By Tamara Grove
“In the first half of the 20th-century life for a Black American was vastly different from today. Harlem in the 1920s was a place where many whites, including many white celebrities, frequented. And it was not only for the entertainment places like the Cotton Club and so on, but places where they met with the black elite of that time. Back then, no one worried about being mugged. I was a grocery delivery boy in that area. On Saturday nights, I’d work until midnight, and then I’d walk home. I weighed about 100 pounds soaking wet, yet no one ever bothered me, no policeman ever stopped me. This notion that you have to be afraid of the cops, they’re out to get you, and so forth, there was nothing of that sort.” [1]
HISTORY
The Civil War, a bloody fight against the freedom of the Black man and the Anti-Slavery Republican Party, lodged by the Democratic Party over owning human property, the Negro, had ended…
As the dust settled and the hard-fought emancipation for the Black man in America was solidified, the bold Anti-Slavery Republican Party did not stop in their endeavors they went on to fight for the Civil Rights 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments guaranteeing that regardless of color all men were afforded the opportunity to experience the American Dream. Based on character, personal abilities, and work ethic. A person residing in the United States of America could dare to be anything.
Life in the Black community in the south, still under harsh Democratic control of now former slave owners was not easy. The military had to be sent in to enforce the Reconstruction Era and to ensure that freedom was tangible. The laws had changed, but the hearts of many in the south had not.[2] And yet, despite those extreme difficulties the Black community began to build.
Throughout America Black Americans worked hard to make something of themselves and their families. We had a strong belief in God, men held several jobs to support their families, they were married to their wives, and the mothers thrived in the homes or held jobs of their own, and the children were raised by both parents. We were self-made small business owners, scientists, doctors, nurses, laborers, and dreamers. Black Americans were thriving, we held political offices, we owned universities, and we had pride in our community.
Black history is laden with great men like Benjamin Banneker, born a free Black on a tobacco plantation who was so brilliant he was one of seven chosen to layout the District of Columbia. Richard Allen, born a slave, he led his slave owner to Christ and then purchased his freedom. When all others fled Mr. Allen, stepped in to assist as Philadelphia was under siege due to yellow-fever, he served as a medic side by side Dr. Benjamin Rush.[3] Men of great caliber like, Booker T. Washington, a man who believed that “the best interests of black people in the post-Reconstruction era (1865-1877) could be realized through education in the crafts and industrial skills and the cultivation of the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift.” [4] In a speech in 1895, Washington “called on both African Americans and whites to cast down your bucket where you are and urged the whites to employ the masses of Black laborers…he called on Blacks to cease agitating for political and social rights and to concentrate instead on working to improve their economic conditions.” [5]
The Reconstruction Era ended and the military went home. Once again, the Democratic Party swooped in to ensure that the Black community knew its proper place. Black code laws, Jim Crow, segregation, separate but equal all became familiar terms. The KKK was lynching young Black men and would leave them hanging in the town square for all to see. And yet, the Black man pushed on. In 1913 Democrat Woodrow Wilson, took office his policies were harsh towards the Black community and many of the advances and freedoms we had obtained were stifled and shut down.[6] Not long after the Great Depression hit the nation, and as the economy swayed and dipped the Black family was hit the hardest.[7] The Black community had been fighting to overcome for decades, fighting for freedoms promised by the Civil Rights Amendments, fighting to take our rightful place in whatever area we had put our hands to and now a Great Depression.
To the rescue, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, benefits, entitlements, and welfare for all who wanted it. The tale is the government would knock on the doors of families within the Black community telling them welfare was what they needed to survive. But we were proud and we worked hard for what we had…but the time came and many fell prey to the promise.
By the 1960’s, the Great Depression was a distant memory to many but the Black community still felt the sting, the Southern Democrats had become increasingly angry and vicious with racist hatred. And yet, despite it all the Black community was a solid unit – families were intact,[8] we owned our homes, we worked hard for our money, we were educated, we sat under the ministries of powerful Black preachers, our culture of music and dance was infiltrating the white culture, our streets were safe (when the KKK wasn’t active), we served in the military and we served within our communities. However, as with any depressed group the time came when we as a people had enough, enter in the Civil Rights Movement.
As the city streets filled with protesters, peacefully marching under the helm of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. some, who desired a more radical shift submitted to the leading of Malcolm X and any means necessary. Regardless, of the leader all involved desired a similar fundamental goal – equality. The once bold Republican Party had lost its bite, tethered to a man who was against the civil rights bill, Barry Goldwater. The Black community felt betrayed, they were tired of the struggle and many believed that the New Deal had helped them. Years had gone by and the strong alliance between the Black community and the now silent Republican party was waning. Democrats in government appeared to be assisting like John F Kennedy, Jr who helped activist Martin Luther King, Jr. get released from prison after a protest, right before his presidential election, garnering Black votes.
