Watts article

[Paul Mackin]

Inneresting to look at Stokely's thoughts on racial conflict at the same
point in time as Tom's essay. Not widely divergent on the question of
black integration into white society.  For both men this was not a
viable solution. P was less positive on the question. Can't believe P
would advocate a Black Power movement. Too unrealistic. P would never
make a bombastic orator.

Whatever . . . .
 

(2) Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Black Power (1966) 

One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to this
point there has been no national organization which could speak to the
growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghettos and the
black-belt South. There has been only a "civil rights" movement, whose
tone of voice was adapted to an audience of middle-class whites. It
served as a sort of buffer zone between that audience and angry young
blacks. It claimed to speak for the needs of a community, but it did not
speak in the tone of that community. None of its so-called leaders could
go into a rioting community and be listened to. In a sense, the blame
must be shared-along with the mass media-by those leaders for what
happened in Watts, Harlem, Chicago, Cleveland, and other places. Each
time the black people in those cities saw Dr. Martin Luther King get
slapped they became angry. When they saw little black girls bombed to
death in a church and civil rights workers ambushed and murdered, they
were angrier; and when nothing happened, they were steaming mad. We had
nothing to offer that they could see, except to go out and be beaten
again. 

We had only the old language of love and suffering. And in most
places-that is, from the liberals and middle class-we got back the old
language of patience and progress. Such language, along with admonitions
to remain non-violent and fear the white backlash, convinced some that
that course was the only course to follow. It misled some into believing
that a black minority could bow its head and get whipped into a
meaningful position of power. The very notion is absurd.

 

(3) Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Black Power (1966) 

According to its advocates, social justice will be accomplished by
"integrating the Negro into the mainstream institutions of the society
from which he has been traditionally excluded." This concept is based on
the assumption that there is nothing of value in the black community and
that little of value could be created among black people. The thing to
do is to siphon off the "acceptable" black people into the surrounding
middle-class white community. The goals of integrationists are
middle-class goals, articulated primarily by a small group of Negroes
with middle-class aspirations or status.

There is no black man in the country who can live "simply as a man." His
blackness is an ever­present fact of this racist society, whether he
recognizes it or not. It is unlikely that this or the next generation
will witness the time when race will no longer be relevant in the
conduct of public affairs and in public policy decision-making. 

"Integration" as a goal today speaks to the problem of blackness not
only in an unrealistic way but also in a despicable way. It is based on
complete acceptance of the fact that in order to have a decent house or
education, black people must move into a white neighborhood or send
their children to a white school. This reinforces, among both black and
white, the idea that "white" is automatically superior and "black" is by
definition inferior. For this reason, "integration" is a subterfuge for
the maintenance of white supremacy.