Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. could have been successful individually. He graduated high school at 15 and attained a Ph.D. early. He could have easily been a wealthy mega pastor like Creflo Dollar and TD Jakes while using the Christian pulpit to rail against silly stuff like fornication, lying, gambling, and you know, basically “sin.” He would have made a lot of money individually, and would have been in the life of his wife and children. He probably would still be alive, or maybe recently would have died of natural causes. But nope.
Instead, he focused on collective Black success and used the pulpit to rail against Jim Crow and eventually talked about reparations for Blacks, boycotting corporations, and the redistribution of wealth to poor people of all races. He was semi-successful but not completely successful in foregoing individual success for collective success. Jim Crow ended, racism was transformed from blatant to subliminal and his life ended prematurely. Dying, becoming a martyr, having an annual suck-up fest in the form of a holiday on your birthday while not honoring his goals is not success. Naming a street after you in a bad neighborhood that they ship drugs and guns to and take jobs out of to increase Black-on-Black crime is not success either. This is the racism Blacks complain about.
Malcolm X
Malcolm X could have been successful individually. He was getting offers to teach at universities in Africa during the last year of his life when his life was in imminent danger by his enemies and when he was being stalked by the FBI and CIA. He could have been successful individually as a professor, or used his gift of gab to become a motivational speaker, and would have lived a long life of individual wealth alongside his wife and children. He also would either still be alive or would have died recently of natural causes. But nope. Instead he focused on collective Black success and used the Nation Of Islam to encourage Black economic nationalism, self defense, unity, and self love in the face of degrading Jim Crow laws and media portrayals. He eventually focused on global economic unity in the form of pan-Africanism. Malcolm wasn’t successful. The FBI planted undercover agents in the Nation Of Islam to cause chaos and rifts. Malcolm eventually lost his life and he did not succeed in his goal for collective success. Again, racism against the unified Black collective is the complaint, not racism against the individual- at least not the main complaint.
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey could’ve been monetarily successful as an orator or organizer for some generic cause in the 1920s not related to fighting racism. But nope. Instead he chose a collective goal to organize Blacks globally to put their economic resources together in the form of Pan-Africanism. “They” threw the Boule Democratic negroes to assassinate his character and turn the masses of Blacks away from him. He was eventually locked up and then deported from America.
The Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party also tried to encourage economic unity among Blacks, encouraged self defense against police brutality and violent, racist White civilians, as well as established the Free Breakfast for Children program and public health clinics in poor Black neighborhoods. Some members were killed, others were jailed, others were deported or paid off, and all were character assassinated. In essence, they didn’t succeed at their goal to lift the collective community up. But I bet key leaders like Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale could’ve easily succeeded in separate, solo attempts for career and monetary advancement as Lead Button Pusher at some White corporation though. Then, a conservative White or knee-grow Sambo will say “See. Racism doesn’t exist because you got promoted to Lead Button Pusher at this prestigious (White) corporation.” This ignores the fact that the powers that be neutralized the Panthers’ efforts to create multiple Black-owned, wealthy corporations with a Lead Button Pusher position, as well as entry level jobs for Blacks on a mass scale.
What is Success?
To make a long story longer, if Jamal Doe or Keisha Doe wants dispersed success individually in the area of career and finance, racism as an obstacle is a mosquito being swatted away and they will probably succeed. If they decide to organize Blacks nationally or globally to unified success, it will be akin to fighting a Siberian tiger and you probably won’t succeed. COINTELPRO is a mother-F’er.
These conservative racists and coons love to tell Blacks to pull themselves up by their bootstraps but every time a unified movement for economic success is attempted, American intel will snatch the boot away from them and smack them in the face with it using instigation, lies, and manipulation to neutralize the movement. This clear message from the racist power structure is that Black people can attain lucrative and prestigious positions in their institutions scattered and not unified, but they won’t let you unify, organize, and buy their institutions and culturally Blackwash them, nor will they let you create and build your own institutions from scratch. And they’ll kill, character assassinate, disband, deport, and/or lock up the persuasive individual or group that tries to encourage this among Blacks on a mass scale. They’ll leave you alone if you take your individual “success” money and only take care of your family while flaunting the rest of your money to other poor and working-class Blacks. Then the elite White power structure can control the scattered, incohesive successful and semi-successful Blacks in high places at their institutions with a glass ceiling that Whites as a collective sit higher on. This is the racism Blacks complain about. Not an individual being prevented from “making it in life” financially because of the White man. This is the strawman’s argument conservatives and sellouts redefined to make critics of racism sound stupid and make themselves sound smart.
When Success is Destructive
Larry Elder loves to condemn and talk at the small percentage of ghetto, disenfranchised Blacks about accountability and personal responsibility from his conservative pulpit-plantation. His intent isn’t for Blacks to hear him and change their ways. His intent is to demonize them to his corporate media masters and to the public. Other conscious people say the same things Elder says, only to disenfranchised Blacks and not at them. The grassroot intent is to actually coax and prod that small percentage of Blacks out of self-destructive tendencies. But once there is a growing snowball of success by the grassrooter, it’s usually thwarted by Intel instigation tactics and the grassrooter will be killed, jailed, deported, or character assassinated.
Elder loves to tell the parable of his father working as a janitor and working two full time jobs and getting his GED during Jim Crow and eventually scraping his nickels together to own a café that he managed into his 80s. His intent of telling this story is to ask, “if I can be successful, why can’t you negroes?” We can – individually. Congrats to his pop-dukes on individual success as a business owner. I guarantee you if he attempted to attain collective Black economic success as a persuasive, charismatic leader, his father would not have made it to his 80s. The government would have bumped him off for sure, making him unsuccessful. Then Uncle Larry himself would have been one of those fatherless Black children he loves to rant and rave about.
I want to know Uncle Larry’s opinion on COINTELPRO. I need answers, but good try on your strawman’s argument. I’m on to you Unc. – and the rest of you conservative, racist pigs and Sambos.
