The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Afrikan People

Newark NJ

27 March, 2021

8:57 PM

Description

(Note: This writer will use Afrikan and Black interchangeable to identify people of Afrikan descent.) Recently, Samaria Rice posted a statement on social media openly criticizing community activists, social justice organizations, and prominent civil rights attorneys, such as Tamika Mallory, Shaun King, Benjamin Crump, Lee Meritt, Patrisse Cullors, Melina Abdullah, and the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network, of opportunism. She said, "step down, stand back, and stop monopolizing and capitalizing our fight for justice and human rights" (https://www.complex.com/life/tamir-rice-mother-criticizes-tamika-mallory-after-lil-baby-grammys-performance). Sister Rice is the mother of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old unarmed Afrikan American boy killed by white police officers while he played in his neighborhood park with a toy gun on November 22, 2014 in Cleveland, Ohio. This situation is a teachable movement. With the attacks on the Black liberation Movement by the US government and the police, the Black community has experienced high levels of political confusion since the 1970s to the present. The tipping point of the attacks on Black radicals reach its maximum wall in America during the 1960s and 1970s. According to the document titled, "The FBI Sets Goals for COINTELPRO," published by the American Social History Project Center For Media and Learning, the document says that America " Under Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) was aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political groups within the United States. In the 1960's, COINTELPRO's targets frequently included civil rights activists, both those who espoused non-violence, like Martin Luther King, and those that Hoover referred to as "black nationalist hate groups," like the Black Panthers" (https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/814). As consequence of White supremacy, and US government sanctioned racism directed at the Black community, it has produced in the millennium much misinformation and miseducation on the strategies to put Afrikan people on the road map to freedom and independence. However, two main tactics that have emerged since our enslavement in America in 1619, such as reformism and Black nationalism. At times, both strategies intersect to address issues in the Black community (i.e., community violence, police brutality, housing, education, the prison industrial complex, etc.) However, reformism and Black nationalism have completely different objectives But in the millennium, reformist and Black nationalist political lines have been completely blurred. And that is all by design. It is intentional that white hegemony keeps us divided and unbalanced in our analysis of white supremacy and systematic racism and the tools to win freedom and independence from oppressive forces in the Afrikan / Afrikan American community. Therefore, white hegemony successfully persuades our people that reformism (i.e., liberalism, integration, assimilation, civil rights, etc.) is the only course and direction for Black America. On every level of Black life in today's American and the western world, our people are steered away from ever embracing Black nationalism as a strategy to liberate our minds and bodies from white domination. However, for many Afrikan people in America, and throughout world, Black nationalism is still the best option for Black freedom and independence. Although Black nationalism is often disrespected, and constantly discredited by the power structure in the millennium, it has an extensive history and place in the Afrikan world community. In reaction to white supremacy, and systematic racism, in America and in the world, Black people began to resist. Some of our greatest community ancestors such as Fredrick Douglass, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, William Monroe Trotter, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, A Philip Randolph, Whitney Young, and Paul Robeson, began to fight for the civil rights of Black people. They inspired Black people to challenge the United States to live up to its democratic creed established by the founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson, a founding father, wrote in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence America's the basis for the human right (Albeit only property-owning White people) of freedom in the world on July 4, 1776. He said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Although many of the founder fathers contradicted themselves, because many of them were slave owing Whites, their ideas of freedom resonated with Black people. This became a rallying call for many Black advocates of civil rights in America. Our ancestors began to write, speak, protest, demonstrate, and organize Black people for freedom. Black civil rights activists created a foundation for a movement that will force White people to insure us our equal rights and freedom in America. It was long struggle to make civil rights a mass movement. In 1955, a sparked was lite in the spirit of Black people. The Afrikan American community got tired of centuries of legalized second-class citizenship. Our mass acceptance of Black oppression came to an end. Afrikan Americans began demonstrating against segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama with the threat of losing their jobs and their very lives. This was led by Black civil rights leaders such as, E. D Nixon, Rosa Parks, and a young dynamic pastor named the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. For over year, Black people boycotted the city's buses until their demands for equality were met and respected in Montgomery. Our people successfully challenged and changed racist laws on public buses regulating Afrikan Americans to the back of the bus. This massive social justice action gave rise to the modern-day reformist movement called the Civil Rights Movement. From 1955 to 1965, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr arose to leadership inspiring masses of Black people all over America to fight against racial discrimination. He popularized the need for civil rights for Black people and all oppressed people. He helped to make it a mass movement inclusive of many religions, races, and cultures in America. Coalitions of people of various walks of life were in solidarity with Black people for racial, social, political, and economic equality. Before his murder in 1968, Dr. King forced the US government to establish historic laws that protected the rights of the Black community, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights of 1965. Today's Black progressivism is deeply rooted in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. However, for many civil right activists, the call for reforms within the government became the objective for freedom, and not a strategy to produce Black independence. But the civil rights movement was not the only movement in the Black community. There was another movement of Black people that began to develop in America, and all around the Americas, to fight for Black equality and freedom. It stressed equality, Black unity, Black cultural pride, Black independence, land, and nation-building. This movement will be called in the 20th century-Black nationalism. Out of the oppression of Black people in the United States, and around the Americas, arose Black nationalist leaders absolutely committed to re-building Black life trapped under the weight of slavery, colonialism, overt racial violence, and racial inequality. Black nationalism traces its roots from leaders in the 1700s such as, Richard Allen, Prince Hall, and Paul Cuffe to name a few. We have Black individuals that we often overlook as founders of Black nationalism. But their histories must be read and studied. One such Black leader was Martin Delany. In history he is considered the real father of Black Nationalism in America. He lived from May 6, 1812 to January 24, 1885. He was a great Afrikan American abolitionist, journalist, physician, and soldier. However, his writings laid the foundation for the principles of Black nationalism in America to this date. Delany coined the Pan-Afrikan slogan of "Africa for Africans." In 1850, Delany was one of the first three Black men admitted to Harvard Medical School, but all were dismissed after a few weeks because of widespread protests by racist white students. Delany had traveled in the South back in 1839 to observe American slavery firsthand. Beginning in 1847, he worked alongside Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to publish the North Star. (The North Star was an independent newspaper dedicated to the abolition of enslaved Black people in America.) Fredrick Douglass, the greatest Black abolitionist in America, once said about Delany, "I thank God for making me a man simply, but Delany always thanks him for making him a Black man." In 1852, Martin Delany published his book titled, 'The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.' It is the book to read on the definition of Black nationalism. This great Afrikan ancestor argued in his book that the Black community in America is a nation within a nation. In the appendix of his book on page 209, Delany writes, "we are a nation within a nation; as the Poles in Russia, the Hungarians in Austria, the Welsh, Irish, and Scotch in the British dominions. But we have been, by our oppressors, despoiled of our purity, and corrupted in our native characteristics, so that we have inherited their vices, and but few of their virtues, leaving us in character, really a broken people. Being distinguished by complexion, we are still singled out-although having merged in the habits and customs of our oppressors-as a distinct nation of people; as Poles, Hungarians, Irish, and others, who will retain their native peculiarities, of language, habits, and various other traits. The claims of no people, according to established policy and usage, are respected by any nation, until they are presented in a national capacity." Until his death, he dedicated his life to liberating Black people through Black nationalism. In America, towards the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, Black nationalism begins to take different strategies in the struggle for equality, independence, and empowerment from White domination in and outside the United States. Three Black Trinidadians names H. Sylvester Williams, George Padmore, and C.L.R. James took Black nationalism internationally. They believed that Afrika, and the struggle for Black people to be free, must be unified throughout the world. Brothers Williams, Padmore, and James called their