We must recognize that in a way we are undergoing a second reconstruction period. It is not the first time we have been down this road in America. Those of you who have read Lerone Bennett’s Black Power USA are familiar with that fact. I have often noted how Bennett did not finish that book. Of course in that he talked about what? Black mayors, black lieutenant governors, Black legislatures, Black voting power, Black corporate leaders, Blacks being in the senate and in the congress and yet in the 1870’s when Andrew Johnson changed his program, when the supreme court changed it’s program our people were disenfranchised and it took our people 100 years to get back to the same point we were then. Which means then that a people who can give are a people who can take. Simply because we may be voting in a Black mayor does not say this is going to be going on forever and ever. We voted him in before and because we did not change the basic power relationship between ourselves and Europeans we were disenfranchised. In this context, I often warn that we are not protected by laws. We are not protected by courts. We are not protected by Presidential mandates. They are but words on paper. Words can not protect your interests. The law is only as strong as those who enforce it and the laws that now so-called protect us are written by and enforced by our enemies and the day that they decide they will not enforce them is the day they become null and void and they will remain neutral on the books. So then the ultimate thing then is not laws, not civil rights laws and rules, not fair housing laws and rules. I’ve told you again and again that if one day the European has to choose between feeding his child and your child, I don’t give a damn what laws are on the books he’s gonna feed his first. And you may site laws and rules but the reality may be the one with the most power will be the one who rules under those circumstances. So that the ultimate goal for Afrikan people then is not the placing of laws on books nor even the election of mayors and governors but ultimately the building of power so that we can prevent those who wish to destroy us from doing so regardless of the laws they may write, regardless of the laws they may enforce or not enforce. - Dr. Amos Wilson
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 04:29:44 +0000
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