You know I’m researching Chicago Roller Skating History and Black Roller Skating in Chicago, right? So, I’m stuck in the 1942 Chicago Defender because there was so much going on in this city and I have to check it out. The article from the June 20, 1942 issue stuck with me because it shows how much hasn’t changed in 80 years. And Black people are still fighting for some of their rights in 2012.
Following are things that really stood out.
Calling All Negroes
I have to admit, the headline made me laugh because this is organizing before Twitter. There was a call for Black people to meet at the Coliseum for a common purpose, and I’m sure that the place was packed with people who cared. I still say, as I said in a previous post that Black people were better when they were Negroes.
Negro Power Against the Government’s Jim-Crow Policy of Discrimination
It looks like this is a battle Black People are still losing according to The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. I haven’t read the book yet, but the prison system is overflowing with Black and Brown people, with Black leading the pack.
Winning Democracy for the Negro
Uh, this seems to be an oxymoron in 2012.
Fight for the Right to Live, Work and Be Free
I don’t think Black people in America care about this so much these days. In order to live and work, you have to be free. Unfortunately, the minds of Black people are being controlled by mainstream media so they won’t be free until they turn off the noise, open books and begin to think for themselves. Like Carter G. Woodson said in the Mis-Education of the Negro, when you control a man’s thinking, you don’t have worry about their actions. They have been trained to do what their oppressors want. So, Black people are on mental lock down in 2012.
As long as they are being controlled, they are not going to fight for the right to live and work. They are going to settle for what’s offered to them and continue to hope for the best instead of trying to do better.
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Do you see the cooperation between all these people? That’s how stuff worked in 1942! Will we ever get there again? Only if we turned off the television collectively and started talking to each other and thinking for ourselves.
Okay, since I had to go read the other post first I feel better qualified to respond to this one. lol
This time, I agree with most of it, but still have a brief dissent. Things actually have changed in a way. In the 60’s the period in the middle, black people fought for the same rights of voting that everyone else had. Well, they got it, and black people vote in almost the same types of numbers that white people vote, except when a black person is running for office. That’s apathetic and a major shame, but they won the right to do it.
Also, in a way, things have changed because black people don’t generally support each other like they used to do. You used to have black people shopping in the stores of black entrepreneurs; that doesn’t happen as much. You used to have more black people promoting other black people; we both know that doesn’t happen as much anymore. And at least in public we treated each other with more respect; these days, at least for those folks from Gen Y up to now, will cuss out a parent or grandmother as much as they’d do it to people their own age; we would have never even considered doing anything like that.
So yes, lots has changed; just not much of it for the better. Oh wait; we do have some black millionaires, even a billionaire, and not all of them are athletes. I’ll take what I can get. 🙂
Okay, I’m with you. I’ll take what I can get.
On a side note. While researching Chicago Roller Skating history and Black Roller Skating in Chicago, I found that in 1942, they were trying to get rid of the poll tax. Today, new ways of suppressing voters rights have emerged. This is one of the reasons why I say that nothing much has changed. But I agree with you; it has changed but not much for the better.
You got the first black president in US for the first time and I think that should count much.
You’re right. The election of the first black president of the United States does count. But the treatment and lack of respect for black people, especially the president, is pretty much the same.
I believe in all person’s rights. If everyone knew their rights it would be hard to violate them. A Black President does count for something but it is a stone in a pond.
That’s true. But how many people do you know personally who even read their employee handbook let alone check out their civil rights?