form of Black nationalism Pan-Africanism. They held their first Pan-Afrikan conference in 1900. These powerful Black leaders led to the foundation of six Pan Afrikan conferences. However, in 1945 in Manchester, England, at the fifth Pan-Afrikan conference, all their hard work paid off. These Pan African Trinidadians attracted Black leaders from around world, and from the continent of Afrika, such as Jomo Kenyatta, Nandi Azikiwe, and Kwame Nkrumah. The Pan-Afrikan nationalists led Ghana to her independent in 1957 from English colonialism. And many other Afrikan revolutionary nationalists led Afrika from the grips of European colonial rule. The main thrust behind the fifth Pan Afrikan conference was the great intellectual Dr. W. E. B DuBois. By 1945, Dr. DuBois was a respected civil rights activist, but his developing disillusionment with reformism made him a committed Pan Africanist. But before 1945, Dr. DuBois was forming his arguments against racial injustice by constructively criticizing the great Booker T. Washington in his book of essays called-'The Souls of Black Folks 'published in 1903. Booker T. Washington emerged as a major voice for Black liberation. He lived from April 18, 1856 to November 14, 1915. Washington rose to prominence to become the Black elite. He was an powerful American educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the Afrikan American community. Brother Washington was from the last generation of Black leaders born into slavery. He became the leading voice of former enslaved Black people and our many ancestors. Unfortunately, at the end of the 19th Century, White hegemony completely tightened its racial grip on the Black community. Black people sank deeper into the permanent wells of racial oppression in the United States by the political disenfranchisement under segregation's discriminatory laws enacted in the age of post-Reconstruction in Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Washington makes accommodations to racism. His strategy was to find the money and resources to train Black people in vocational education without directly challenging white supremacy. Booker's beliefs in Black empowerment was deeply rooted in self-reliance. Washington's philosophy of Black nationalism was to help Afrikan Americans become independent to White people. Although he takes major criticisms from another major leader in the Black community named-Dr. W. E.B. DuBois for not taking a more aggressive position against White supremacy, he struggles onward without Dr. DuBois' support. He eventually establishes a school to educate Black people in the trades called-The Tuskegee Institute now called Tuskegee University in Alabama.In time, Dr. DuBois eventually rescinded his citizenship in America to relocate to Ghana, Afrika. He lived there until his death 1963. Washington's Black nationalism inspired another great Black leader named the Honorable Marcus Garvey. After reading Washington's book, 'Up From Slavery', it moved Gavery to help unify, free, and empower Black people. This Black Jamaican came to the United States to meet Booker T. Washington in 1915. Unfortunately, Washington died early that year. Brother Garvey struggled onward in America without ever meeting Washington. However, he established the largest modern day Back-to-Afrika movement in world history. The Honorable Marcus Garvey lived from August 17, 1887 to June 10, 1940. He was a political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He became the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA). Garvey based his organization Ideologically squarely on Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism. His ideas came to be known as Garveyism; which consisted of Black unity, Black pride, Black self-reliance, and Black self-determination. Garvey worked night and day to rebuild the Black nation all over the world. But his goal was Afrika. Garvey based his movement in Harlem, New York City. Unfortunately, some Black leaders in the Afrikan American community objected to his Black nationalist and separatist ideas, particularly Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. However, masses of Black people followed his leadership. Later in life, Dr. DuBois will fully see the need to embrace Pan Africanism. (In retrospect, after analyzing the political disagreements between Honorable Marcus Gavery and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Afrikan centered perspective, we learn that their differences were small. We learn that both of their strategies were needed to help free and liberate Black people from white hegemony.) Although he never reached Afrika, along the way Garvey built a ship called the Black Star Line, a Black owned newspaper named The Negro World, and created a universal Black liberation flag for Afrikan people all over the world. The Flag consisted of the following colors: Red, Black, and Green. The color red of the flag symbolizes the unifying blood of Black peoples, black represents Black people all over the earth, and green reflects Mother Afrika. Unfortunately, Garvey became a threat to White hegemony. In 1923 Garvey was convicted of mail fraud for selling the company's stock. He was imprisoned in the United States Penitentiary Atlanta for nearly two years. Many historians argued that the trial was politically motivated to silence brother Garvey and his Black nationalist movement by a young F.B.I. director named -J Edgar Hoover. Eventually, the United States government deported the Honorable Marcus Garvey to Jamaica. However, he continued doing political work to empower Black people until his life came to an end in 1940. Within the Muslim Ummah (Arabic word for community), Black nationalists Muslims emerged in America in early 1900s and throughout the 20th century. They committed themselves to the struggle for land, Black equality, Black unity, Black pride, Black self-reliance, and Black self - determination. Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad were some of the Muslims that espoused Black nationalism in our community. However, out of all Muslim leaders in the history of Islam in America, Malcolm X (Omowale El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) stands out as the most credible modern sage for Black nationalism. Brother Malcolm X, the most respect leader for Black liberation in the 1950s and 1960s, gave us a clear analysis on the origins of the oppression of Black people, and people of color, in many of his speeches. He argued that Black oppression is due to a world-wide conspiracy of white supremacy and systematic racism. However, the tool he proposed to help liberate Black people from oppression was Black nationalism. Before he was assassinated on February 21, 1965 at the Audubon ballroom in Harlem, NY, Malcolm X delivered a fiery speech titled, The Ballot or the Bullet, that capture the philosophy and the necessity for Black nationalism in the Black world on April 3, 1964 in Detroit, Michigan. He said, "I'm a Muslim minister. And I don't believe in fighting today in any one front, but on all fronts. In fact, I'm a "Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter." Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my personal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom I believe; just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they believe. And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discussing religion, we'd have too many differences from the outstart and we could never get together. So today, though Islam is my religious philosophy, my political, economic, and social philosophy is Black Nationalism. You and I -- As I say, if we bring up religion, we'll have differences; we'll have arguments; and we'll never be able to get together. But if we keep our religion at home, keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God, but when we come out here, we have a fight that's common to all of us against a [sic] enemy who is common to all of us. In this same speech, l Malcolm X defines the philosophy Black nationalism to the Afrikan World community. He said, "The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community. The -- The time -- The time when white people can come in our community and get us to vote for them so that they can be our political leaders and tell us what to do and what not to do is long gone. By the same token, the time when that same white man, knowing that your eyes are too far open, can send another negro into the community and get you and me to support him so he can use him to lead us astray -- those days are long gone too. The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you and I are going to live in a Black community -- and that's where we're going to live, 'cause as soon as you move into one of their -- soon as you move out of the Black community into their community, it's mixed for a period of time, but they're gone and you're right there all by yourself again. We must -- We must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn't have the good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a program, a political program, of re-education to open our people's eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically mature, and then we will -- whenever we get ready to cast our ballot, that ballot will be -- will be cast for a man of the community who has the good of the community of heart. The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community. You would never -- You can't open up a black store in a white community. White men won't even patronize you. And he's not wrong. He's got sense enough to look out for himself. You the one who don't have sense enough to look out for yourself. The white man -- The white man is too intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy of his community. But you will let anybody come in and take control of the economy of your community, control the housing, control the education, control the jobs, control the businesses, under the pretext that you want to integrate. No, you're ought of your mind. The political -- The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we have to become involved in a program of reeducation to educate our people into the importance of knowing that when you spend your dollar out of the community in which you live, the community in which you spend your money becomes richer and richer; the community out which you take your money becomes poorer and poorer. And because these negroes, who have been mislead, misguided, are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with The Man, The Man is becoming richer and richer, and you're becoming poorer and poorer. And then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditions become run down. And then you have the audacity to -- to complain about poor housing in