Carmichael And Hamilton: The Colonial Status Of African Americans

Improved Essays
What Carmichael and Hamilton mean when they say African Americans are colonial subjects of white society is that African Americans do not own anything that they have essentially produced through their own labor. They sell their labor to produce a raw material, then buy that raw material regurgitated into a product. Essentially they are working for free and are subject to the institutional racism that is evidently present. Two dimensions of this colonial status are the political and economic areas. Like colonial subjects, African Americans "have their political decisions made for them by the colonial masters", including decisions that affect the African American community itself (Black Power, 7). This in itself makes it easier for the whites …show more content…
The economic dimension of the colonial status of African Americans can be exemplified by the way even though African Americans rarely have institutions- whether it be economic or educational for the sole reason of bettering their economic status, they are subject to the white colonizers large companies that try to "make profit where they can [because] a ghetto, too , offers opportunities for profit" (Black Power, 18). They think that the African American community should be thankful for their 'service ', but all their service is doing is perpetrating dependence, which the colonized are after they are stripped of their power, resources, and humanity. Even if an African American is college educated, or just a high school graduate, they will make less than a white person who has not finished their education. This lack of opportunity is what feeds the system in which even if the African American has done everything 'right ', they are still not valued as much as a white person …show more content…
These factors compare to the demise of the Black Panther Party and other radical African American organizations in the 1960 's and 1970 's in that the "major danger and worst enemy of the urban guerilla is infiltration into the organization by a spy or informer", which led to uneasiness and the destruction of many plans and the arrest of many leaders (Rahman,

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