The Black Power Refran Olsson

The Black Arts Movement is famously described by Larry Neal, in his essay “The Black Arts Movement” as the “aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept” (Neal 272). Led, in some ways, by Malcolm X and advocated by the Black Panthers for Self-Defense, the Black Power Movement can be viewed as a distinct break from earlier civil rights movements. Black Power encouraged the improvement of African American communities rather than the fight for integration and acceptance according to white standards. The Black Power Movement cultivated racial dignity and self-reliance, and also revived an interest in cultural heritage and history. Furthermore, the movement recognized that “standards of beauty and self-esteem were integral to power relations” and sought to cultivate confidence within the black community. (Hiltz and Sell). In addition to sharing an ideological basis, The Black Arts Movement and Black Power Movement merged even further, because the BAM allowed for “concrete expression” of many of the “political values inherent in the Black Power concept” (Neal 272).

Originating in the North, this movement took on a more radical stance: one that maintained racial separation and aimed to form a separate Black identity and encourage self-reliance and independence from whites (Source I). The Black Power Movement aimed to end institutionalised racism in the Northern states and call for social justice while improving the living conditions of Black people in urban areas who were living in poverty and often subjected to police brutality, although it can be noted that segregation laws were not in place in the North. (Source L). A prominent leader of the Black Power Movement was Malcolm X, who considered the Black Power Movement to be supportive of a nationalist ‘Black’ revolution which mainly focused on the accumulation of land and, as a result, independence as opposed to the ‘Negro’ revolution based on the Civil Rights Movement which focused on integration between races (Source

The final film by Marlon Riggs, Black is…Black Ain't, is concerned with the state of the African American community. This film essentially asks the question, what does it mean to be black? The director and producer, Marlon Riggs, guides viewers along an “an up-front examination of racism, sexism, and homophobia within the black community itself. Bringing together personal stories, interviews, music, history, and performance, Black Is...Black Ain’t asks African Americans: What is black, black enough, or too black?”1

One aspect of life for black people in the United States of America that has always remained consistent is white racial hostility. A history of slavery, segregation, unequal protection of the law, and second class citizenship inflicted by a white power structure that dominates on a national level has created a harmful reality for black people. Every aspect of black public life must either be under the control of or in opposition to white supremacy. Every state-sanctioned institution works to use black bodies as tools for the production of capital in any form, yet simultaneously exploits and maltreats black people so that they cannot fully participate in and benefit from the systems which they are indoctrinated to invest in. White America leverages its money, comfort, and tyranny on Black America. It is for this reason that separate spaces are not merely essential to the viability of black counter-publics but inherent to their existence, since black involvement in white spaces and systems typically leads to black assimilation or marginalization. Within these black counter-publics, hip hop and mass connection through new media forms direct attention and allow for personal expression which shapes black worldview and public opinion, but this simply makes black people more comfortable with their oppression and less involved in politics.

Social movements are actions of history that have shaped the way societies run and the values their citizens uphold. The Black Power Movement is one example of a major social movement is the history of the United States. While it stemmed from and contains a purpose similar to that of the Civil Rights Movement, a shift in attitude and leadership gave the Black Power Movement (BPM) its own unique identity. Musicking and the use of music changed with the times to reflect this new movement and is arguably one of the central reasons the BPM is examined as its own tour de force in the push for equal rights.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a loosely‐coordinated, nationwide movement dedicated to ending police brutality that rose to prominence in late 2014. It takes its name from a hashtag started by three Black feminist activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi but the movement and the hashtag are not identical (Freelon, McIlwain, & Clark, 2016). BLM has achieved national reputation through their online and offline organizing, obtaining extensive news media coverage and glowing references in music and entertainment television. Based on a horrendous incident that sparked a concern for a lot of Black people across the world, the sudden need for a social movement was born called BLM. Black Lives Matter is a national organization working for the validity of Black life and also working to rebuild the Black liberation movement. Black Lives Matter broadens the conversation and highlight the incidents around state violence to include the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. This referring to the ways in which Black lives are deprived of basic human rights and dignity. According to the article The Murder of Walter Scott, which talks about race and class, “African Americans are less than 13% of the U.S. population yet they are nearly 50% of those killed by the police. North Charleston has a population of 104,000, 47% Black and the police force is 80% white (Miah, 2015)”.