a run-down community. Why you run it down yourself when you take your dollar out. And you and I are in a double-track, because not only do we lose by taking our money someplace else and spending it, when we try and spend it in our own community we're trapped because we haven't had sense enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our community. The man who's controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn't look like we do. He's a man who doesn't even live in the community. So you and I, even when we try and spend our money in the block where we live or the area where we live, we're spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in another part of the town. So we're trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. Anywhere we go we find that we're trapped. And every kind of solution that someone comes up with is just another trap. But the political and economic philosophy of Black Nationalism -- the economic philosophy of Black Nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little stores and developing them and expanding them into larger operations. Malcolm, in his speech, lucidly challenges Black people to unify. He said, "so as you can see brothers and sisters, today -- this afternoon, it's not our intention to discuss religion. We're going to forget religion. If we bring up religion, we'll be in an argument, and the best way to keep away from arguments and differences, as I said earlier, put your religion at home -- in the closet. Keep it between you and your God. Because if it hasn't done anything more for you than it has, you need to forget it anyway. Whether you are -- Whether you are a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Nationalist, we all have the same problem. They don't hang you because you're a Baptist; they hang you 'cause you're black. They don't attack me because I'm a Muslim; they attack me 'cause I'm black. They attack all of us for the same reason; all of us catch hell from the same enemy. We're all in the same bag, in the same boat. We suffer political oppression, economic exploitation, and social degradation -- all of them from the same enemy." Although Malcolm X was murdered before he could see his Black nationalist revolution come into fruition, he inspired many Black leaders in the Afrikan world to embrace Black nationalism as an alternative to reformism such as, Kwame Nkrumah, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Dr. Maulana Karenga (the Us Organization / The Founder of the Kawaida Philosphy and Kwanzaa), Imamu Amiri Baraka (The Founder of the Black Arts Movement / the Us Organization), Sonia Sanchez (a Revolutionary Poet / Member of the Black Arts Movement), Dr. Betty Shabazz, (the Republic of New Afrika), Robert Williams (Revolutionary Action Movement), Dr. Huey P Newton (the Original Black Panther Party), Bobby Seale (the Original Black Panther Party), Imari Obadele (the Republic of New Afrika), Chockwe Lumumba (the Republic of New Afrika) to name a few. From 1950s to the early 1970s, Black leaders began mobilizing and organizing the Afrikan world community from under the yoke of white supremacy through the political lines (ideology) of various forms of Black nationalism such as, cultural Black nationalism, political (revolutionary) Black nationalism, and Pan Africanism. White supremacy is the idea that white hegemony created in the 1700s. It was used to make White superior, and their culture, religion, language, philosophy, mores, norms, values, names, economic systems, and history inherently superior to all Black people and all people of color. This concept of White supremacy develops as white people began to establish a justification for capitalism, the exploitation of cheap labor in Afrika, and stealing of indigenous people's land in the Western Hemisphere of the world. For nearly 300 years, the ideology of White supremacy was used to also justify the European Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the enslavement of Black people (Maafa), the Arab Slave Trade, European colonialism in Afrika, US Cointelpro (the United States Counter intelligence program), racial violence towards Black people, lynchings, police violence in the Black community, South Afrikan apartheid, the sexual oppression and exploitation of Black Women, the emasculation of Black men and Black women, the creation of the n-word, the white cultural domination of Black people, and US segregation. As a consequence of white supremacy, systematic racism was born. Over the centuries, White supremacy and systematic racism have targeted Black people, and Afrika, so effectively and efficiently to the point of creating the conditions for us to be the permanent victims of social and economic racial disparities for generations. Because of the fragmentation of the Black Liberation Movement by racist forces in the US government during the 1950s to the early 1970s, our vision for freedom and independence has been skewed in the millennium. Now, most of us don't know what political line (ideology) today's Black leaders and movements represent in our community to liberate Afrikan people. Many of us think organizing under Black Lives Matter is Black nationalist liberation, but we need to be clear that this does not necessarily mean Black nationalist liberation. Many of us think organizing under ADOS (American Descendant of Slaves) is Black nationalist nationalist