Brian on the State of the Black Union

[brianold]

Integration

Yes

But remember Garvey... we must be strong and united first in order to gain that respect in the eyes of the world...

Then we can move towards a truly united and integrated world, and not before then.

The terms integrationist and nationalist are misleading I'd argue.

There is no such thing as either. We are all both in truth, yet on different planes.

Harry Belafonte recalls MLK telling him just a short period before his assination, that he feared he was fighting for integration into a burning house. When Belafonte asked King what he would have black folks do, Martin responded, "I would have us be firemen"

Regardless of how we feel about America we realize that those who are born into it should not suffer because of anyone's non-committal attitude toward uplifting the world's dominant state. As Cornel West has noted, there are babies in this burning house that must be saved.

But to talk of saving the babies from a burning house we also must talk about the new house that is to be built down the street once the flames have been extingushed and the ashes removed.

And as Harry Belafonte challenges, we must find a new paradigm for this new house... a new blueprint. Perhaps we can make it fireproof, perhaps not. But surely it can me made less vulnerable to metaphorical fire hazards.

[Shelley]

well said.

[brianold]

Shelley Wrote:well said.

here's the New York Amsterdam News' take on it:
link

what do you think of it? what did you think about the conference?