Despite that we still had strong political activists who spoke out like Malcolm X in his speech “The Ballot or the Bullet,” delivered on April 3, 1964, at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, “you put them (Democrats) first and they put you last, cause you’re a chump, you’re a political chump,”[9] He was assassinated 9 months later in February of 1965. MLK, Jr. was assassinated in 1968.
Amidst the confusion and frustration of the times the former slave owner, the founder of the KKK and black code laws, the party of entitlements and emotional promises became the party of the Black community. Even though the Civil Rights Bill was protested by the Democratic Party and only passed because of the Republican Party, it was a Democrat who signed it into policy…and by 1975 the world of the Black community could only be described as decimated.
“The employment rate of African-American men, defined as the fraction of weeks worked during a calendar year by the typical black male, fell from 73.2% in 1960 to 64.3% in 2000.”[10] In February of 1976, an organization known as the National Urban League, released their first edition of research titled, “The National Urban League’s State of Black America,” a report that the New York Times called “a distress signal and profoundly depressing document.”[11] The report was rife with facts concluding “no recent year has been more destructive to the progress of blacks than 1975…all gains made in the sixties by America’s largest minority group have been decimated…in tangible terms those relating to the demands for equality urged on the nations conscience by its leaders – all gears have been thrown into reverse.”[12]
WHAT HAPPENED
REPUBLICAN PARTY FAILURE
As the Republican Party became silent regarding the GOP beliefs for the plight of the Black man and the Black community, the Democratic Party, once again, stepped back into power. This has caused decades of systematic destruction of the Black community via family breakdowns, institutionalization with the 1994 Crime Bill, drugs, weapons, unfair and unequal educational systems, gentrification, abortion, feminism, and an almost complete shutdown of the Christian church.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY FAILURE
The Democratic Party is the party of former slave owners. In the 1960’s the Democratic Party pushed a narrative that stated the racists democrats switched sides and became Republican. There is no historical evidence to back this belief system as there was no mass exodus within the political realm. However, there was a mass exodus within the Black community that believed the lies of the former slave owners.
The Black community has been voting democrat for decades and as the statics within this research will show again and again since that decision the Black community has not recovered. Our once beautiful Harlem Renaissance and Black Wall Street seem more like figments of the imagination than reality.
The Democrats offer emotionalism as they cry out regarding the injustices of the brutal life their constituents must live, Obama called it “a legacy of slavery.”[13] Once in office they do nothing for the Black community. The solemn warning given my Malcolm X has fallen on deaf ears and the treachery of the Black leadership is now seen as “heroic,” by many poor Black folks within the community.
While the silence of the Republican Party continues, the Democratic Party has put in place brutal laws that criminalize the masses. The Black community is left with the poorest of educations, high taxes with no relief in sight. Families don’t own the land that sits vacant in their streets, due to gentrification the land has been purchased by mostly nonblack owners who are waiting for the perfect moment to sell or build. 79% of planned parenthood clinics have set up shop in Black cities and have successfully slaughtered over 20,000,000 Black children since 1973 that is more deaths than all the wars added together since the revolutionary war.
Even with 8 years of the first Black President, Barack Obama, the Democratic Party has failed the Black community. Year after year and promise after promise there has been little to no delivery. Families now have generations of welfare recipients. There is no family inheritance to pass down, no family businesses, and often no family home or piece of land. In many cases, there isn’t much of a family with young mothers having babies out of wedlock, young men imprisoned or just absent all together. The family unit is a single parent, a grandparent, or a gang. The streets are filled with violence, drugs, death, and hopelessness.
We share in this dysfunction, the Republican silence has allowed the democrats to run amuck as the “liberal-left vision of the world and the policies based on it, both as in regard to law enforcement and welfare,” [14] literally kill the Black community. Sadly, the liberal democrats vision has been accepted within the Black community and the mindset of the victimized Black man who is hopelessly tethered to the brutal years of American slavery has been internalized. Where before we were once physically enslaved we are now emotionally enslaved. Many Black Americans, are once again a community held down by the same party that once owned us as property.
UNDERSTANDING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BATTLE
The American public never want another “civil rights era movement,” nor do they want to be the generation that it is attributed with such atrocities. As stated previously, the Democratic Party uses emotionalism, every issue that will be highly undesirable by the American public they employ, fear conditioning. Fear conditioning was coined by Dr. Josh LeDeoux, (1994), in his research called “Emotion, Memory and the Brain.”[15] Enalls-Fenner (2012), correlated the findings of fear conditioning to the abuse of the democratic party,[16] and the constant reminder of what Obama calls the “legacy of slavery.” They do this by referencing Black civil rights era issues – repeatedly. Using Black civil rights era issues to manipulate the public and fellow congressional legislators is an abuse of power and a gross disrespect of the Black community and our history. Democrats have become quite effective exploiting the public by manipulating a blind submission to their demands.[17] By using Black civil rights era videos to stimulate memories and emotional responses from the public, they can control the publics reaction.
