O'Connell's Off Topic

Just curious, but I wonder if a speech to the "white community" would be acceptable?

At the time of this speech, the need was great. I guess you can go an quote whatever religion you wish, but as Malcolm said in this speech, "they dont hang you because your baptist, they hang you because youre black! They dont hang you because your Muslim, they hang you because your black". Malcolm believed that if you talked about religion, you would always end up with a disagreement, so talk about religion at your church or at home and bring your business cap when you come to speak to people in public, not your religious cap.

What he was trying to convey in this speech is that as long as we chased for the white mans sympathy and good will, we would fail and always be left behind. He said that we had to depend on each other because depending on anyone else other than our own yeilded little benefit. He made comparisons of how businesses started small and expanded to become big businesses like Ford motor company and woolworth as examples. He believed the black community should become self sufficient so that the white man wouldnt have a chance to give us an unequal opportunity. Another quote was "that as long as you take your money and spend it outside the community you live, the community you live in would become poorer and poorer and the community you go and spend your money in becomes richer and richer." In black communities today, the biggest business is illegal. Very few black owned businesses.

The bottom line of this speech was trying to get the black community to see that we had to develope our own community to become politically, economicallly and socially releveant in todays society. We didnt do that and just like he said would happen, we are not politically, economically or socially relevant. Most of us dont give a crap about politics, live paycheck to paycheck with no thought of legitimate finiancial gain or establishing economic means within the community and soically, the black community lives by a different set of rules all together and then we get mad when police come in and enforce a rule different from the ones we play by.

It is a left behind community and this speech said it would be just that if we didnt take such steps. There are black people that have the means to make changes, but most dont care. They will spend enough money on a couch that could purchase entire neighborhoods in the black community since the housing is so cheap, but turn their backs. Not to knock them, its their choice for sure, but what they dont realize is that we are the only race in america that hasnt come together for the greater good of the race. The civil right movement was all about getting equal treatment and making nice with the white man. Thats fine, but after that, the black community still didnt have any businesses to fall back on in most places and still found themselves chasing the white man for jobs, money and everything else. As soon as a brutha made it in some form or fassion, he moved out of the community to live next to the white man instead of establishing a mode of income within the community that didnt involve illegal activity. Today, the black race is the most disfunctional and disorganized race in America and its not even close. Following what Malcolm X said in this speech would have been a turn for the better and benefited greatly. It wasnt racist or hate related at all and made lots of sense. We went the MLK route an look at our communities now.

All that is fine, but what if the person you are speaking with, trying to do business with serves god in a different way or serves a different god? You maintain that you are correct and they may be just as sure about what they do. Then what? Thats why in this speech, he says leave your religion at home because if you dont, there will always be differences that keep you from doing business. It becomes just another avenue to discriminate.

I agree. You don't need to believe in a God to understand racial issues and hypothesize how to fix them. And FYI, I'm not an atheist either.

Ummm.

First, as for the name calling. As a race in America, white people have never been oppressed, so that name calling really has no affect on them for the most part. It may apply in specific situaitons, but as a whole, you dont have a word you can throw out at white people that will draw the same ire as the N word does black people.

Second, if you are secure in your religion, great, im happy for you, but that has no place in establishing business. These same christians you speak of were burning our buildings down when we were trying to get started, so what now? Do we trust christianity? This is why you leave religion at home.

Lastly, America is all about status but i dont want to go into that because it starts to go down a political road. I feel that it would change the thread completely.

Did you watch the speech yet? Do you have thoughts on what he said? Its much better than what MLK did IMO and we would have been a lot further along has we followed it.

So, are you with the mindset now that you can trust no one but those in your community, even if your community is rife with thieves and bad business practices?

I dont like welfare so shoot it down all you want.

As far as our culture, we dont have one. We go to school and learn about everyone else, but the only thing we learn about is that we were slaves. Then, we learn about the great heroes of America in spite of them being slave owners. Kind of a conflict in interest. Nate Turner would be a hero to the black community and white folks would hate him.

When you know who you are and embrace your own culture, you hold on to your values. Black people have been made to emulate white values and customes and as you can see, it aint working. We must take pride in our own to progress. Every race that has something in America has dont that. We havent yet.

Black Nationalism. Education is a big part of it too, but it starts with nationalism.

The day I see a prosperous all-black city/state will be the day I support black nationalism. In fact, you have my support if Detroit can get cleaned up and become thriving once again without the white man's help or influence. Good luck.

The bottom line is this; The black community is not a place to prosper. I want to change that. Whatever method of improvement that is being implemented now isnt working. Everyone in the hood that wants to do something has to get out. Instead, I want it to be a place that you can come back to and prosper. Not a seperate nation or anit-government entity, but why cant the hood be Gallardia or Oak Tree? Thats the goal. Most of us learn at an early age how to survive and garner status within the community and that comes with all kinds of bad activities. Thats not want I want the black community to be about. So dont take offense if I dont want to include white people. If white America really wanted to make a difference, it would have by now. We have to figure out how to creat jobs and income from ourselves so that money can be earned within the neighborhood.

So, the method that Malcolm X speaks about is not violent and involves no hate. MLK had a vision, executed it but it didnt start one black owned business or develope any political or economical thinking.

145 years ago.

That equates to 5 or 6 generations.

You didn't watch the Malcolm X speech, did you?