Author: Arkee Hodges
Title: Black Liberation
Ideologies and Solutions: An analysis of Black Nationalism, Integration
and Electoral Politics, and Social Capitalism
Degree Date: January
2004
Committee Chairperson: Robert
L. Harris, Jr.
Call Number: Thesis DT 3 .5 2004
H634
Description: viii,
130 leaves; 29 cm.
Abstract:For
centuries now, Africans (now African Americans), have been struggling
to liberate ourselves from the oppressive forces of White America; countless
battles have been won, but the war seems infinite and White supremacy
remains the victor. Racism has become nearly invisible; White domination
has been legitimized and Black dependence and subjugation increasingly
accepted and normalized. Our oldest enemies have become our closest
friends, so long as we continue to supplant our African identity and
ethos with an American identity and Eurocentric worldview, and remain
economically dependent upon White America. For some, Black Liberation
has been reduced to full acceptance by White America. Yet liberation
entails far more…
What is frustrating is that the solutions to Black Liberation have already
been discovered, defined, and even applied; Black geniuses have already
laid the foundations. The problem is that separate components of the
solution have been promoted as panaceas and viewed as oppositional instead
of complementary, which makes for division instead of unity. In addition,
the Unite States government has worked diligently to thwart the development
of many of these solutions, and to repress those who intended to implement
them. Because racial oppression is all encompassing, the liberation
of Black Americans and the larger Black world will require a multitude
of strategies in simultaneous operation. Black Nationalism, Integration
& Electoral Politics, and the economic systems of Socialism and
Capitalism are all relevant to the attainment of Black Liberation. So
is action, for words without action is simply talk. This thesis analyzes
the liberation philosophies aforementioned and synthesizes the most
beneficial elements of each ideology into a single composite philosophy
articulated as Social Capitalism.
Today economic dependence and powerlessness – which translates
into economic exploitation and African American community underdevelopment
– is the most debilitating obstruction to Black liberation. Economic
independence, the key to self-determination, remains the unfulfilled
– but critically necessary – objective of the Black Liberation
Struggle. This thesis addressed this problem and offers solutions for
economically empowering Black Americans and our communities, seeking
instruction from the well-developed Black Liberation Tradition, and
utilizing the resources and wealth African Americans already possess.
We must come to understand that racial unity and organization is the
ultimate and unavoidable pathway to economic empowerment and Black Liberation;
Strength lies in collective action. Lerone Bennett forewarns:
The most immediate and urgent task in the Black
community is the creation of unity therein. This is our most urgent
task because the basis for our weakness is disunity. The White man is
strong not only because he has his own strength but also because he
has our strength, which we refuse to use. Is the lesson of history is
that only the strong can be free and that the oppressed must unite or
perish, then we have no alternative except to link hands on the basis
of our common hopes and our common graves.1
Black economic and cultural solidarity must take precedent over ideological
solidarity. Once African American wealth is amassed, the masses can
dictate the course of African American development. The duty of Black
leaders then is to facilitate the desires of the masses and to offer
ideologies that best assert their expressed will.
1Lerone Bennett, Unity in the
Black Community (Chicago: Institute of Positive Education,
1972) 1.
