The fact is, white society fears, and has always feared, losing power. White America has been resistant and forever reluctant to relinquish her position of social, economical, and political dominance. At the same time, black America is likewise reluctant, reluctant to give up the fight. Demonstrating the upward mobility and momentum of the black race, Carmichael announces, ?We are on the move for our liberation. We?re tired of trying to prove things to white people. We are tired of trying to explain to white people that we?re not going to hurt them? (41). Hurt them? Yes, white America fears being hurt — physically, economically, and socially. The question remains: Will white America continue its resistance until black rage inevitably boils over? ?The question is,? exclaimed Carmichael, ?will white people overcome their racism and allow [us to organize] in this country? If not, we have no choice but to say very clearly, ?Move on over, or we?re going to move on over you? ? (41). Concluding this thought, Williams writes, ?The fact is that racist white America is not worried about the possibility of Negroes being exterminated. It is more worried about the loss of its privileged position in its racist caste society; its system of white supremacy and world government? (?USA? 325). After all, the United States was built and founded on the double standard Jeffersonian principle that all men are NOT created equal, that the black race (or any other non-white group) must be held down at all costs.
While many during the Civil Rights Movement supported a nationalistic movement with a separate black government, the possibility of black dominance in America, a reversal of racial power, was also voiced. Nathan Hare writes,
A broad-based black power movement need [not] fear the white-voiced
deterrent that black power may simply replace white power. If that is the
case, then turn-about is fair play. This will depend on the willingness of
white power to cooperate in the just correction of grievances and
inequalities without delay. It is their decision, and this is not a plea, for I
have no faith that — given the nature of its existing institutions, belief
systems, and practices — white America can fully rectify the situation. (223)
Continuing, Hare asserts, ?Black men must bring an irresistible black power force to clash with the immovable object of white oppression with such velocity that America will either solve her problems or suffer the destruction she deserves? (my emphasis) (223-4). And this is the key to understanding black rage in America. Can this ?velocity,? once in motion — and it is in motion — be stopped? Will the resulting behavior caused by white oppression — black rage — subside at a place called ?equality?? Or, will a reversal in racial dominance occur? Racial dominance has been tried and proven time and time again. Equality has not.
Perhaps encapsulating the entire struggle of rage during the Civil Rights Movement are the works of Malcolm X. In one speech, he proclaims, ?Until the problem of the black people in this country is solved, the white people have a problem that?s going to cause an end to this society, system, and race as you know it? (?Harlem? 71). To Malcolm, black rage is not a black problem created by the black race, but a white problem conceived in the very root of white oppression. In another speech, he states, ?[The black man] can see where every maneuver that [white] America has made, supposedly to solve this problem, has been nothing but political trickery and treachery of the worst order? (?Revolution? 53). The Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, constitutional amendments, civil rights legislation, Brown vs. the Board of Education — have all failed to give a race of men and women what they rightfully deserve in white America: ?peace, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.?
Malcolm insists that the only viable solutions to America?s ?Negro problem? are violence and revolution. Concerning the impending violence seen throughout the nation, he says, ?Well, Negroes didn?t do this ten years ago. But what you should learn from this is that they are waking up? (?The Black? 49). Rage, though dormant at times, is very much a part of the black American fabric. ?It was stones yesterday, Molotov cocktails today; it will be hand grenades tomorrow and whatever else is available the next day . . .? (?The Black? 49). To those who dismissed the possibility of mass demonstration of rage, Malcolm explains,
One thing that you have to realize is, where the black community is
concerned, although the large majority you come in contact with may
impress you as being moderate and patient and loving and long-suffering
. . . the minority who you consider to be Muslims or nationalists happen to
be made of the type of ingredient that can easily spark the black
community. (?The Black? 48)
And to those who advocated nonviolence and a peaceful ?revolution,? Malcolm proclaims,
Black people are fed up with the dilly dallying, *censored* footing,
compromising approach that we?ve been using toward getting our freedom.
We want freedom now, but we?re not going to get it saying ?We shall
overcome.? We?ve got to fight until we overcome. (?The Ballot? 38)
Taking the same impatient ?now? approach as others in the movement, Malcolm tells us that freedom does not come without a fight.
