#headingtoMississippi — African-Americans Need to Move to Mississippi to Create a Black State.
Louis Farrakhan’s right, African-Americans need another strategy. They need their own state.
They’ve talked. They’ve marched. They’ve rallied. They’ve sung. They’ve danced. They’ve protested. They’ve gained educations. They’ve entered politics. They’ve become successful athletes and entertainers. Some have become rich.
But nothing’s changed for most African-Americans.
They’ve even tried a little violence. Tried a little violence against their government, that is. They’ve done plenty of violence to each other, as anyone who studies the effects of oppression expects them to do. You can only punch someone within range of your fists. And when you can’t get to the people who’re really responsible, you’re back to people within swinging distance.
But would it matter if angry African-American were allowed to riot in wealthy neighborhoods?
No. The problem is social. Racism is so deeply part of many Americans’ way of life that it can’t be changed without the sort of fundamental social change that white Americans won’t allow. No one should be surprised that the strategies and practices that African-Americans have adopted have had no real effect on racial inequality.
If the problem is social then so is the solution. African-Americans need their own society. To get that they need their own state. Forget red and blue, black is the only answer.
Mississippi has the highest percentage of African-Americans in the county. Around three quarters of a million African-Americans moving there would push the around 38 per cent of African-Americans to over 50 per cent of Mississippi’s population.
Some, possibly many, whites, are likely to leave Mississippi as soon as they find out that it has been targeted to become the first black state of the United States of America (with more to follow — Louisiana, Georgia and Maryland).
It is also one of the poorest states, which makes it easiest to buy real estate there. But African-American business owners and entrepreneurs must join entertainers and athletes in moving their businesses to Mississippi. It has to become a wealthy state. It has to be a success to show people of all colors that it can be done.
In the first place, though, just buying property in Mississippi and registering to voter there would be a good contribution from those African-Americans wealthy enough to be able to own property in more than one state. Once African-Americans dominate Mississippi’s politics, then they start to create a new society based on true racial equality.
I understand that there is a sense of change is in the air in the US right now. And there’s an urgency to talk about reform that’s truly new. Maybe Joe Biden’s task-forces will come up with policies that will mean that black lives do matter. And matter in all aspects of American society where they don’t currently matter. Not just in policing. And that these policies will be implemented and change things.
There have been senses of change before. The 60s was a time that some people were talking about social upheaval. Whatever occurred then didn’t help African-Americans much, though.
The grit that led to me to grow the pearl of (not)wisdom that African-Americans needed a black state was hearing LA Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn say that the protests and riots reminded him of the Rodney King riots in 1992 and that “nothing has changed” for African-Americans.
I’d also been helping my daughter work on a college assignment on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, focusing specifically on the ways that different entertainers used their money, influence and talents in different ways to promote equal rights for people of color.
Sammy David Jr’s apparent appeasement of Sinatra and Martin contrasted with Harry Belafonte’s more militant stand. An older, and perhaps wiser, Nina Simone losing hope that a non-violent way forward was possible. King versus X. Panthers versus Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Talking. Marching. Rallying. Singing. Dancing. Protesting. Qualifying. Politicking. Succeeding as athletes and entertainers. Getting rich. Trying a little political violence.
Failing… in the 60s.
Failing… in the 90s.
Failing… in the 2020s…
People of color haven’t had any more success in Australia.
Not that I know anything about the experience of indigenous Australians and other Australians of color. Irish in my family tree is the closest I come to not being of the dominant race.
I just know they’re tried all those things and failed too. Racism is a part of many Australians’ way of life too. Including mine.
I didn’t know that Farrakhan was talking about creating a black state last year until after I started working on this piece. I came across this idea when I was still teaching and writing textbooks about Australian politics. I got the idea from Aborigines. So, a white man is stealing from them again. They’d be wise to just let this white thief go, though.
This *is* a crazy idea. It’s the best I’ve come up with after hearing Lynn’s comments about the protests and riots that broke out after George Floyd’s murder, though.
It’s lucky no one is reading this. It’s even madder than the other mad ideas I’ve been dropping into the infinite abyss that is Medium. It’s like tweeting with no followers.
It’s not really fully my idea, as I wrote. I found it when I was doing research into the work of those involved in the Aboriginal Provisional Government movement in Australia (http://apg.org.au/).
The APG promotes recognition of Aborigines as members of a sovereign nation within the Australian Commonwealth. One of their ideas is for a separate indigenous state.
It won’t happen for them. There’s not enough of them and they don’t have the same level of political and economic power that African-Americans have. They are more like native Americans than African-Americans. And then there’s the racism among Australian whites — like me. But perhaps African-Americans could benefit from their idea, even if it comes to them via another old white guy — like me.
