Those that were successful weren't sporadic.
QueEx
If you are referring to the 60's boycotts no they weren't sporadic. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted a year and it was accompanied by marches and political activism.
Those that were successful weren't sporadic.
QueEx
while i can agree with the spirit of what your saying...i don't think its necessary to have a "black government".
contrary to populr belief black people can and have and are coming together in the positive...its just that the negative is stressed so much thats all we're seeing and being told.
Rather than declarations and holidays we need to assert our political strength and CREATE business opportunities (beyond clothing and liquor)
How do we do that?
I'm not sure Black government is a winning term either but we do need a clear definition of community along with customs and morals. If we had those components it would have a unfying effect throughout the community. There won't be any asserting political strength or business opportunities until we get the basics straight. You can't even form a little league baseball team in this country without the proper paperwork. Here we are a community of 35 million people and we don't even have a common definition of community.
well we do have a common definition and sense of community but I think of the negative info and images of us in the media and in general have made US beleive that it doesn't exist..
example: Hurricane Katrina...
the media had no problem running with the most negative images and reporting UNSUBSTANTIATED rumors and reports...yet when the final tally was taken it was revealed that there were no rape gangs or bodies stacked in either stadium the evacuees were at. There were no confirmed reports of sniper activity either which means the people (majority black which people didn;t mind stressing when talking about something negative but not positive)were actually helping each other and being civil. But that stuff didn't get reported.
But i believe the backbone of any community is employment and up opportunity for upward mobility..
I gotta disagree with you on this one, I don't think we have a common definition of community. In a earlier post you mentioned how the Irish moved up in society. They had the benefit of knowing who they were, where they were from and the customs and values of their culture. If someone polled our community half of us probably don't know our grandparents, 25% don't know their father or mother. We don't have the legacy of community like other cultures so everybody in our community probably have a somewhat different definition of community.
That makes us vunerable to images and messages aimed at Black people. When we turn on the tv and see all white shows or read a book with no Black characters, or just deal with the everyday slights and insults from whites it impacts us negativily because we don't have the cultural identity they do.
I'm familiar with the Black Wall Street, there was one in almost every city, Harlem use to be the envy of white people because of it's business and cultural diversity. But most of those businesses where shells for Jewish businesspeople, The ones we did own were totally dependent on Jewish patronage and Blacks couldn't go to white owned businesses without risking death so we had to support Black business. It's a different world today, if we are going to see that kind of community again we are going to have to build it from the ground up.
but i don't think there is any people of color (i hate the term minority) businesses thats wholly dependant upon their own people in terms of patronage...look at the indian casinos for example..seeing as how indians are just as fucked over as black people..
The point is tho that those black businesses and communities were thriving until jealous whites destroyed them.
but here's a question i don;t think we've considered..
are there any TRULY independent minority industries in this country..asian, latino, etc..(not jewish since they can easily pass)
i'm reviving this thread in light of the sean bell case and aftermath..
al sharpton said something very interesting..he said that the marches of the 60s were effective ONLY because there were people in the whitehouse willing to listen and do something about.
Today that obviously isn't the case...so how effective can marches be now?
What does it take for boycott/demonstration to be successful?