Taking notice of the stats below, there is no wonder Black-Americans continue to face discrimination, and whites (mainly policy-making and gate-keeping mainstream whites) continue to undermine and disrespect the wants, needs, and ideas of Black-America.

The names below do not represent all Blacks; they represent the more liberal, elitist Blacks and not the masses. When asked, "Who do you think is the leader who best represents the interests of the black community today" this is what 266 polled Black adults had to say:

Jesse Jackson			40%
Colin Powell			20
Coretta Scott King		15
Al Sharpton			6
Louis Farrakhan		6
Charles Rangel		  	3
Clarence Thomas		1
Other/None (vol.)		5
Not sure			4

Out of the seven names given as Black leaders, four of them are Democrats and make up 64% of the Black voice. The rest equal 27%, which cannot be accurately deemed as voices of the Black masses. Farrakhan is the closes voice to the Black masses the list describes and his voice does not fully count because he speaks from a Black Muslim perspective, which leaves Black Christians and other sectors out; the other two, Thomas and Powell, represent only the elitist of Black conservatives, which is a very small percent of Black-America. Furthermore, because these candidates are political in nature and only half of Black-Americans are registered voters that leaves an entire slice of Black-America underrepresented.

There is a huge difference in interest including political, economical, and educational interest between the masses of Black America and the ones represented. For example, from the Democratic side, the voices of Jackson, King, Sharpton and Rangel protest white political agendas that undercut Black interest and they use old protest tactics, such as marches and boycotts, to achieve these goals. These tactics worked during the Civil Rights movement but are no longer needed or as effective.

White America and the majority of Black-America know that these tactics do not work so they have moved on with the times. And because these leaders practice the same tactics for purposes reflecting their own political interest, the wants, needs, and ideas of the real Black-America are ignored. The masses of Blacks do not share the same interest as these elitist liberal Blacks, if they did they would vote. There would be larger turnouts of Black-Americans at rallies, protests, and marches if this is what the average Black felt would accomplish their agenda, so as a result, protest and voter turnout are low.

Black needs are not taken seriously because people believe that most Blacks do not care, which causes law and policy makers as well as corporate decision makers (as far as hiring practices and wage laws are concerned) to assume Blacks will take whatever is thrown their way. However, Blacks do care, the problem is that the voices speaking for us have the wrong strategy for accomplishing our agenda. They care more about how to fulfill their own agendas and how to draw as much media attention to themselves as the models of Black-America than they do about the real problems of Black-America. What are the real problems of Black-America?

Concerning the other voices of Blacks, Thomas and Powell (the conservative Black-America), and Farrakhan and his crowd, there must be a distinction made between the two ideologies. Not many Blacks vote Republican though this is not to say that most Blacks do not believe Republican ideology, many of them do but do not yet realize it because of the indoctrination of liberal thinking imposed on them from popular mainstream media representation of liberal Black leaders. In other words, if more media attention were given to the Black conservative perspective, more Blacks would be involved as well as heard and more Blacks would realize that Democratic ideology is not Blacks primary nature.

For instance, Blacks believe that Democrats can help them economically and that Democrats care more about blacks as a minority in this country, yet the Republican reputation for racial harmony is tainted by past political decisions and by some racist overtones Republicans have assumed over the last 50 years. Believe it or not, at one time - during the late 1800's - Blacks were overwhelmingly Republican. Democrats were deemed as the Southern racist that pushed for Jim Crow type oppression and Republicans were the bunch that would give migrating Blacks to the north a job if they showed any type of desire to work.

But then came the Wars and Blacks fell to the bottom of the survival chain. Though all America pretty much hit rock bottom during the depression and during times of economic hardship, blacks caught the most hell. Then when Roosevelt - who was a Democrat - came along with the New Deal, curved laissez-faire capitalism and enacted welfare, this action reached out to support all slow-to-rise citizens economically. However, blacks rose a bit slower than the rest of society and the power of welfare latched on to the Black community and Blacks latched on to welfare.

When it came time for Blacks to loose the hand of welfare, there was a struggle. After so long a time, people get used to a certain lifestyle and with social prejudices and discrimination practiced on Blacks, it took them longer to leave the welfare role and blend into the working America. The fact that Republican leaders protested the fight of welfare and would vote to stop the program, Democrats would use fear tactics during political elections to convince Blacks that Republicans did not have their best interest at heart. As a result and over the last 50 years, Blacks have seen Republicans as racist bigots and have pored over to the Democratic side.