Molefi Asante is the author of It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation. In this article, Asante predicts that the post-hip-hop generation will embrace social justice issues including women’s rights, gay’s rights, and the anti-war movement. To challenge these stereotypes, Asante speaks to the personification of the African-American ghetto and the need to stop glorifying black suffering. For Asante, the post-hip-hop generation no longer expects hip-hop to mobilize disenfranchised youth. Asante states, “The post-hip-hop generation shouldn’t wait for mainstream musicians to say what needs to be said…No movement is about beats and rhythms…. it must be bigger than hip-hop.” Because hip-hop is controlled by corporations, Asante says hip-hop will never be the focus of political change. Asante argues that “old white men” have dictated hip-hop, and by extension the actions of black youth, since 1991. “Allowing white executives, not from the hip-hop culture, to control and dictate the culture is tragic because the music, and ultimately the culture, as we can see today, has not only lost its edge, but its sense of rebellion and black movement- the very principles upon which it was founded.” Asante calls for the rise of “artivism,” a new social movement that uses art to improve community police relations, failing schools and the criminal justice system. Asante encourages the post-hip-hop generation to unite with Latino/Immigration Rights and Black Civil Rights

The beginning of black militancy in the United States is said to have begun with the chants “Black Power” demanded by Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks during the 1966 March against Fear. While Carmichael and Ricks may have coined the phrase “black power”, the roots of the movement had been planted long before by Mr. Robert F. Williams. In Timothy Tyson’s book: Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power, Tyson details the life of a remarkable man who had the audacity not only to challenge racial injustice in America but also to contest the rarely disputed strategies of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Establishment.

The Black Power Mixtape follows significant events during the 1965 and between 1975 it is directed by to Swedish directors which is very important in the layout of the film it involves that took place during the Civil Rights Movement included leaders such as Stokely Carmichael Angela Davis, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. This was also at the time of the Vietnam War the Nixon Administration, and the Lyndon Johnson Administration. It includes world-renowned artist such as Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, and historians. Including the author of our classes' textbook, Robin Kelley the film opinionated it is unbiased fact-based. This is a pivotal time in American history from through the eyes foreigners this is my first encounter with a form perspective of the United States during the Civil Rights Movement. Coming up in school no one ever exposed me to any other perspective the American perspective in this part of American history. There’s no way possible they could compile events of ten years into two hours, but they did include information that I have never read before. The Black Panther movement was followed the most.

During the 70s, the fight for equal rights and Black power was a ravaging fight. Famous protesters such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Assata Shakur. In particular, Assata Shakur was a leader of the Black Power Movement (BPM). Through her struggles, Shakur educates her audience, this is written on a blog but spoken out loud at the time, on how there is racial bias and injustice. By applying a wide range of rhetorical devices, Shakur uses her position as a Black Liberation Army leader to motivate African Americans to fight for the Black Power Movement.

Jessie William’s speech at the BET Awards was iconic in the eyes of African Americans, their communities, and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. In his speech, he addressed relevant issues that are otherwise ignored by non-minority individuals. Black people are oppressed, but overcoming the problem through education is Jesse William’s main point in his argument. His blatant honesty and undeniable passion towards this subject kept the audience engage while educating them simultaneously. This encouraged and inspired people of all ethnicities to join the Black Lives Matter movement and to take a stand.

In many ways, the black community is greatly underrepresented. This previous February (Black History Month), the movie Black Panther was released. The movie is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) featuring an almost all black cast consisting of Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya, and Danai Gurira. In the MCU alone this film had already become so much more than just a film, the evidence of this statement is that it already holds the record for advance tickets sold. This shows how many people care about or have possibly felt left out as a child due to underrepresentation of black people as superheroes. Of the three picture given, the second photo of the black boy posing

Throughout the history of the United States, there has always been racial tension between African American and white. Blacks have survived under conditions of oppression and in environments where they are required to fit into communities that have historically been white. This thesis analyzed the common theme that authors from this semester readied have discussion which is how black history has shaped the African American experience in media. African American has been represented in American society for generation in discussion of white realism. The discussion over the representation of blacks in the media have been argued for era. One of the most struggles occurring is racism in the media. African Americans are one of the most common racial groups stereotyped against. The stereotypes of African

After showing these videos a series of interviews are held regarding the influence they had on the Black Lives Matter movement. The interviews include movement leaders who are asked about how these videos have impacted the involvement in the protests and the movement in general. They are also asked about how respectful it is to post a man’s death on the internet and if that cost is worth the benefit of preventing another attack. The documentary also discusses,

Due to the lack of a definitive definition of the term “black power” whites interpreted it as an “expression a new racism” (Rustin 430). In contrast, blacks thought of “black power” as a signal to whites that blacks would not tolerate the treatment that they had received. The Black Power movement created tension in which Rustin believed the movement “diverts the (civil rights) from a meaningful debate over strategy and tactics, it isolates the Negro community, and it encourages the growth of anti-Negro forces” (Rustin 430). Thus, this tension would prohibit the progression of the civil rights movement.