Parallelism

In class we began to grapple with what the phrase “black power” really meant, later briefly discussing this idea of real and fake democracy. Fake democracy was understood to be the initial way that democracy was formed when the USA first originated. It was supposed to be a form of law and order that secured those that it was truly made for, the white race. Democracy was not initially made to cover and protect those that were a minority, it was what ultimately marginalized those minorities from the main stream of America.

Real democracy was assumed to be one of the reasons and/ or meanings of black power. It was a way to take pride in one’s blackness and begin to assert what was long overdue. In order to achieve real democracy, it was understood that there had to be more than a reformation to occur, this was something that would take a lot of time due to the fact that it would essentially take the reconstruction of the nation all over again. The question then and now is how do we get to this point of reconstruction and how long will it really take? When some progress begins there is always a storm that deters it. We find ourselves today still longing for this sense of true democracy, where minority groups are valued just as much as the majority.

In relating the rise of black power to today, we are still fighting the battle of real democracy for all marginalized groups. Although we are technically accepted within America there are still things that force us to stand apart from the privileged groups within society. It is still hard to get marginalized representation into the mainstreams of politics to a point that they would hold a spot within the leadership group of the country, outside of President Obama. As said before democracy was a way to keep groups separate and force one to realize their inferiority, and today still remains the same; however, it has evolved from enslavement to mass incarceration. The Netflix documentary 13^th was an hour long depiction of how slavery still exists today in 2016. The statement that slavery is still in existence, is a bold stance to defend given that the era of enslavement is in fact over; however, when saying slavery one is meaning the ties to the land of America that the African American Race still is chained by. Our government has once again found a way to profit off black bodies that are held captive and chained to a system that will follow them for the remainder of their lives. Just think, slaves could not vote nor can incarcerated peoples whether in or out of the institution of the prison system. It is tactics like these that keep us from fighting for our voices to be heard from a leadership position or at least an influence within America.