emancipation, the researchers show that the gap shrunk slower in this period (1870-1930) than would be expected if Black and white Americans had enjoyed equal savings and capital gains. This suggests factors like discrimination and segregation played a role in suppressing possible progress in racial wealth convergence during these critical decades after slavery.

There is only one period where the gap closed more quickly than would be expected under an equal savings rate and capital gains scenario: The period during and just after the civil rights movement, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

“This is a really important observation from the data, because it suggests that the Black activism that led to civil rights legislation, a larger social safety net, and better labor standards may have given an extra boost to Black wealth accumulation,” said Derenoncourt.

Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020 - Princeton University - Department of Economics

A groundbreaking new study on the Black-white wealth gap in the U.S. shows that progress on closing the gap has all but stalled since the 1950s and inequality is on track to grow moving forward. The study by Princeton’s Ellora Derenoncourt and the University of Bonn’s Chi Hyun Kim, Moritz Kuhn...

economics.princeton.edu

 

[Vandelay]

integration was not a good thing for us imo..we should have worked to build our own economies, or at least significantly reduce how much of a hand the caucus people had in our business

I know what you're saying, but I think integration was a net good. We were never going to have equal distribution in segregation and there is no where for black folk to repatriate to en masse.

Post integration we took our foot off the gas for a bunch of reasons; the talented tenth left black America for the most part, the crack and mass-incarceration epidemic, and black folk have always been in an anemic position in this country and as such seemingly adopted a complacency with second class citizenry because I guess we aren't collectively getting our ass beat everyday and the average white person doesn't say n*gger in public anymore.

Other minorities and immigrants don't have the global resentment that black Americans have. Maybe Palestinians, but even they are largely championed as of late. I joke about FBA or ADOS, because I think the overarching strategy is misdirected, but it definitely is a distinction with a necessary difference.

 

[Wig Twistin Season]

Not separated if you pay taxes so that little Dillion and little Suzie can go to the best schools while your schools are crumbling with poor infrastructure.

Not separated if the local mayor and sheriff can imminent domain your entire neighborhood and move you up out of there and relegate you to the poorest sections of the city/state.

Not separated if you can't find work and found outside with little money in your pockets and you're arrested and jailed for vagrancy (check: Vagrancy Act of 1866).

We were separated from basic human decency and the resources that white people enjoyed and built their middle class and fortune 500 companies on.

Cause you know america left black americans alone while we were separated from them with de facto AND de jure segregation.

Black wall street was destroyed while not even bothering them at all. Separate but equal didn't work then and will not work now.

So y’all think separation means staying in the country you’re getting your ass kicked in?



Interesting.

I was thinking more along the lines of we built this country with a foot in our asses and a whip on our backs, why didn’t we go somewhere and figure it out from scratch, surrounded by people that look like us?

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Was the goal special rights for black Americans or equality for all people?

 

[Mob H]

The answer, as it is with everything wrong with this country in the last 40+ years, and not just with Black folks, is Ronald Reagan.

 

[Amo Husserl]

1968 - 1999 is a crucial period.

Spoiler: These are some good books to get you off in the right direction.

We should have studied.

Now let me answer your question:

Post MLK we got Black mayors such as Marion Berry and Maynard Jackson who helped Black folks immensely. Eventually our politics started to stagnate what went wrong?

Spoiler: An answer to your question.

The private sector pumped money into Black social and economic programs that ended the self-determination Black Power was fighting for.
The Kerner Report told white politicians and white institutions how to destroy the momentum of Black society. See above.
Major Black politicians coming out of the Civil Rights movement hated on Black Power and chose the Democratic party, the Black community followed.
Black politicians immediately after the CRM were legally harassed by litigation initiated by whites and surveilled to prevent Black politicians from advancing politically, Marion Berry was the highlight of that era.

Too many Black politicians had to appeal to white people and broad coalitions of minorities that formed after the CRM, the centerpiece of the democratic party's political strategy. Black politicians had to function as democrats and could not cater directly to Black interests for fear of losing other voters and fumbling their political careers. Mayors in majority-Black cities could benefit but any office above mayor was a struggle for Black politicians to not be too Black, so they had to distance themselves from delivering anything other than symbolic gains for the Black people voting for them. That got us generations of frustrated Black voters who, without a nationally accepted independent Black political party and agenda, had to vote Democrat for the alternative. It was a false dilemma created because consensus was the Congressional Black Caucus was "enough", the Black Power alternative was over by 1975 and all the big wigs from that movement moved on and there was no viable alternative to Black people voting in large enough numbers to maintain the CRM gains the Democrats were campaigning on. That also shows a population problem, our numbers are too low to have any real political impact for ourselves and our agendas.

Reagan in the 80s deprioritized Black social and political agendas, but that was already happening under Jimmy Carter.
Republicans from 1968 until 1993 made sure to try to dismantle the legislative gains or soften the impact of the CRM. Bill Clinton perfected that move while securing the Black vote. The Democratic party was looking for a way around the Black vote since losing to Nixon. Nixon got tough on crime, and the southern strategy was the playbook for Republicans for a minute up until at least Clinton got elected.

The war on poverty, the 1971-era war on drugs, and the war on crime also had a devastating effect that reached a high point by the crack era, when that started cooling off that '94 Crime Bill dropped.

The problem more complex now, Black people can't just talk to their local politician or congressperson because Black people not as organized as they used to be.

 

[coldcall]

Times changed. People became complacent while the population at large got more partisan thanks to talk radio, cable news, etc. And lots of people have gotten dumber. You see it in the discourse today. You have people advocating and voting for a literal white supremacist because they think it makes them smart or strategic and that's just one example of many blunders.

 

[Yapdatfool]

So y’all think separation means staying in the country you’re getting your ass kicked in?



Interesting.

I was thinking more along the lines of we built this country with a foot in our asses and a whip on our backs, why didn’t we go somewhere and figure it out from scratch, surrounded by people that look like us?

Liberia (and the idea(s) along with it) came and went during its ideological apex.

Some people left, more stayed. Would you like to restart that movement?

 

[Wig Twistin Season]

Liberia (and the idea(s) along with it) came and went during its ideological apex.

Some people left, more stayed. Would you like to restart that movement?

No. That ship has sailed. I’m Americanized at this point. So are my children. We’re generations deep in this system now. I’d be lying if I said I hate it here. I dislike some things, but overall, I’m happy with my choices and my life.

I guess where my thinking starts to veer off from a lot of our people is, I have no hope that things will ever be ideal. There’s no Utopia where everything is going to be perfect for us. There will always be a trade off. To gain some things, we will have to sacrifice some things. To enjoy the American lifestyle you have to accept the bullshyt that comes with it. To move somewhere else and start over, you have to remove yourself from the place and people that made you who you are.

I think what most people are truly angry about is their place in the hierarchy. I know a few rich black people and they don’t complain much.

 

[Voice of Reason]

Cause you know america left black americans alone while we were separated from them with de facto AND de jure segregation.

Black wall street was destroyed while not even bothering them at all. Separate but equal didn't work then and will not work now.

He's right we need to come together and take over states politically but he's wrong about legal segregation.


A reverse migration would be beneficial for us.

 

[O.T.I.S.]

People mentality and priorities changed.

Became more about social status than it does about rights and rules. Less focus on intelligence and character and more on material possessions and the image of wealth… for starters

 

[UpNext]

Priority of actual policies that will actually improve the quality of your life and being serious about it over whatever dumb shyt people are prioritizing right now.