liberation, but we need to be clear that this does not necessarily mean Black liberation. Many of us think organizing under Afrocentric YouTube personalities is Black nationalist liberation, but we need to be clear that this does not necessarily mean Black nationalist liberation. Many of us think organizing under the Democratic Party is Black nationalist liberation, but we need to be clear that this does not necessarily mean Black nationalist liberation. Many of us think organizing under the Republican Party is Black nationalist liberation, but we need to be clear that this does not necessarily mean Black nationalist liberation. Even Afrocentricity, the cultural expression of Black nationalism is being distorted for the sole purpose of inhibiting Black people's march to liberate ourselves from European cultural domination. Now, every radical Black person is demeaned as a Hotep. The word Hotep is an ancient Afrikan Kemetic (Egyptian) word that means peace. Many scholars argue that Hotep is one of oldest words for peace in human history. Hotep is often used as an Afrocentric greeting. Unfortunately, Hotep is now used by the power structure as a code word to mean an anti-white, homophobic, sexist, conspiracy spouting, ignorant Black person. Charlene Muhammad, The Final Call's national correspondent, published an article on January 24, 2018, discussing the assault on blackness. She writes, "activists and scholars in the movement are also disturbed by and clearly want people to understand why it is disrespectful to call those who subscribe to Black conscious ideology as Hoteps. Hotep means peace, but in the last decade has been used as a derogatory slur in routine external assaults against Black nationalists and scholars from mainstream online media outlets, such as the Root, which debuted under the Washington Post Company in 2008 and is now owned by Univision, and TheGrio, launched by NBC in 2009. Others in blogs, and social media posts have used the word to defame Pan African culture by negatively stereotyping Black, Afrocentric men" (https://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_104002.shtml). The constant study of our Afrikan history, culture, and revolutionary struggle will help give us a clear analysis on true Black liberation. We must know that there is a difference between Black nationalism and what is not Black nationalism. We must know what a Black reformist movement is and what is not a Black reformist movement. White supremacy, systemic racism, Americanism, whiteness, and westernization are blurring all political lines (ideology) of Black reformism and Black nationalism. We must be clear on the fact that we have Black people, in our community, that do not believe in Black nationalism, nor Pan Africanism. Black reformist only believes in integration and assimilation. They fight to join America's racist system of exploitation and oppression. Black reformists believe that liberation is becoming a part of the system. They believe that if we could just eradicate white supremacy, make monopoly capitalism more humanistic, defund the police, and alter the algorithms of prison system; we would live in a utopian world of bliss. Unfortunately, that has not happened in America nor in the world. White hegemony still dictates to Afrikan people their terms and conditions of social change for the Black community. However, we have Black people that believe in Black nationalism as the best vehicle for Black liberation. But to disguise Black reformism, we have movements and leaders in our community borrowing aspects of Black nationalist cultural traditions, such as such a clinched black fist, the word black, or the Black liberation flag. However, their objective is about reforming America, without including Black nationalist independence. This becomes confusing to the masses of Black people. We begin to think that reformism is a Black nationalist revolution. Dr. John Henrick Clarke, the great Africana Studies professor and Pan Africanist, once said, reformism has its place, but reformism is not a revolution." In reformism, there is no program to completely and radically change the condition of Black people to free us from centuries of racial oppression, economic exploitation, and white cultural domination. Many advocates of reformism desire us to leave our blackness, and our fight for self-determination, behind to assimilate into whiteness, Americanism, and westernization. The Black nationalist revolution is about freedom, justice, equality, Black unity, the acquisition of land, the seizure of power, cultural pride, and independence. In conclusion, we must study to develop a clear analysis on what constitutes the political lines (ideology) for Black nationalism and what constitutes the political lines for Black reformism. If we do not study, we will continue to be confused by today's Black political leaders and movements. But most importantly, if do not study, we will not see the hidden hand the system of oppression and exploitation plays to destroy us all. Hotep! Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History and Africana Studies teacher. He is also the co-coordinator for ASCAC's (the Association for Study of Classical African Civilizations) Study Group Chapter in Newark, NJ. (https://ascac.org/) Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Africa. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January 1.