The Nation of Islam has done more for the masses of Black-America where it pertains to the real needs of Black-America than Democrats and the government ever has. This is because the problems of Black-America are not only political and economic alone, but are extremely psychological in nature. The Black Muslims reached out to Black families of urban ghettos and public housing and offered them a psychological means of escape, not a political means.

Without the self-esteem and confidence to first rise from the oppressors grip, no nation of people can ever have the motivation, hope, or know-how to compete in America's racial stratosphere. The strategy of the Nation of Islam was to first build the mental condition of the Black community and then venture out into the political realm. On the contrary, the liberal strategy is to build a political foundation to fight but neglect the mental condition of the Black masses. Thus, they loss half of the Black political base because of a lack of knowledge and moral support needed from the Black community. So how does one reach the masses of Black-America?

First, let us define Black-America. Considering the obvious division of Blacks - which we will refer to as the liberal sector and the masses - the nation of Black-America was seriously divided during the Civil Rights movement and the Black Power movement. Martin Luther King represented the liberal movement, and Malcolm X (as the Black Muslim and later as the reformed Malik El-Shabazz) in addition to the Black Panther Party Movement, represented the masses.

The reason the two are separated as such is because as of today, the most popular leaders according to the above poll possess the liberal ideology and the least popular is made up of a small percentage of the conservative ideology, which barely represents the masses of Black-America. However, to show why half of Black-America does not participate in politics or fully support the liberal leaders we must give the other percentage of Blacks an identity, thus they will be the masses, the underrepresented sector.

The reason they are underrepresented is because, firstly, of fear. The conservative, Black Power ideology is feared throughout America by whites and have been abandoned by elitist Blacks because of fear of association to just that ideology, which would damage their political standings. Since they (the liberal Blacks) cannot afford to be associated with the Black Power ideology, they do not represent or speak for that sector of Black-America. Therefore, the Black-America that do not support liberal ideology (half of them) are considered the masses. So what is the Black Power ideology? Resistance, meaning non-conformity; unity, meaning segregation and independence; and development, as in family and community structure, education, and economics is the foundation and strategy of the Black Power ideology.

Today's liberal voices do not uphold these objectives of the Black community. They practice and preach conformity (to the American political system by pushing for more Black voting turnout), integration as in "we want what they got," which does more damage than good in the ways of psychological identity and morality, and they encourage underdevelopment (by lobbying for more government programs in areas of family and community, education, and urban economics, which all require more Black dependency rather than independence).

This agenda is counter-productive for Black interest and especially for demanding respect for the average Black individual. It places Blacks in the stereotypical world of welfare dependency, low educational achievement, and broken families, which all lead to environments of ghettoism, crime, single-parent families, children in poverty and labels on Black children as underachievers.

White-America fear the true Black Power movement because it firstly sought the right of self-defense against police brutality. The Black Panther movement brought the American judicial system to its feat and in fear when the Black Panthers decided to take up arms against police in Black communities. This caused changes in laws about the right to bear arms. In addition, white-America feared the positive movement of the new Black nation Malcolm X was about to lead before his assassination, which movement brought about a sense of pride, dignity, and self-awareness in the minds of millions of Blacks who were not following the Civil Rights movement.

Because the Black Power movement was cause for alarm in the development of Black-America, white-America swiftly put an end to it, first with assassinations of the leaders and then by promoting conformist Blacks (house Negroes) who gladly accepted a media place and presence in America as spokes-people for the new and improved Black-America. With a gradual process of liberal indoctrination and the slow elimination and undermining of the Black Power ideology, America accomplished the most brilliant scheme of destroying the identity and self-confidence of a race of people in modern history.

As long as the above type of Black leaders represent Black-America, and there are custom-made Blacks ready to support these knock-offs, there will be no real Black-America; it will only be an American-made shell of a people stripped of all dignity and intelligence and slotted on a shelf in the American archives for all future generations to mock at. The Black leaders of today DO NOT speak for the real Black-America; they speak for themselves in the words white-America wants to hear.

Poll source from: NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Robert Teeter (R). March 2-5, 2000. N=266 black adults nationwide.

© 2004 By CR Hamilton