To Pimp a Butterfly

Institutionalized Evidence II

When discussing the economic poverty that plagues our Black communities, people in power tend to place blame on the resident’s scruples and life decisions, which creates this mentality of having to seek change yourself rather than waiting for it; however, real blame lies in systemic racism used to create the poverty, and the people in power’s rhetoric that forced critique on the people.
​             However, change could refer to changing your habits, or mindset. Black lead movements started because they made the conscious decision that we need to make the change we want to see.
Huey P. Newton wrote in protest, “Black capitalism is a hoax. Black capitalism is represented as a great step toward Black liberation. It isn’t. It is a giant stride away from liberation. No Black capitalist can function unless he plays the white man’s game. Worse still, while the Black capitalist wants to think he functions on his own terms, he doesn’t. He is always subject to the whims of the white capitalist. The rules of Black capitalism and the limits of Black capitalism are set by the white power structure” (Taylor 88).  I believe this mentality, in addition to programs they fought for, is what lead J. Edgar Hoover, former FBI director, to deem the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as the "greatest internal threat" to the security of the United States (Taylor 44).
 


 

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