The Criss of the Negro Intellectual

Mainstream White US political leaders have no vested interests of serving Black people. The power structure in America is still deeply entrenched in White supremacy and racism. However, history has taught us that the American power structure will maintain White dominance over Black people, and oppressed people, unless intellectuals and leaders pushes the US to give Black people justice. This was why Black leadership and intellectuals are formed in America’s Black community to fight and struggle with racist intellectuals, White political leaders, and the power structure to force the White ruling class to help the Black community. Black leaders and intellectuals were able to organize masses of Black people to raise up to fight for Black liberation. This battle between yesterday’s White political leaders and White intellectuals and Black leaders and Black intellectuals came to an explosive war in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s called the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. As a result of the principle commitment of Black leaders and Black intellectuals in Afrikan American community, many progressive civil rights laws were forced to be created in the US to protect Black freedoms. Many civil rights legislation were passed as laws on the local, state, and federal levels. In the community, Black leaders and Black intellectuals established Black power cultural programs to rebuild the Afrikan American community broken by the hundreds of years of White cultural domination. Unfortunately, the war for justice in the Black community was far from over in America. Reparations, and many other resources, were not given to Black people to rectify the social and economic disparities created from centuries of White supremacy, racism, slavery, and segregation. However, after a hard fight for some freedom, justice, and equality in the Afrikan American community; Black leaders and Black intellectuals won respect from the masses of Black people because of their principle positions supporting the masses of Black people’s interests against White supremacy and the system of racism in America. But in time, many Black leaders and Black intellectuals began to give up on the Black community. Consequently, some very principled Black leaders and Black intellectuals were forced out of America, assassinated, or imprisoned by the US’ secret racist government F.B.I program called-Cointelpro (Counter Intelligence Program). Black leaders and Black intellectuals that survived America’s racist state policing apparatuses, began to distance themselves from a real Black progressive / Black liberation agenda. They began to now serve their own personal political agendas above the interests of the masses of Black people. Moving forward to the present day America, Black leadership and Black intellectuals are in a serious crisis in 2020. Although we as Black people have produced another generation without legalized slavery and segregation; the remnants of racial discrimination in America’s Black community have left Black people in a permanent state of Black oppression. Despite having had a Black President, and many Black elected officials before him, and after Barack Hussein Obama, we as Black people are not progressing in America as a racial group. There are many reasons for this occurrence to be happening in contemporary Black America. Some folks argue that reparations were not given to remedy the damages Black people experienced under US slavery and segregation. Some folks say a Black agenda has not been taken seriously by America’s elected officials. Some folks say that we as Black people have not been assimilated by whiteness in America. Some folks say we are not embracing Black nationalism seriously to build a true pathway for Black independence, Black empowerment, and Black liberation in America, in Afrika, and in the world. Whatever the case may be, unfortunately, today’s Black leadership and intellectuals appear to be steeped in their own personal political agendas in the American system. These types of Black leaders and Black intellectuals are not alone. In history, we have had some weak Black leaders and Black intellectuals. With the exception of the Nation of Islam’s leader the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, many Black leaders and Black intellectuals are not committed to the total liberation of Black people from White hegemony and from the American system of exploitation in 2020. But according to Herold Cruse’s book, the Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black leaders, some Black leaders and Black intellectuals in history were making a mistake leading our people into mainstream White America without a real Black agenda for Black independence throughout the decades in the twentieth century. In today’s Black community, some of our Black leaders and Black intellectuals are making the same mistake. They, Black leaders and Black intellectuals, are not referencing our history and our culture to created a pathway for our people to seize and control Black power to force the American power structure to give us justice and for us to be an independent people in the new millennium on our own terms. Malcolm X (Omawele El Hajj Malik El Shabazz), the Black nationalist freedom fighter and human rights activist, taught us, “history is best qualified to reward our research.” In other words, to devise a plan Black empowerment and Black liberation, we must study, politics, economics, psychology, sociology, theology, philosophy, American History, world history, Afrikan History, and Afrikan culture. One of the books that will help us understand the ineptitude of today’s Black leadership and Black intellectuals is Herold Cruse’s book-The Crisis of the Negro: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership.

Although published in 1967, the Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A History Analysis of the Failure of Black leadership is still relevant to today. When you read the book, your analysis will grow deeper on why Black leadership and Black Intellectuals are falling the current Afrikan American community.

The forward alone is a serious analysis on Black leadership and Black intellectuals in the 1980s Although written decades after Cruses’ first released copies of his book in 1967, their forward is still speaking to the current crop of Black leaders and Black intellectuals today. Bazel E. Allen and Ernest J. Wilson III from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor political science department writes in January of 1984, “For, unseen at the time, in tandem with the long-sought gains of the Civil Rights Movement there also came a sense of loss of community. This was as true for the black intellectual (indeed, perhaps even more true in some respects) as it was for the community as a whole. Ironically perhaps, but with exactly the kind of irony that Cruse so masterfully dissects for us, as the number of professionally trained black intellectuals has grown, there has been a parallel lessening of a collective sense of common experience, common purpose, and perhaps even common commitment.” In other words, the writers are arguing that Cruse sees a new Black leader and intellectual emerging in America. This type of Black leader and intellectual is disconnected from the masses of Black people due to the lack of a Black liberation movement forcing them to be committed to the Black community.

In summation, please visit your local Black owned book store or go online to purchase-The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership. This classic book is worth reading and studying to help us see the difference between real principle Black leadership and Black intellectuals and unprincipled Black leadership and Black intellectuals.

-Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele is a community activist, a member of the Muslim community in New Jersey, and a member of ASCAC (the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations). He is also a history and Africana Studies (Black Studies ) teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ.

As Salaamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuh (Arabic for May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you)! Hotep (an ancient African Kemetic / Egyptian word for Peace)! P.E.A.C.E. (Proper Education Always Corrects Errors)!

Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Afrika. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January 1.