7 Things Black Civil and Political Organizations Can Do to be More Effective

We tend to beat up on the Black Church for not doing more. Black civil and policital organizations are also at fault. This is why their membership (read: funding) has decreased dramatically and many have opted to support other causes like gay rights and environmental issues because the brothas and sistas see no need to support them based on what they have been doing. They have the platform but often times use it in the wrong way.

1. Recognize that the biggest threat to our advancement is ourselves.

2. Stop blaming The Man in one breath and in the next breath begging for The Man to support your organization.





3. Hold Black men accountable for the lack of safety in our community. Too often, we have coddled criminals in order to keep another black man out of prison, at the detriment of the safety of the rest of the community. Many black men have turned our communities into a war zone and they must be removed or stopped.

4. Hold Black men accountable for the peril of the black family/community and require them to grow the fuck up. Part of being 'head of the household' is not just using your authority to abuse others but recognizing that the buck stops with you. Too many men, or the men as a collective, have shrugged off their responsibilities to the(ir) family. I can hear the brothas already. What about feminism and black women saying 'I don't need no man' for the past several years? Mind you, most black women saw feminism as white men and white women dealing with their own 'family business' or even lesbianism, which most were not feeling. Most black women/people were onlookers. Even the womanist movement never took hold in the black community because we as Black Women have been trained to give Black Men the benefit of the doubt. Point blank.  And if there was any black women saying 'I don't need no man', a sentiment which I believe occured in the 90s is because these same women had watched how black men, for a generation or more, run out (or be escorted out by the police) on their families. It was a coping mechanism more than a full out abandonment of black men or men in general. I truly believe this was more of a response than anything else. It has gotten so bad that Black women don't even expect Black Men to be decent and now are opting to go at it alone.

Interracial marriage is a whole thing unto itself. For 40 years, Black men have 'exercised their options'. Now that Black women are 'excersing their options' the black love campaigns have gone into high gear.  The lie that black women are only attractive to black men is just that...a lie. Our multiple skin tones is the proof that that cannot be correct. Again, sisters are flocking to The Man as a response to being deserted and having their/our loyalties trampled on for far too damn long. The embarrassment that is our community also crosses into how Blacks are protrayed BY BLACK MEN in the music that they make. Black men must recognize this was their doing and its repair will be based on their actions. Also check this out and this too.

4. Be adamant about welfare reform. I have written about this here.

5. Encourage parents to raise their fucking kids. Check this one out. We don't lose valuable teachers because of lack of money, resources, or other things. Good teachers run for the hils because they did not go to college to be a damn referee (or a punching bag).

6. Encourage ownership among the people. We must stop whining about not being invited to someone else's table when we have a forest full of trees in our backyard, and generations of carpenters, electricians, and cooks in the family. Its time to build our own fucking table.

7. Recognize that the biggest threat to our advancement is ourselves.