In chapter 7 of MJ, Kenneth Lipartito alleges the existence of  “whites only” policies and remarks that the overlaying majority of the woman hired where white single females. Consequently to the ongoing black employee oppression and discrimination, numerous movements pro-black culture were gaining popularity. One of the major movement in the late 19th century was the Black Power Movement. The popular TV shows called “Independent Lens” featured by PBS, the documentary debuts the arrival of Swedish filmmakers to explore the Black Power Movement. As the movement was classified as a “violent threat” by the U.S media, a lot of intangible data was acquired by the filmmakers. Some may claim that the movement was basically a necessarily a black narcissistic movement, as it raised the pride of negros.  However, the effect of the movements goes much further than raising pride, as it built a column/foundation to the modern movement “black lives matter”.  Just as the police and their actions were the prime focus of Black Lives Matter, the law enforcement was targeted during the Black Power movement. The main difference between the two movements was that the Black power movement was an unadulterated black movement, meaning that whites did not chant it.

In the 1970ʻs the Black Power movement began to spread throughout America. The movement was a political and social movement that incentivized racial pride and equality by empowering Black people to reclaim a sense of culture that was taken from them over generations of enslavement. To expand my knowledge in the subject, I consulted the data presented by the government’s national archives. Due to the aggressivity of the movement,  Federal agencies and collections have records that are directly related to the Black Power movement, including information on various organizations, such as the Nation of Islam (NOI), Deacons for Defense and Justice, and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP). The documentation also includes records on individuals, such as Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Stokely Carmichael, and Shirley Chisholm. In fact, the first articulation of “Black Power” was credited to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader, Stokely Carmichael, who represented black activists.

The most evident of the “Big ideas” for this course that within the movement is Business, State and Society. The movement encouraged African Americans to return to their traditional, African roots. As result, clothing with traditional African patterns became more common, along with Afros and African dance groups. However, the movement brought more than new fashion statements.  Black activists encouraged their community to reclaim their African heritage and build a new African American culture through names. During this time America began seeing an increase in what they called, “black names”. While some of these names were linked to traditional African names, many of them were also invented by the African American community. Until this shift, most African American and white children shared similar, if not identical, names.  The diverse naming of African American children compared to white children began to create an even bigger divide between the two peoples. It was now easier for citizens to put their personal biases on others just by seeing a name, for names had begun to indicate culture and ethnicity as well as personal identity. But not all African Americans followed this trend. While some African American parents picked traditional African names, other continued to use classically “white names”.  Using data from California birth-certificates dating back to the 1960ʻs, we can begin to see what kind of African American parents would choose to name their child a “black name” instead of a “white name”. What Roland G. Fryer Jr., a young black economist, found was that young, undereducated, low-income black women with a similarly traditional “black name” were significantly more likely to give their child a “black name”. These women commonly lived in black communities, making the choice of giving their child a “black name” a lot easier, for it signaled their solidarity with the community and agreement with the black power movement.  This decision was also majorly influenced by outward societal pressures felt by these women, many of which surrounded the idea that a black woman giving their child a “white name” was seen as the said women trying to “act white”. This label could lead to her and her child being heavily judged by their community, and possibly becoming outcasts.

The criticisms of the movement also align with another “Big idea” for this course. The criticism reveals “unintended consequences ”. Most of the critics on the movement were focused on aggravated gender disequality generated by the movement. While some disagree, most claim that the movement the implemented a concept of black masculinity, which was extremely assertive and selective. Subsequently, it also used sexist language which excluded women. It is asserted that the Black Power movement was a call to black men and completely ignored the role of women, who thought that the movement was misleading.  Curiously, some claim that the “black gender issue” mirrored the racial issue- woman says that they were oppressed by black men just as black men were oppressed by Whites. Interesting controversy right? 

One of the main assumptions out there is that there exists systematic oppression such as white privilege and male privilege. However, the constitution does not support any form of oppression, thus there are no premises for constitutional or systematic oppression. So what are the premises of oppression? How should society deal with discrimination and oppression?

Link to the TV show: https://www.pbs.org/video/independent-lens-looking-back-at-the-black-power-movement/