COMMIT TO THE WORK
Nothing changes until we do, the Black community must take a stand against the infiltration of the Democratic party. We can no longer allow poor leadership to remain in power year after year as unmet promises continue to go unmet. VOTE THEM OUT!
Money is not the issue, since 1964, the United States Government has invested between 20 to 30 trillion dollars to fight the “war on poverty.”[18] This really proves that money without a holistic approach to change the mindset of an individual is not going to be enough. I am convinced many people in the Black community suffer from PTSD and other various issues due to the amount of violence, poverty, and alienation that has occurred. The Body of Christ must become involved; not only through intense spiritual warfare but also by going. We can no longer sit along the sidelines and assume that someone else is going to contend with this very real issue. Especially when many of the issues are spiritual in nature.
The Republican Party MUST invest within the inner cities. We are the party of Abe Lincoln it’s time we act like it. Don’t say you want to help but then refuse to go when the opportunity presents itself. It’s time to take back the city streets and ensure ALL Americans have the opportunity to #MAGA.
CONCLUSION
7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. Titus 1:7-9
For years, the Black community has endured loud boisterous leadership who scream of white privilege, systemic and institutionalized racism, police brutality, inequality, and the list goes on. In part, they are correct, all of those things certainly make up the Black experience within the United States as well as the Hispanic experience. Each shrill scream of injustice and shameful finger wag is normally in the direction of the silent politically correct Republican Party.
The problem is, historically, the discrimination comes from the same ones wagging the finger. From 1829 to today – policy after policy has been implemented by the Democratic Party that has negatively impacted the urban community of today. From welfare to minimum wage – abortion to feminism, from NAFTA to DACA – to gentrification and greedy political leadership the Democratic Party has destroyed the urban community.
It’s time to act. With probably the strongest leader the Republican Party has ever had sitting in the White House now is the time for the urban community to finally not only make advances but to be great again! It’s time for small business owners to own shops on busy main streets, for homeowners within the community to mow their lawns, and hang laundry in their backyards, for children to play in the neighborhood without fear, and for local police to patrol the streets by foot playing hop scotch as they walk past the playing children.
It is possible, and to truly make ALL of America great again the urban community must be on the docket of groups to consider. There can be no more kicking the can regarding illegal aliens, or insecure borders, there must be a mammoth move by this administration to jump start the community a shock and awe campaign that builds instead of destroys, not a war, but a real chance – an offering that is legitimate and a promise that is literally kept.
It’s not going to be easy, it requires financial backing as well as political backing that’s not afraid of a fight. Strong leadership will need to be empowered to make promises and keep them, the unfair policies put into place by the former administration will need to be addressed, risks will need to be taken, and people who understand the culture, and the pain experienced will be need to be the ones who are the first responders, so to speak. The Urban Revitalization Coalition can be the boots on the ground, monitoring, assessing, and putting into place the necessary pieces of the puzzle. The dreams of the urban community can no longer be put on the back burner it’s time to make a positive difference.
It truly is time to Make All of America Great Again.
APA Citation:
Enalls-Fenner, T. (2018), Urban Policies to Revitalize Urban America and Restore Urban Pride. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.tamerasgrove.com/blog/2018/7/7/how-the-democrats-destroyed-the-black-communityand-no-one-noticed
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[8] Elder, L (March 13, 2014), “When blacks voted 80 percent Democratic, Malcolm X called them chumps,” accessed January 3, 2018, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/when-blacks-voted-80-percent-democratic-malcolm-x-called-them-chumps/article/2545607
[9] BlackandRight (July 14, 2013), Malcolm X Black Democrats are Chumps, [YouTube Video,] accessed January 3, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgA2rUAY-o
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[11] National Urban League, (2016), “=40 Years: The State of Black America,” accessed on December 31, 2017, http://soba.iamempowered.com/40-years-state-black-america-1976-2016
[12] Reference footnote 11
[13] Fox news (December 13, 2016, [Video] accessed January 3, 2018, http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/12/13/obama-we-have-not-overcome-slavery-jim-crow-racism-trevor-noah-trump-brown-scott
[14] Delmont, M. (March 31, 2016), “When Black voters exited left, what African Americans lost by aligning with the Demoratic Party,” Retrieved January 3, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/exit-left/476190/
[15] LeDoux, J. E. (2002). Emotion, Memory and the Brain. [Article]. Scientific American Special Edition, 12(1), 62-71.
[16] Enalls-Fenner, T., (2012) “How Negative Prediction Fueled by a Biased Media Necessarily Affect Political Outcomes and the Campaigns that Must Manage it,” Unpublished Manuscript, Colorado Technical University
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This article was originally published on Tamara’s Grove in 2018
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