Why Black People Should Be Calling for Socialism (the series)

So I'm ready to officially say it. Yes, I admit I was a republican; a free market capitalist republican.

And today because of some praying parents I can affirm that I no longer suffer from that virus. Maybe some folks might think I have acquire another more deadlier virus when I reveal my next thoughts, but such is life.

You might have already figured it out by the title of this post, but I believe and can support this position with the words and analysis of one of humanities' greatest scholars, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, that, "socialism will grow in the United States if we restore...democracy...here is where Negroes may and must lead."

I'm reading a pamphlet I found at the IAC office call "The class roots of racism," by David Perez (workers world library, 1989) and it is explaining the orgins of capitalism and the necessity of socialism. Now as I read this, I begin to ascertain that Mr. Perez's position is that socialism must be achieved first before racism can be eliminated. My warning bells go off, "Race First, race first!!!!" always and forever. So I'm questioning his position.

Now he shares that Cuba is a strong example of a Socialist nation that has abolished racism in its constitution. Okay. So racism is not practiced institutionally, but psychologically racism is still quite alive and well in the social constructs of Cuban life (white is still always right...). And this is just as detrimental as institutional racism. So still we must tackle the issue of race in order to dissolve the system of class and capitalism.

I start reflecting on why I'm challenging this position Perez has taken, and then I think, "what if black folks started publicly questioning capitalism, and at minimum started studying and theorizing on the benefits of socialism?"

Hmmmmmm....

Yeah, this could be interesting...if you have black folks calling for more socialist policies and laws, then at minimum you begin to draw out the residual sick psychological elements of racism still embedded even in the most liberal hippies. Can these young white progressive hip-hop loving white folks get behind a black leadership calling for free education, living wage jobs, and free health care? Can they be led by black folks who challenge the police state that terrorize black communities like the Palestinians who are being terrorized in Gaza? Can non-black and even black people support a black leadership that calls for the end of capitalism?

I mean, if anyone should be calling for the end of capitalism it has to be black folks!!! We are living examples of the inherent ills of capitalism. Capitalism thrived and grew under the institution of chattel slavery; a super-exploitative system that stole some of the most skilled laborers in the world's labor and production, and never replenished it!

I mean it's gangsta for real when you make folks work for you, for free, for 400 hundred years, and in the last 50 years you've got them all damn-near convinced that this is the system they want to promote and live under. Damn, that is game!

We are smarter than that good people. We - Black Folks, Negroes - survived the very worst experiment in capitalism, chattel slavery; we are the perfect examples to the world of the human spirit, and our ability to survive the most destructive dehumanizing experience in all of humanity.

Let the words of our ancestors serve as our mantra in this fight to destroy capitalism;

"power concedes nothing without demand" (Fredrick Douglass)

"...and for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!" (Claude McKay)


Peace and love