Nations Want Liberation: The Black Belt in the 21st Century

[Killer Enigma]

http://return2source.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/nations-want-liberation-the-black-belt-nation-in-the-21st-century/

Looks like someone has it out for the ISO. :lol: Haven't finished reading it yet, but it definitely poses some interesting questions. Are there any other recent looks at the black belt line from the comintern?

[Martin Blank]

Members of our organization been discussing it on and off for the last few years, mostly as an effort to solidify our view on African American liberation.

The problem with application of the classical Black Belt theory today is that, in spite of the assertions of the "Return to the Source" comrades, the actual Black Belt -- an area of contiguous territory that is majority African American -- no longer exists. The Allen map shows areas of majority Black population in full black, with the areas of 25-50 percent Black as the border areas. However, the U.S. Census map they show in comparison only shows areas that are 25 percent and above. You actually have to download the report on Black Americans -- http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-06.pdf -- to see where there are majority counties: along the Mississippi River from Memphis to New Orleans (mostly in Mississippi), in a small band across mid-Alabama, in opposite corners of Georgia, scattered up the center of S. Carolina, a few in northeast N. Carolina and southeast Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Now, I can certainly understand the argument of advocating self-determination for African Americans, with the classical Black Belt as its territory. However, even though I can understand the argument, I disagree with communists advocating such a position at all times. The raising of the self-determination slogan is dependent on material conditions, and not on the whims of the communist organization. A so-called communist who demands self-determination under all circumstances is no different from one who demands integration or assimilation under all circumstances. Either way, it is a case of dictating to a superexploited and superoppressed people how they are to live -- i.e., a reflection of imperialist and colonialist bourgeois culture.

If a communist organization is going to advocate for some kind of self-determination for African Americans, then it should be advocating for a Black workers' republic as part of a larger, federated American workers' republic, which can fit under the broader slogan of "Black Power through Workers' Power!"

[MuscularTophFan]

Why should people create their own nation simply because of the color of their skin? That's just racism. It's not like there should be a white America, an Asian American, or a Latino America. You shouldn't divide people up because of the color of their skin. It only makes things worse. It's no better than the people who advocated deporting all African American slaves back to Africa.

If you believe that all people are equal you can't be in favor of dividing/segregating countries up based off people's skin color.

[¿Que?]

Why should people create their own nation simply because of the color of their skin? That's just racism. It's not like there should be a white America, an Asian American, or a Latino America. You shouldn't divide people up because of the color of their skin. It only makes things worse. It's no better than the people who advocated deporting all African American slaves back to Africa.

If you believe that all people are equal you can't be in favor of dividing/segregating countries up based off people's skin color.
Not to sound rude, but when people refer to the race question as merely an issue of skin color, it reveals a deep lack of understanding of the actual various factors which play into the social construction of race.

And indeed, it is quite different, since the article is advocating for black self determination. That is, blacks have the right and responsibility to decide their own fate. It's not as simplistic as you describe. Many blacks did support the Back to Africa idea particularly as set forth by people such as Marcus Garvey.

[MuscularTophFan]

Not to sound rude, but when people refer to the race question as merely an issue of skin color, it reveals a deep lack of understanding of the actual various factors which play into the social construction of race.

And indeed, it is quite different, since the article is advocating for black self determination. That is, blacks have the right and responsibility to decide their own fate. It's not as simplistic as you describe. Many blacks did support the Back to Africa idea particularly as set forth by people such as Marcus Garvey.
I never said there wasn't various factors of social construction in race. I went to a high school that was like 50% black. I have a boyfriend who is black. I know all to well the economic and cultural differences between blacks and whites.

The majority of blacks in America do not want any nation state for themselves let along be sent back to Africa. African Americans are not some single hive mind group that all think and have the same opinions. Considering African Americans have the highest standard of living of any black people on earth I don't think they would want to be sent back to Liberia and suffer appealing standards of living.

Morgan Freeman once said why isn't there a white history month. If we carve out a nation state for African Americans there should also be a European American nation state, a Asian American nation state, a Latino American nation state, a Indo-Aryan American nation state, an Arab American nation state, a Jewish American nation state, Native American nation state, etc.

[shinjuku dori]

American black workers want equality in society, not separate treatment. Separate treatment was the basis of Jim Crow law.

Anyway who will lead your imagined black nation? Jessie Jackson? Al Sharpton? Charles Barron?

That's what you will get. Always it has been black petit bourgeois elements who want to separate or go "back to Africa."

Communist revolution will dissolve nations and nationality. So says Marx.

Workers society. Not black society or white society.

[shinjuku dori]

I know all to well the economic and cultural differences between blacks and whites.

What are they. Please tell us.

You have a black president. Your social assistance program ("welfare") goes to more white people than any other race. Majority of poor people in America are white. You have black millionaires and billionaires.

Your kind of liberal "common sense" is a contributing factor to anti-black racist sentiment among white workers who are feeling the effects of the capitalist crisis with everyone else.

It's same as it was with anti-semitism.

Actually, please tell us who is even white and who is black. If the grandfather ten generations back married white woman, that guy is black right? What about albino black guy? Tanned white guy? What makes someone white anyway? All humans came from Africa originally.

European scientists of the past suggested the world was divided into white caucasians and brown mongolians. Nothing else. Italian people were called part of the mongolians.

It's all social. We want to abolish this society. Not adapt its insanity.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Many blacks did support the Back to Africa idea particularly as set forth by people such as Marcus Garvey.

I think we can all agree that the "back to Africa" sentiment is not at all progressive, though. Quite the opposite, it's regressive. Balkanization and "I only want to be exploited by my own kind", while understandable sometimes, is never progressive IMO.

[¿Que?]

I think we can all agree that the "back to Africa" sentiment is not at all progressive, though. Quite the opposite, it's regressive. Balkanization and "I only want to be exploited by my own kind", while understandable sometimes, is never progressive IMO.
I don't necessarily disagree. However, I take issue when people uncritically accept dominant racial discourse as if somehow they pertain to some moral absolute. I used that example because it was directly related to the post I was referencing. A better example would be the distinction between integration and desegregation.