The Nikki-Baldwin interview - Part 2

One of the priorities of every tranche of human society; be it a family, a community, a tribe or a nation, is to assert itself and its values within and even outside of their immediate environment, in order that their progeny will not have to struggle in life. It is however not very strange to see that in the periods of both British and American imperialism, there were and still are many attempts; both militarily and intellectually - via many variations, one of which is propaganda, to strengthen and perpetuate the so-called "Superpower" status of both empires.

Does this component of human nature justify any form of injustice meted out on other groups of people? Definitely not, particularly when the promulgators of the ideas of democracy and libertarianism, with roots firmly in the ideals of freedom, justice and equality for all, are the very culprits of imperialism.

In the previous article, the means employed to ensure the perpetuation of imperialism and exploitation of the black man and his wealth were established. In this article however, we will focus on one particular hate ideology; the concept of whiteness and blackness. This idea was brought up in the Nikki-Baldwin interview when Mr. Baldwin quoted Mr. Malik El-Shabbazz, also known as Malcolm X; where he said that whiteness is merely a state of mind. Obviously by common sense we know that no one is born white or black. One can test this fact out by comparing one's skin colour to the above colours on the spectrum and I can assure you that, a similar conclusion to mine will surface.

What does it therefore mean to be white, why not just refer to oneself by one's country of origin or one's race in a bid to identify oneself? This is because, whiteness represents a certain feeling of authority, dominion and power in the world as it relates to a particular type of race. I use the word feeling because it merely superficial - a reflection of a state of mind and not society. This has the tendency to be harmful, both to its practitioners and the society. For a very long time, this particular type of race was mostly associated with the institution of Europe, white Europeans or anyone with a Caucasian phenotype, but over time like was explained in the previous article, there was the need to perpetuate this empire if slavery and other acts of imperialism were going to be abolished or worse exposed. So-called institutions of higher learning had to be established in order to indoctrinate persons of other cultures in order to perpetuate this system of whiteness. Miss Giovanni said, "....in dealing with the world, we find that frequently a White face goes with a White mind, occasionally a Black face goes with a White mind and very seldom a White face will have a Black mind..." and so no matter one's field of study or cultural background, the system of exploitation had to be maintained or expanded. Anyone who challenged this status quo was called a communist, a dissident, a traitor or even a terrorist.

This formed the basis of the confusion between most civil rights activists of the 1960s and many white Americans; one side felt it was fighting for justice by calling out wrongdoing, whereas another side felt they were been attacked unfairly and branded as evil. This was because of how the concept whiteness (a superficial mindset), was associated with been born as an American of a certain phenotype. It was impossible for an intellectual to separate, with surgical precision, the system of whiteness or the White mind from the so-called White man. Even for many of the best scholars within the civil rights movement, this was often a hurdle.

But who can blame them, just like Muhammad Ali's analogy of the rattlesnakes in a 1971 interview on the BBC, it is much safer to associate all Americans of Caucasian phenotype as perpetrators of an exploitative system than try to pull them apart, else you might end up been dragged into the very same problem you are hoping to solve or worse, be killed while being blindfolded. The bible says in the book of Galatians 6:1;

"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."

Thus in the process of trying to expose a certain wrongdoing in society, there is always a tendency to want to appeal to those responsible by engaging in what is known as "coming to their level." And many civil rights activists from a genuine standpoint felt that the way to get many problems solved was to negotiate as so-called civilised beings. This highlights one of the key challenges of the movement back in the day, and I believe this is still a key challenge today. For so long as one is willing to play at the level of one's oppressor, change is always going to be far fetched.

Shalom