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The
orgy of violence and destruction marked the end of an
era for the non-violent civil rights struggle. To many
poor blacks, non-violent marches and demonstrations
seemed a worthless antidote to the cycle of poverty,
violence and neglect. In the next few years Detroit,
Newark, Washington D.C. and dozens of other cities erupted
into violence and destruction. Many blacks embraced
the call by black militants Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael,
Rap Brown, the Black Panthers and the Black Muslims
for black power, armed confrontation and separatism.
The violence in Watts also made many whites recognize
that America's ghettoes were powder kegs that could
explode at any moment. The suburbs suddenly seemed less
safe and secure. White fears forced politicians to scramble
to find solutions to the racial crisis. The McCone Commission
appointed by Governor Edmund Brown called for modest
police reform and increased spending on jobs and social
programs. That established an all to familiar pattern.
When cities erupted in racial violence, hand-wringing
city officials would quickly appoint a commission, or
blue-ribbon panel, issue a voluminous report on the
causes of the riots, cobble together a few job programs,
and toss out a few more dollars for social service programs.
To many Americans that sounded like a reward for criminal
behavior, and they weren't having any of that. They
blamed the violence on liberal permissiveness, and outside
agitators and demanded more police, heavy weaponry,
and tougher prison sentences. With the exception of
the Martin Luther King Hospital, which was the one tangible
thing that came out of the riots, the McCone Commission's
recommendations were mostly ignored. The few piecemeal,
badly mismanaged poverty programs, slapped together
to cool out the ghetto, did little to relieve the misery
of the black poor.
When Lyndon Johnson escalated the war in Vietnam, politicians
and the public became even more reluctant to spend more
on domestic programs. The black poor, lacking competitive
skills and training, were shoved even further to the
outer economic fringe. Their anger quickly turned to
cynicism and despair. Many turned to guns, gangs and
drugs to survive.
Civil rights leaders and organizations did not help.
They defined the "Black Agenda" in increasingly narrow
terms. Affirmative action, economic parity, professional
advancement and bussing replaced poverty, unemployment,
quality education, police abuse and political empowerment
as the goals that all African-Americans should fight
for. Young, upwardly mobile black business and professionals
fled the inner cities in droves. This further drained
talent, skills and leadership, and positive role models
from poor communities. Economic shrinkage, government
budget cuts, and the elimination of job and social programs
dumped more and more blacks into the ranks of the underclass.
This pointed up a phenomenon about race and class in
America that has been ignored, downplayed, or denied.
There are no longer two Americas, black and white, and
seemingly at permanent odds with each other. There are
now three Americas, one black, one white, and the other,
black and black. In by-gone years, the iron curtain
of segregation had blurred, but had not obliterated,
the class divisions between the black well-to-do and
the black poor. When the Jim Crow signs came down, and
the ghetto walls tumbled, more blacks than ever marched
into the corporations, onto universities, and into Congress
and statehouses. This gave the false, and misleading
impression that economic deprivation was a thing of
the past for all but a few unlucky blacks. That was
a pipedream, and America soon found it out.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a columnist for BlackNews.com,
an author and political analyst.
For
media interviews, contact:
Mr. Hutchinson at 323-296-6331 or hutchinsonreport@aol.com |
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