Again and again, in speech after speech, Malcolm advocates the use of violence, channeling the rage in bitter retaliation. He says, ?You don?t do that in a revolution. You don?t do any singing, you?re too busy swinging. It?s based on land. A revolutionary wants land so he can set up his own nation, an independent nation? (?Message? 9). But what land? What revolution? Malcolm warns,
There are 22 million African Americans who are ready to fight for
independence right here. When I say fight for independence right here, I
don?t mean any nonviolent fight, or turn-the-other-cheek fight. Those days
are gone. Those days are over . . . . If George Washington didn?t get
independence for this country nonviolently, and if Patrick Henry didn?t
come up with a nonviolent statement, and you taught me to look upon
them as patriots and heroes, then its time for you to realize that I have
studied your books well . . . . (?The Black? 49)
Explaining the nature of a revolution and highlighting the inevitable fate of America, he also exclaims,
Historically you just don?t have a peaceful revolution. Revolutions are
bloody, revolutions are violent, revolutions cause bloodshed and death
follows in their paths. America is the only country in history in a position to
bring about a revolution without violence and bloodshed. But America is
not morally equipped to do so. (?The Black? 56-7)
Malcolm reemphasizes that black rage in white America is a white problem. Yes, white America has the ability to concede, to once and for all end the momentum of black rage in the United States. But could they admit and allow defeat?
Calling on the arguments of Garvey and others, Malcolm X also envisions a racial reversal of power on a global level, beginning in America. He says,
Not only is this racial explosion probably to take place in America, but all
of the ingredients for this racial explosion in America to blossom into a
world-wide racial explosion present themselves right here in front of us. America?s racial powder keg, in short, can actually fuse or ignite a world-
wide powder keg. (?The Black? 46)
Is America a ?powder keg? waiting to explode? Will good prevail? Will white society finally come to terms with itself and allow all persons to enjoy what is rightfully theirs? And, can the rage of a race, the black race, be diffused before the apparent inevitable occurs? These questions remain to be answered.
As Malcolm X has sought to channel black rage to effect change, so too has Martin Luther King, Jr. During his life, no doubt, King understood the rage of his race. He says,
There is the danger that those of us who have lived so long under the yoke
of oppression, those of us who have been exploited and trampled over,
those of us who have had to stand amid the tragic midnight of injustice and indignities will enter the new age with hate and bitterness. But if we
retaliate with hate and bitterness, the new age will be nothing but a
duplication of the old age. (?Facing? 562)
King describes a duplication of the old age — this time black over white. Although he does not want to accept it, King knew what both history and reality teach. Desiring to divert the rage of his people, he dismisses the rhetoric of violence and hate, proclaiming,
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the
starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. . . . I refuse to accept the cynical
notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into
a hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality . . . . (?Nobel? 110)
But will they? Will King?s refusal make his dream a reality? Dreams and belief do not a reality make.
King, like other black spokesmen, also stresses the coming of the ?inevitable.? Encouraging people to act and to avoid complacency, King himself exhorts, ?We must speed up the coming of the inevitable? (?Facing? 565). But has he understood ?the inevitable?? In his famous ?I Have a Dream? speech, King prophesies the following: ?It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro?s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality? (103). Knowing this, has the nation now entered into a ?fatal? situation? Possibly. King?s vision has yet to be realized, and the ?sweltering? and ?urgency? are still propelling black society.
Yes, King is not a prophet of rage. He advocates peace, brotherhood, and equality. However, much can be learned about rage from his words. Explaining where white oppression has led, King proclaims,
But there comes a time when people get tired. There comes a time when
people get tired of being trampled over by iron feet of oppression. There
comes a time when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of exploitation where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair.
There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the
glittering sunlight of life?s July and left standing in the piercing chill of an
Alpine November. (?Facing? 558)
Arguing against the determination of some to racially dominate, King says,
We do not wish to triumph over the white community. That would only
result in transferring those now on the bottom to the top. But, if we can
live up to nonviolence in thought and deed, there will emerge an interracial
society based on freedom for all. (?Our? 13)
If! What if rage is not kept in check? What if violence is not held back? When asked about receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in an interview, King responded, ?The Nobel award recognizes the amazing discipline of the Negro. Though we have had riots, the bloodshed we would have known without the discipline of nonviolence would have been frightening? (Washington 108). Here, King recognizes, understands, and admits that the potential of black rage is immense — ?frightening.?
Black Rage in Contemporary America
As the transition from the Civil Rights Era to the era of Affirmative Action takes effect in America, members of white society again boasts that they have successfully dealt with the ?Negro problem.? Brown vs. the Board of Education proclaimed an end to Plessy?s Jim Crow. President Kennedy called in the National Guard. President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Yes, blacks have finally been granted their rightful human place in white society. They are finally free. They are finally equal.
