Racists Fear Black Power
By Kevin Palmer
On February 26, 2018, the Economic Policy Institute released a report, 50 years after the Kerner Commission, which stated, “In 1968, The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission, delivered a report to President Johnson examining the causes of civil unrest in African American communities. The report names “white racism” – leading to “pervasive discrimination in employment, education, and housing” – as the culprit.” Indeed, white racism was a problem then, and white racism is a problem now.
In 2018, “50 years after the Kerner report was released, Blacks are still disadvantaged in important ways relative to whites. Black workers still make only 82.5 cents on every dollar earned by white workers. Blacks are 2.5 times as likely to be in poverty as whites, and the median white family has almost 10 times as much wealth as the median Black family. In 2017, the Black unemployment rate is still roughly twice the white unemployment rate.” Furthermore, “The Black homeownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since 1968.” Whites have power over Blacks and could care less if Blacks are disadvantaged.
The only hope is for a new generation of Whites to accept the teaching of Jane Elliott who said, “You are not born racist. You are born in a racist society. And, like anything else, if you can learn it, you can unlearn it. But some people choose not to unlearn it, because they’re afraid they’ll lose power if they share with other people. We [Whites] are afraid of sharing power. That’s what it’s all about.”
For this reason, Blacks must embrace the words of the late, great Dr. John Henrik Clarke who said, “To be Black and beautiful means nothing in this world unless we are Black and powerful.”
