Oh yes, did not MLK extol us to judge people -- all people -- by the content of their character and not the color of their skin? That's the first thing that Black people forget the very next day after singing MLK's praises. Begs the question: If Blacks don't look out for their own do they expect others to do so?
Politics and power are tribal things. White people will empower their own people. Jewish people will empower Jews. Chinese will buy from Chinese. Whites will vote along race lines and so will Blacks. But the difference is that once Black political leaders use Black voters to get in power they forget the Black empowerment part.
They forget their old friends and forsake them for their new friends. But as sure as night follows day the way they treat their old friends is the way that their new friends will eventually treat them. So the cycle of disempowerment and dependency in the Black community is perpetuated over and over again by political leaders who fail to exercise the very basic concepts of power. It is incompetent misuse of political and other power and is a retarding force in Black empowerment.
And this is also an indictment of the Black community as a whole because the Black masses do not hold these quisling politicians accountable. The community seems to be stuck in an endless cycle of predictable reaction to real of perceived injustices brought about by a lack of power and Black powerlessness -- march, shout, rally, forget, outrage, and march again ad infinitum.
MLK used marches and sit-ins as tools in broader efforts targeting the white political power structure. He and other Black leaders had a plan, a blueprint, for what they wanted to get done. MLK wanted to end segregation and bring in an era of civil rights in America. He believed that by leveling this playing field Blacks would be finally on a path to economic and political liberation.
In this context he saw the Black Power Movement as an emotional distraction and unfocussed sloganeering. In this MLK demonstrated an uncanny knack of understanding the real power relations in American society. He understood that it was essential to keep the national and international spotlight on American Apartheid by mass mobilization of the people while simultaneously negotiating and pressuring the power establishment in Washington to enact legal deep-going changes.
MLK understood that in order to enact meaningful change he had to work with the status quo in a way that did not compromise his ideals nor detract from the core philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement. It was this understanding of how to use power that resulted in the passage of both the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. For all of MLK's faults, and he had many, nobody could slight the man for not being an expert and savvy power broker and operator.
It is a lesson that today's crop of Black political and civic leaders must understand and learn from.
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