Black Theology and Black Power | Chapter 1: Toward a Constructive Definition of Black Power

What is Black power?

• There is no precise or common agreement on a definition of Black power...especially among critics.
• For there to be communication on Black power, there must be a general shape of the term.
• Black power means the complete emancipation of black people from all types of white oppression and on Black people's terms.
• Like a rebel, Black power says no to intolerable conditions.
• Black power is like the slogan Freedom Now: A slave is willing to risk death because he considers the right to freedom more important than himself.
• Black power is the courage to affirm one's Blackness in spite of those elements that threaten that affirmation.
• Rebellion in the cities is the Black man's unwillingness to surrender to white society's idea of appropriate behavior.
• Black power is the Black man's affirmation of his Black worth and the willingness to fight against that which seeks for him to deny, ignore, or erase it.
• Blacks aren't human beings to whites until they recognize the behavior of white people for what it is.

Black power and existential absurdity

• The absurdity that the Black man feels in a white world is the disparity between what he hopes for and what it seems to be.
• There is no place in America that a Black man can escape this absurdity.
• An example of this absurdity is the disparity between the pride felt in reading the Declaration of Independence and the reality of the Dred Scott decision.
• It is evident that the Declaration of Independence did not have Black people in mind for if it did the men who framed it would be given rebuke instead of accolade.
• Lincoln's intention was never to free Blacks but to save the Union.
• Most whites still view Blacks as subhuman.
• The Black man lives in a paradox of an America that talks and sings about brotherhood and equality yet doesn't respect the rights of a Black man.
• Though historians and political scientists have attempted to cover up America's inhumane treatment of Blacks and Indians, the evidence is still clear for those who care to examine it.
• Absurdity comes from the discrepancy the Black man sees between his view of him being a man (with inalienable rights) and society's view of him being something less.
• The crucial question is: how should the Black man respond to whites’ view of himself?
• If one believes that this world is the extent of reality, he will either despair or rebel.
• If one believes in God than he views this world as a pilgrimage which Christianity has unfortunately taught as necessary suffering for entrance into the next world.
• The man of Black power's view is not that of despair nor appeal to another world but that of a rebel fighting for his oppressor to recognize him as a human being.

Is Black Power a form of Black racism?

• The appeal to Black people to keep their cool supports the perpetuation of the ravaging of the Black community.
• If people really knew oppression, they would take up the fight with Black people for their liberty and dignity.
• The failure to understand Blacks hatred of whites while understanding Jews hatred of Germans is due to the inability to see Black men as men.
• The cause of Black hatred is not Black Power, it is systematic racism.
• The Black man isn’t looking to claim something he doesn't possess but to get recognition for the dignity he does possess.
• Hatred is not the essence of Black power since the Black man isn't looking to take away his master's human dignity but only his status as master.
• There is a difference between Black hatred, Black racism, and Black power.
• Black hatred is the Black man's aversion to white society like the Jews' reaction to the Nazis.
• Black racism is a myth created by white people to ease their guilt and justify their oppression of Black people.
• This oppression is intended to keep things the same while pretending that they are progressing.
• Black racism (if there were such thing) is not like white racism in that Black racism doesn't pose a serious threat to white society.
• White racism isn't like Black power in that white racism seems to keep Blacks at the bottom while Black power seeks full participation in those things that affect Black people.
• Racism is so embedded into the fabric of America that it is hard for white people to escape it.
• Black power is not black hatred or black racism but it is an affirmation of the humanity of Black people, not white good will.
• Black power believes that if Black people are to be liberated it would and should only come from Black determination and not white good will.

Why integration is not the answer

• Whites are also bothered by Black power's rejection of integration.
• Blacks can not accept the the oppressor's idea of integration if it means accepting the white man's values, morals, religion, and etc.—that is assimilation.
• Black power is willing to accept Integration that starts with both parties on equal footing with neither possessing the ability to assert one's rightness of style over the other.
• While society ought not to be defined by color, this oughtness is not reality.
• Until white America accepts the beauty of Blackness, there will be no real peace or integration since Black identity can only be restored by affirming Blackness.
• Integration is the Black man accepting the white man's view of himself by saying "we are inferior".
• The worst aspect of the legacy of slavery is the Black self-hatred that comes from the belief that white is right and Black is evil.
• Due to society's view that the closer you are to white the more human you are, the Negro tries to be white by processing his hair and acting white and in turn losing his identity since he does not know or accept his own identity.
• Though civil rights workers support Black identity, the idea of integration still means accepting white moral superiority.
• The implied inferiority of the Black man is evident by the one-way street Negroes take to Black institutions (i.e. Negro parents' desire to send their children to white schools instead of Black schools).
• A consciousness of Black worth is the only thing that can fix the Black man's distorted self-image and only Black people can teach that.
• Black racism is a myth since it is not destructive of whites and even if it were there would be no way to politically enforce such an attitude (unlike whites who do politically enforce their attitudes upon Blacks).
• Black power refuses to share in whites inhumanity towards Black people (by integration) and instead seeks to affirm the beauty of Blackness—something whites can't teach Black people.

Is there an appropriate response to white racism?

• Whites should realize that the oppressor is in no position to define the proper response to slavery.
• Whites' advice to Blacks on how to respond to white oppression is automatically under suspicion as a device for further oppression.
• Whites have an arrogance in thinking they have a monopoly on intelligence and moral judgment.
• It is arrogant for whites (knowing full well their oppression of Blacks) to expect Blacks to take their advice regarding their liberation.
• The white man thinking that he is in the moral position to question Blacks hatred of whites is like the rapist asking the raped, "Do you hate me?"—it adds insult to injury.
• The white man's failure to understand Black power stems from his inability to see himself as the problem.
• The Black man's response to whites looking to give advice on an appropriate response should be "we wish to plead our own case".
• Whites who are not willing to lighten Black people’s load should not expect a meaningful conversation on how Blacks should respond.
• If whites are unwilling to get off the backs of Blacks, they must expect Black people to throw them off by any means necessary since freedom starts with man's ability to say no.

How does Black power relate to white guilt?

• Essentially, there are no degrees to racism—a society is either racist or not.
• White acquiescence makes all whites responsible for oppression.
• When one does not do everything they can to prevent an injustice, he is an accomplice.
• When Blacks hear about injustice, it strikes a sensitive note since they know what it means to be mistreated.
• In order to ease their guilt, whites attempt to free themselves from responsibility for inhumanity towards Blacks by lies and avoidance.

Black power and the white liberal

• Assertion of freedom from Blacks will always bring conflict from whites while Blacks’ acceptance of their dehumanized place will cause white conflict to cease.
• The only options the Black man is left with is accommodation or protest.
• Black power means the Black man will no longer accommodate and with that comes the need to distinguish friends from enemies.
• A liberal is one who wants change and victory without the risk and blood that comes from conflict.
• The liberal white man thinks that his intellectual and verbal acceptance of the racial problem makes him raceless.
• Since true freedom comes from the Black man’s acceptance of responsibility for his own acts and the knowledge that they involve all men, white liberals can not help the Black man get freedom.
• There is no room in the Black Power picture for liberals, but only radicals (even those who are white) who are prepared to risk life for freedom.

Black power: hope or despair?

• Black power is not the expression of hope in white promises to change the oppressive structure, but in the humanity of Black people—a humanity that comes from the right to say ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ despite the consequences.
• Men who have not known suffering do not understand Black rebellion due to its apparent futility.
• But the point of Black rebellion is not to take over but to express distaste for white power—even in the face of death.
• Such a willingness to die for human dignity stands at the heart of Christianity.

Notes from James Cone's "Black Theology and Black Power"