But are they? Ellis Cose writes in his 1993 book, The Rage of a Privileged Class, ?Why, a full generation after the most celebrated civil rights battles were fought and won, are Americans still struggling with basic issues of racial fairness? (1)? Black men and women in today?s United States clearly understand and agree that a state of equality has not yet been achieved. White concessions have been made along the way, making America better for blacks than ever before; but there is still a long way to go. The battle surrounding affirmative action, the imprisonment of a highly disproportionate number of blacks , the economic plight of the inner cities , the continued misrepresentation of
blacks in Congress, all point to the fact that, yes, a work remains to be done to ensure
equality.
But, thankfully, today the rage is gone. Blacks have finally learned to live peacefully, without regret, in white America. But then how does one explain the inner self-destruction of the race through crime, drugs, and murder? Many in America can only hope that the rage of the Civil Rights Movement will never reappear. However, it will. Black rage is not gone. In his 1993 book, Race Matters, Cornell West explains,
The emergence of strong black-nationalist sentiments among blacks . . . is
a revolt against [the] sense of having to ?fit in.? The variety of black
nationalist ideologies, from . . . Thomas . . . to Farrakhan . . . rest upon a fundamental truth: white America has been historically weak-willed in
ensuring racial justice and has continued to resist fully accepting the
humanity of blacks. (7)
Likewise, middle-class blacks, who have fled from the ghetto into corporate America, realize they too are still oppressed by the master. Cose writes,
America is filled with attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes, and behaviors
that make it virtually impossible for blacks to believe that the nation is
serious about its promise of equality — even (perhaps especially) for those
who have been blessed with material success. (5)
Yes, these sources are from the 90?s. Blacks still have rage — rage that has not subsided since slavery was abolished; rage that has not been abolished since integration was made the law of the land; rage that has not subsided since civil rights legislation proclaimed equality in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Where do we go from here? Can a state of equality ever be obtained between blacks and whites in America? Whitney Young foretells well today?s current state of race relations in America in his 1970 address to the Annual Convention of the National Urban League. He explains, ?It is a fact of life that there is developing a national standoff between those of us who are fighting for justice [blacks] and those who want to maintain the status quo [whites]? (408-9). While blacks continue to press upward, whites continue to press downward. ?This is an impasse that leads nowhere,? proclaims Young, ?unless it be to further polarization, further division, further bitterness? (408-9). It is clearly seen and understood from history that whites have never given up ground towards equality without a fight or a struggle. ?White society has shown that it lacks the courage and imagination to break this impasse by moving constructively,? says Young. ?It is up to the black community to show the way? (408-9).
What is it going to take? It took a bloody and terrible Civil War, a devastation that threatened to destroy America, for whites to concede abolition. And what would have happened then, if whites did not fight amongst themselves over the issue of slavery and invariably the condition of the Negro? Perhaps the Negro would have risen up and taken freedom himself; and oh how great the bloodshed might have been! One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, it took a movement full of violent rage and rhetoric, once again threatening to destroy the very fiber that holds the republic together, to force concessions mandating integration and affirmative action. One can only speculate where the Civil Rights Movement would have led had not many of the black leaders been killed off, had not white leaders made their timely, political concessions. Black leader after black leader has proclaimed that they will not stop until equality is achieved, that the black race will not settle for anything less than realizing their just human rights. The work is not yet done.
The battle is not yet won. In Race Matters, Cornell West admits: (1) Black rage is still present; (2) There is a freedom struggle; and (3) If not channeled, this rage may destroy America. He writes, ?Only if we are as willing as Malcolm X to grow and confront the new challenges posed by the black rage of our day will we take the black freedom struggle to a new and higher level. The future of this country may depend on it? (151). Speculating that time may be running out, Young proclaims, ?And for America, this may be the last opportunity she has to deal with leaders responsible to their people, before the terrifying prospect of internal strife, armed suppression, and needless destruction descend fully upon us all? (410). The writing remains on the wall. As Young implies, white America must deal with the black rage existing within its borders or face inevitable destruction.
One contemporary example of black rage escalating to the point of violence is the breakout of riots in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict in 1992. Ellis Cose explains that a group from the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Policy was conducting research on black rage in society when the riots occurred. Sentiments of rage were not only recorded following the riots, but also before. Cose writes,