Black radicals and the American national consciousness: Ideology in the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam

[摘要] ABSTRACTRadical Black movements in the United States are often judged according to thefeasibility of their aims and practices. This tends to overlook other ameliorative and evenrevolutionary contributions that these movements make. While the Civil Rights ProtestMovement is well acknowledged for its ameliorative contributions to the just treatment ofBlacks in America, black radicals are often decried as having been impractical andunrealistic. The impracticality of black radical movements often baffles scholars whenthey try to rationalize the existence of these movements, and often sociologicaljustifications are sought.This dissertation seeks to show that the sentiments of the black radical movements wererooted in variables which are understandable and justifiable. Separatism andrevolutionism, by the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party respectively, weredirect responses to the situation of Blacks in America, in the past and in the future. Thepast was that of brutal discrimination and exploitation, the future spelled out assimilationand yet again exploitation. It made sense to the Nation of Islam that they should seekseparatism and self-determination within or without America, and it also made sense tothe Black Panther to seek revolution in order to end all exploitation and paternalism. Thehistory of Black/white relations could not be erased from the collective memory. In orderto denounce the past, the present was to be cursed. The callous past justified autonomyand this autonomy was sought in separatism and revolution. The proponents of thesetenets were not deluded about the feasibility of the most extreme of their demands- thetenets were a denunciation of America, the American national consciousness. The mereadherence to these beliefs granted its proponents racial and class solidarity, dignity andpride. These alone are enough to justify the noise that these movements made. This is theargument of this dissertation. An attempt will be made, through textual analysis of someof the documents of the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party to extract excerptsthat link to the ideals of racial solidarity, dignity and pride.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand