Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael

Day 26 of #BlackHistoryMonth Black Theory:

“Seems to me that the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they’re built upon racism. And the question, then, is how can black people inside of this country move? And then how can white people who say they’re not a part of those institutions begin to move? And how then do we begin to clear away the obstacles that we have in this society, that make us live like human beings? How can we begin to build institutions that will allow people to relate with each other as human beings? This country has never done that, especially around the country of white or black.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom. No man can give anybody his freedom. A man is born free. You may enslave a man after he is born free, and that is in fact what this country does. It enslaves black people after they’re born, so that the only acts that white people can do is to stop denying black people their freedom; that is, they must stop denying freedom. They never give it to anyone. Now we want to take that to its logical extension, so that we could understand, then, what its relevancy would be in terms of new civil rights bills. I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people. For example, I am black. I know that. I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn’t know that. Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me. So some boys had to write a bill to tell that white man, “He’s a human being; don’t stop him.” That bill was for that white man, not for me. I knew it all the time. I knew it all the time. I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived. So somebody had to write a bill for white people to tell them, “When a black man comes to vote, don’t bother him.” That bill, again, was for white people, not for black people. So that when you talk about open occupancy, I know I can live anyplace I want to live. It is white people across this country who are incapable of allowing me to live where I want to live. You need a civil rights bill, not me. I know I can live where I want to live. So that the failures to pass a civil rights bill isn’t because of Black Power, isn’t because of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; it’s not because of the rebellions that are occurring in the major cities. It is incapability of whites to deal with their own problems inside their own communities. That is the problem of the failure of the civil rights bill. And so in a larger sense we must then ask, how is it that black people move? And what do we do? But the question in a greater sense is, how can white people who are the majority–and who are responsible for making democracy work–make it work? They have miserably failed to this point. They have never made democracy work, be it inside the United States, Vietnam, South Africa, Philippines, South America, Puerto Rico. Wherever America has been, she has not been able to make democracy work. So that in a larger sense, we not only condemn the country for what it’s done internally, but we must condemn it for what it does externally. (applause) We see this country trying to rule the world, and someone must stand up and start articulating that this country is not God, and cannot rule the world.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“The question then is, how can white people move to start making the major institutions that they have in this country function the way it is supposed to function? That is the real question. And can white people move inside their own community and start tearing down racism where in fact it does exist? Where it exists. It is you who live in Cicero and stop us from living there. It is white people who stop us from moving into Grenada. It is white people who make sure that we live in the ghettos of this country. It is white institutions that do that. They must change. In order…in order for America to really live on a basic principle of human relationships, a new society must be born. Racism must die, and the economic exploitation of this country of non-white peoples around the world must also die, must also die.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“Now there are several programs that we have in the South, most in poor white communities. We’re trying to organize poor whites on a base where they can begin to move around the question of economic exploitation and political disfranchisement. We know, we’ve heard the theory several times, but few people are willing to go into there. The question is, can the white activist not try to be a Pepsi generation who comes alive in the black community, but can he be a man who’s willing to move into the white community and start organizing where the organization is needed? (applause) Can he do that? (applause) The question is, can the white society or the white activist disassociate himself with two clowns who waste time parrying with each other rather than talking about the problems that are facing people in this state? Can you disassociate yourself with those clowns and start to build new institutions that will eliminate all idiots like them. And the question is, if we are going to do that when and where do we start, and how do we start? We maintain that we must start doing that inside the white community. Our own personal position politically is that we don’t think the Democratic Party represents the needs of black people. We know it don’t. And that if, in fact, white people really believe that, the question is, if they’re going to move inside that structure, how are they going to organize around a concept of whiteness based on true brotherhood and based on stopping exploitation, economic exploitation, so that there will be a coalition base for black people to hook up with? You cannot form a coalition based on national sentiment. That is not a coalition. If you need a coalition to redress itself to real changes in this country, white people must start building those institutions inside the white community. And that is the real question, I think, facing the white activists today. Can they, in fact, begin to move into and tear down the institutions which have put us all in a trick bag that we’ve been into for the last hundred years? I don’t think that we should follow what many people say that we should fight to be leaders of tomorrow. Frederick Douglass said that the youth should fight to be leaders today. And God knows we need to be leaders today, ’cause the men who run this country are sick, are sick. So that can we on a larger sense begin now, today, to start building those institutions and to fight to articulate our position, to fight to be able to control our universities–we need to be able to do that–and to fight to control the basic institutions which perpetuate racism by destroying them and building new ones? That’s the real question that face us today, and it is a dilemma because most of us do not know how to work, and that the excuse that most white activists find is to run into the black community. Now we maintain that we cannot have white people working in the black community, and we mean it on a psychological ground. The fact is that all black people often question whether or not they are equal to whites, because every time they start to do something, white people are around showing them how to do it. If we are going to eliminate that for the generation that comes after us, then black people must be seen in positions of power, doing and articulating for themselves, for themselves.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“And the question is, what can we do to stop that war? What can we do to stop the people who, in the name of our country, are killing babies, women, and children? What can we do to stop that? And I maintain that we do not have the power in our hands to change that institution, to begin to recreate it, so that they learn to leave the Vietnamese people alone, and that the only power we have is the power to say, “Hell no!” to the draft. We have to say. (applause) We have to say to ourselves that there is a higher law than the law of a racist named McNamara. There is a higher law than the law of a fool named Rusk. And there’s a higher law than the law of a buffoon named Johnson. It’s the law of each of us. (applause, cheers) It’s the law of each of us. (applause) It is the law… It is the law of each of us saying that we will not allow them to make us hired killers. We will stand pat. We will not kill anybody that they say kill. And if we decide to kill, we’re going to decide who we gonna kill. (applause) And this country will only be able to stop the war in Vietnam when the young men who are made to fight it begin to say, “Hell, no, we ain’t going.”” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“So that we have to use our bodies and our minds in the only way that we see fit. We must begin like the like the philosopher Camus to come alive by saying “No!” That is the only act in which we begin to come alive, and we have to say “No!” to many, many things in this country. This country is a nation of thieves. It has stole everything it has, beginning with black people, beginning with black people. (applause) And that the question is, how can we move to start changing this country from what it is, a nation of thieves. This country cannot justify any longer its existence. We have become the policemen of the world. The marines are at our disposal to always bring democracy, and if the Vietnamese don’t want democracy, well dammit, “We’ll just wipe them the hell out, ’cause they don’t deserve to live if they won’t have our way of life.”” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“And that it is nonsensical for people to start talking about human relationships until they’re willing to build new institutions. Black people are economically insecure. White liberals are economically secure. Can you begin to build an economic coalition? Are the liberals willing to share their salaries with the economically insecure black people they so much love? Then if you’re not, are you willing to start building new institutions that will provide economic security for black people? That’s the question we want to deal with. That’s the question we want to deal with.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“We must begin to think politically and see if we can have the power to impose and keep the moral values that we hold high. We must question the values of this society, and I maintain that black people are the best people to do that because we have been excluded from that society. And the question is, we ought to think whether or not we want to become a part of that society. That’s what we want to do.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“How do we raise the questions of poverty? The assumptions of this country is that if someone is poor, they are poor because of their own individual blight, or they weren’t born on the right side of town; they had too many children; they went in the army too early; or their father was a drunk, or they didn’t care about school, or they made a mistake. That’s a lot of nonsense. Poverty is well calculated in this country. It is well calculated, and the reason why the poverty program won’t work is because the calculators of poverty are administering it. That’s why it won’t work.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“We must move into the white community. We are in the black community. We have developed a movement in the black community. The challenge is that the white activist has failed miserably to develop the movement inside of his community. And the question is, can we find white people who are going to have the courage to go into white communities and start organizing them? Can we find them? Are they here and are they willing to do that? Those are the questions that we must raise for the white activist. And we’re never going to get caught up in questions about power. This country knows what power is. It knows it very well. And it knows what Black Power is ’cause it deprived black people of it for four hundred years. So it knows what Black Power is.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“Now the question is, how is the white community going to begin to allow for that organizing, because once they start to do that, they will also allow for the organizing that they want to do inside their community. It doesn’t make a difference, ’cause we’re going to organize our way anyway. We’re goin’ to do it….And the question is, how are white people who call themselves activists ready to start move into the white communities on two counts: on building new political institutions to destroy the old ones that we have, and to move around the concept of white youth refusing to go into the army? So that we can start, then, to build a new world. It is ironic to talk about civilization in this country. This country is uncivilized. It needs to be civilized. It needs to be civilized. And that we must begin to raise those questions of civilization: What it is? And who do it? And so we must urge you to fight now to be the leaders of today, not tomorrow. We’ve got to be the leaders of today. This country, this country is a nation of thieves. It stands on the brink of becoming a nation of murderers. We must stop it. We must stop it. We must stop it. We must stop it. And then, therefore, in a larger sense there’s the question of black people. We are on the move for our liberation. We have been tired of trying to prove things to white people. We are tired of trying to explain to white people that we’re not going to hurt them. We are concerned with getting the things we want, the things that we have to have to be able to function. The question is, can white people allow for that in this country? The question is, will white people overcome their racism and allow for that to happen in this country? If that does not happen, brothers and sisters, we have no choice but to say very clearly, “Move over, or we goin’ to move on over you.” Thank you.” Speech at UC Berkley, 1966

“Racism is both overt and covert. It takes two, closely related forms: individual whites acting against individual blacks, and acts by the total white community against the black community. We call these individual racism and institutional racism. The first consists of overt acts by individuals, which cause death, injury or the violent destruction of property. This type can be recorded by television cameras; it can frequently be observed in the process of commission. The second type is less overt, far more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts. But it is no less destructive of human life. The second type originates in the operation of established and respected forces in the society, and thus receives far less public condemnation than the first type. When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society. But when in that same city - Birmingham, Alabama - five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of proper food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of institutional racism. When a black family moves into a home in a white neighborhood and is stoned, burned or routed out, they are victims of an overt act of individual racism which many people will condemn - at least in words. But it is institutional racism that keeps black people locked in dilapidated slum tenements, subject to the daily prey of exploitative slumlords, merchants, loan sharks and discriminatory real estate agents. The society either pretends it does not know of this latter situation, or is in fact incapable of doing anything meaningful about it.” Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

White liberals are always saying, "What can we do?” I mean, they’re always coming to help black people. I thought of an analogy. If you were walking down the street and a man had a gun on another man – let’s say both of them were white – and you had to help somebody, whom would you help? It’s obvious to me that if I were walking down the street, and a man had a gun on another man, and I was going to help, I’d help the man who didn’t have the gun, if the man who had the fun was just pulling the gun on the other man for no apparent reason – if he was just going to rob him or shoot him because he didn’t like him. The only way I could help is either to get a gun and shoot the man with the gun, or take the gun away from him – join the fellow who doesn’t have a gun and both of us gang up on the man with the gun. But white liberals never do that. When the man has the gun, they walk around him and they come to the victim, and they say “Let me help you,” and what they mean is “help you adjust to the situation with the man who has the gun on you." If indeed white liberals are going to help, their only job is to get the gun from the man and talk to him, because he is a sick man. The black man is not the sick man, it is the white man who is sick, he’s the one who picked up the gun.” Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism

“Reorientation means an emphasis on the dignity of man, not on the sanctity of property. It means the creation of a society where human misery and poverty are repugnant to that society, not an indication of laziness or lack of initiative. The creation of new values means the establishment of a society based on free people, not free enterprise.” Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

“In struggle one not only fights against something--injustice, oppression--but one must struggle for something equally real but positive. That's the other part of the equation.” Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael

“We need an ideology. An ideology that represents our communal interest. We need an ideology. In order for an ideology to be valid it must be, number one, scientific, number two, be consistent, number three, it must be based on the correct interpretation of history and, number four, if it is to be a revolutionary ideology, it must be based on the philosophy of dialectics.” From Black Power to Pan-Africanism, Whittier College, 1971

“We must find a system which is diametrically opposed to the system under which we live. We have to do that. We must find that system because the major preoccupation of a revolutionary--you must understand--is building and creating. The major preoccupation of a revolutionary is building and creating. He must destroy in order to build and create because the system that the revolutionary opposes must be diametrically opposed--diametrically opposed--to the system that the masses of people are living under. But his major preoccupation is with building and creating. Building and creating that new system. Not destruction. Destruction is an inevitable consequence of his building. Destruction is an inevitable consequence of his building. It is not the other way round. The building and creating is not an inevitable consequence of his destroying. We live in a capitalist society. The capitalist society must be destroyed if we are to oppose a system that is diametrically opposed to capitalism. But our major preoccupation is not destroying capitalism. Our major preoccupation is with creating the type of system that will be diametrically opposed to capitalism. In order to do that we must destroy capitalism.” From Black Power to Pan-Africanism, Whittier College, 1971

“When you see people call themselves revolutionary always talking about destroying, destroying, destroying, but never talking about building or creating, they're not revolutionary. They do not understand the first thing about revolution. It's creating. A revolutionary must present a viable alternative to the masses. He must do that. And he must explain his concepts and explain his system to the masses. Explain and educate them why he thinks it is viable and why it can succeed and why they must be not only willing to die but be willing to kill to bring about the system that the revolutionary is advocating.” From Black Power to Pan-Africanism, Whittier College, 1971

“We say we're the victims of capitalism. We are the victims of capitalism because we are forced to sell our labor to the capitalist. We are forced to sell our labor to the capitalist. Thus, we are wage earners. We are wage earners. As we sell our work, the capitalists pay us a wage. A daily wage. A weekly wage. A monthly wage. But the wage is never enough for us to accumulate wealth. Off of our profits--that is our labor….All of us are the victims of capitalism. Even if you own two cars and a house and a television, you are constantly working, working, working. Paying insurance bills, paying that bill, paying that bill, your wife is working with you, everybody is working, working, working. Selling your labor and someone reaps the profit of your labor. That's why we've got to destroy capitalism. That's why we must destroy it. We are the victims of capitalism. We must pose a system which is diametrically opposed to capitalism. It must be so diametrically opposed that none of the characteristics of a decadent capitalist system will be found in our system. They must be diametrically opposed and they must be fighting to occupy the same space at the same time. Thus, one will win, one will die.” From Black Power to Pan-Africanism, Whittier College, 1971

“Our ancestors, being very intelligent people, knew that there could never be such a thing as private property. Nobody came with land, nobody was going to take any when they left, so how could they own the land. It was there for everybody. Thus, the land belonged to the community. The land belonged to the community. The community worked the land and the profits from the land was divided equally amongst the community. A communalistic society. Today, we must take the guidelines of communalistic society and bring them up to our modern day society. We must take the guidelines of communalistic society and bring them up to our modern day society. Our communalistic society was an agricultural society. Today, we have industrialization. Thus, we must bring forth all of these guidelines and introduce industrialization into our community. That would be known as scientific socialism. Because the basic guidelines of the communalistic society is in fact what is referred to as scientific socialism. Scientific socialism is diametrically opposed to capitalism. Diametrically opposed. Simply because in a capitalist society a few people own and control the means of production and use the profit for their own selves. In a socialist society, the means of production is owned and controlled by the masses of people and the profits are divided equally among the masses. Thus, our system must be a system based on our communalistic past brought up to our modern history with industrialization. Scientific socialism.” From Black Power to Pan-Africanism, Whittier College, 1971

“But in order to do that we must have one mind. We must see ourselves as one people working for the same objectives, working for the same system, willing to kill. Willing to kill. To bring about our system. We must understand the necessity to kill. We must understand the necessity to kill. And the only thing that can give you the necessity to kill is a clear, political ideology. A clear, political ideology.” From Black Power to Pan-Africanism, Whittier College, 1971

“In any revolutionary movement, students played the role of the revolutionary intelligentsia. Your job is to analyze the problems that face our people, criticize the proposed solutions, argue and debate and discuss them, and then give them back to the masses. That is your job. You cannot do that if you're not reading. You cannot do that if you're rapping. And you cannot do that if you're listening and being directed by misguided people who do not even understand the words they use. But you are students. You are here in school to study. Thus, while you are studying, if someone is using a word that they don't know, you should be able to tell them. There are no such thing as black capitalists. You should be able to tell them when you curse out the black bourgeoisie and you make an alliance with the white bourgeoisie you are racist. You should tell them that. You should tell them that if they call themselves Marxist-Leninist and they make alliances with the white bourgeoisie they are unorthodox. They are unholy alliances because the masses and the [xx] proletariat can never make an alliance with the bourgeoisie to destroy the system. The bourgeoisie will fight to uphold the system. His interests are at stake. The interests of the bourgeoisie are diametrically opposed to the interests of the [xx] proletariat. Diametrically opposed. Thus it's impossible for them to make an alliance. You are students, you must know these things. You are students, you must be studying these things. Your people need you. Your people need you. They need your analytical mind. I beg you, I plead with you, please, for your people, study and work for us.” From Black Power to Pan-Africanism, Whittier College, 1971

“Now I was telling you that in our analysis we don't make the errors that others do. Any time you make an analysis of an oppressed people in any aspect of their life and you leave out the enemy you will never come to a correct analysis: on the contrary, you will blame the oppressed for all of their problems. As we've told you from the very beginning, we've never taken the line of others that "the biggest problem that we have is ourselves". No! Our biggest problem is our enemy, capitalism, and it must be destroyed. We said any analysis you make of an oppressed people must include the oppressor, otherwise you will come up with an incorrect analysis blaming the oppressed for their position of oppression.” Speech

Links:

Speeches -

UC Berkley, 1966

https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/carmichael-black-power-speech-text/

https://www.instagram.com/whatradicalizedyou/p/CaC9Kq9LEi9/?img_index=1

https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/scarmichael-2.html

https://aaprp-intl.org/kwame-ture-speeches-and-interviews/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiy_ViFcTNw

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1966-stokely-carmichael-black-power/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Yk3VJnA_Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwvebcaCVzk

https://texasarchive.org/2018_04595