Q: Can the blacks in America create a country?
A: Blacks in America are not interested in creating a country. The most intense period I was able to witness, during the late 1960s, demonstrated interest in emigration from America to countries like Brazil and Haiti. But this was primarily the sentiment of a small but influential cadre of intellectuals.
The fundamentals of the Black Consciousness Movement, however, did put emphasis on a global black identity. As this evolved into Pan-Africanism, there was some hope that Africans around the world would establish relations both cultural and political. This worked hand in hand with assumptions from the Cold War and global Marxism. So the direction of the independence movements of the establishment of a post-colonial balance of power was seen to be beneficial to black Americans.
Independently of this but part of the same dynamic was the influcence of Islam. The Nation of Islam was founded here in America and of course Malcolm X became very influential in it. However as he fell out favor with the leadership and changed allegiances after his Hajj, he fell more in line with Pan-Africanists through his OAAU
Many black Americans turned to Rastafarianism as well, and tended to revere black political leaders in the former colonial states. Nkruma was popular here, as well as Haile Selassie. Egypt’s Nasser and India’s Nehru were also seen as revolutionary figures for American blacks to emulate and idolize.
Despite the rise in the American counter-culture during the Vietnam era, more black Americans turned to crossover rather than separatism. By the 1980s when the Anti-Apartheid movement became strong and Americans heeded Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, there were no black Americans seeking their fortunes in a future outside of America.
For a short period in the late 80s and early 90s, some younger black Americans turned to a version of Afrocentrism led by Molefi Asante. There remain still some small tradition of changing from Western names to West African names, although it’s considered something of a joke, surely more as a joke by Africans than of black Americans. More seriously though is an adaptation of African inspired hairstyles and bright clothing including Kinte cloth.
Today black Americans have, by various means and measure, mostly their own, have carved out space in America that was unexpected by prior generations. The integration has been successful and it is very unlikely to reverse. In 1960 there were 20 million black Americans, most of them living below middle class standards. Today there are about 42 million and most of them are solidly middle class. One might say that there may still be 10 million black Americans living in poverty, the same as 50 years ago, but they are not the core as they once were. Many political ideologies seek to highlight this seeming contradiction, and you will see many media portrayals (as well as music videos) harp on this point. But they all danced in the streets when Barack Obama was elected president.
People pretend that black American families like those of Obama are under deep threat in 2018. That is paranoia. Black Americans are doing fine and getting stronger despite the fraction that remains poor. The upside still remains. The destiny of black Americans remains with and in America. It takes something the world hasn’t yet seen to make Americans into refugees.
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But there still remains the question. Could black Americans create a country? I think the answer is yes, theoretically. If one could wave a magic wand and deport all 42 millions to some other spot on the globe, would they have the skill and wherewithal to be a recognized country? Yes. The reason is actually rather simple. It is because black Americans have inherited and come to expect liberty in American, Western terms. And just as the world, with its exceptions, have come to respect governments structured as Constitutional republics with democratic political institutions, an expatriate black America would expect nothing less and the world would embrace them.
The most difficult thing, of course, would be dissent within such a community. Even as I illustrate above, there was no single way black Americans expressed themselves politically, religiously or culturally. That will always be the case.
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