The Black Agenda

As a nation there have been many cries about the "Black Agenda", but really what is the Black Agenda? For some it means many different things, but to the average person the black agenda is a political platform that look to improve the lives of blacks throughtout the country that live in impoverished portions of the country. It's not just an economic situation, but an educational, political, religious one as well. According to Dr Cornell West "Dr. West said. “The black agenda, at its best, looks at America from the vantage point of the least of thee and asks what’s best for all.” However in my opinion I think that Dr Ron Walters, who is the Professor Emeritus of the University of Maryland said it best: "There never has been a time when Black folks in America did not have an agenda, from when we tried to avoid captivity in Africa to be sent here, to when we were in the holes of slave ships, or on plantations planning ways to survive and to escape, or those of us today still trying to obtain the promised vestiges of freedom and equality."

So why is this same agenda, which has been here for over 400 years practically the topic of every conversation? In my opinion alot of it has to do with it President Barack Obama. For some reason most of us think or feel that now that we have a black President that he is going to right all the wrongs and injustices that have ever been committed against black people. We think that his job is to disregard all the other people in this country and focus soley on whatever issue that related to black only. Are people in the black communty wrong for thinking like that, much less saying it? Are these feelings realistic? Depending on who you ask you may get many different answers, but the know that the black agenda is nothing new. Whether it was Stokely Carmichael, Dr, King, Malcom X, Huey P Newton, people have been addressing the black agenda for the longest.

The irony is not lost upon the fact the United States of have the first Black President in history. No, but since he is the first, race which has always been an issue is now at the forefront of every discussion, political debate, every bill, law, and every dinner table in the country. See, what alot of us in this community have figured out is the "American" agenda is not necessarily the black agenda. There are instituions that have been in place for centuries that are diametrically oppossed to the black agenda, however fall in line with the "American Agenda. Now as far as living in this country we are known as "American" however according to Dr Walters what gives our agenda "blackness is  when we consider the way in which our history has defined us - shaped the differences in our attitudes, our socio-economic status, our culture, our geography of living and etc. So, while we might want and need WHAT other Americans want and need generally, it is HOW we want them specifically that matters most. That is what makes our Agenda fit our unique wants and needs."

Yes there are needs that every group within this country have that are specific to them, however this black agenda thing kind of reminds me of something that Malcolm X said. "How can we fight for civil rights, when we don't have the most basic of human rights?" We still live in a country that ignores the plight of people of color. That disregards the needs of those who fall on and under the so-called poverty line. So the agenda that were talking about now to me, is the same thing we've been fighting for all this time. So why do we expect things to be different?