Guest column from BlackEconomics.org
Black Americans comprehend that, given our innate and developed knowledges, skills, and abilities, only our disunity and distrust prevent us from achieving liberty, independence, and self-determination. Fortunately, a potential confluence of events may draw Black Americans into unity and trust.
From our side and innocuously, Black Americans continue with our hat in hand to request Reparations. Recently, the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) signaled its failure to achieve passage of a Reparations Bill (H.R. 40 and S.B. 40) and announced a new intent to invite President Joe Biden to issue an Executive Order establishing a Reparations Commission. Also, selected NAARC and NCOBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America) members visited the Vatican recently to solicit support for Reparations from the Catholic Church. These actions may stimulate more anti-Black American sentiments in the US and may anger further Whites who contend that Reparations are not due.
Fortuitous Unity and Trust
1 See Brad Dress (2022), “Nearly one in three Americans say it may soon be necessary to take up arms against the government; https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nearly-one-in-three-americans-say-it-may-soon-be-necessary-to-take-up-arms-against-the-government/ar-AAZVbEb?ocid=wispr&li=BBnbfcL
Outside of the Black American sphere, other important developments are evolving that can raise the temperature on the Black American question in the US.
• Somewhat unexpectedly, two Black American government officials are presented often in the media as leading efforts to charge former President Trump for wrong doings in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) is Chairperson of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol. In addition, Fani Willis, the District Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, is currently assigned to prosecute a case concerning President Trump’s possible criminal meddling in the 2020 election. Black faces in these roles likely raise the ire of White Supremacists and Trump supporters against Black Americans.
• Recently, MSN.com reported on a University of Chicago opinion poll of 1,000 US registered voters that concluded that nearly one-third of respondents believed that “it may be necessary at some point soon to take up arms against government.”1
- Also, MSN.com reported on a University of California-Davis survey of 8,620 US participants that indicated that just over 50 percent of respondents “agreed somewhat that a civil war will happen soon.”2
- Stoking White Supremacy and anti-Black sentiments in his country and in the US, Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has been talking up the need for Europeans to halt race mixing. Notably, Orban has also expressed hope that former President Trump will return to power in 2024. Most importantly, Orban plans to visit Dallas, Texas during August 2022 to air his views.3
Fortuitous Unity and Trust
While the press can be expected to sensationalize, these developments represent potential causes for an intensification of the struggle between Blacks and Whites in the US. In a worst-case scenario, these developments could cause an ongoing and subsurface war between Blacks and Whites to explode to the surface. Black Americans should not ignore these developments but, like Whites, plan and prepare for their possible materialization.
Theoretically, such a turn of events would motivate Black Americans to unify. Our unification would then create an opportunity for strong trust bonds to form. As noted at the outset, given sufficient unity and trust, Black Americans can achieve any outcomes that we seek.
