Why the Concept of a “Black Nation” in America Doesn’t Work

By:  H.T. (@Gees3Howard)

One of the things that just about every pro-black figurehead on social media talks about is the concept of a black nation.  Umar talks about it, Tariq talks about it, Jason talks about it.  But the simple fact is that this is a doomed prospect from the jump.

First, a lot of what it would take to finance this nation is money.  And fact is, for a nation to have an economy, it has to have something to trade with other economies and it has to have capital.  As Gil pointed out, most of these pro-black dudes have no credit and/or shitty credit.  So where are they getting the money to start the industries that will support this black nation?

Second, who’s to say that even if we get the money that this won’t go south?  So now we need a police force to enforce law and order.  This is assuming we’re not still on the whole “cops were slave catchers shit”.  But I’m sure that if the police in this black nation are like the Dr. Umar’s of the world, gay people, women, biracial people and anyone left-leaning will be persecuted literally into the ground.

Which leads to the third point, which is that this nation assumes that politically everyone will “get on code” which in practice sounds at best like extreme authoritarianism, but at worse fascism with a black face, and I’m not talking “black skinhead”.  I mean literally living in a nation that essentially would be violating many human rights laws, would eventually move into violating the Geneva Convention, and once you add the fact that a lot of these pro-black folks who want a black nation also believe there shouldn’t be an age of consent for sex with young girls on the grounds of “Just cause it’s the law don’t make it right.  Slavery was legal too.”, and congrats this nation is now driven into poverty by sanctions.

The biggest reason a black nation doesn’t work is quite literally that this is the dream of black Americans, which sounds like the sad fever dreams of every white American who thinks his people are genetically superior off easily debunkable “facts” about them.  The “black nation” sect of pro-blackness is nothing but a toothless yet highly idealistic movement of black men who have modeled the blueprint for how to build their following off the bigotry and dog whistling of white racists, but defend it by falling back on making black people to be the victims.  But in fact, these leaders prey not so much on racist whites, but on any dissenting views from black people as it gives them a never-ending boogeyman.

I hate the idea of a black nation considering the people leading the idea.  This sounds like every leader who literally had his followers drink the Kool-Aid.  I’ve seen what the idea of joining a group of people to seclude yourself from the injustices of the world looks like, and I assure you, it never ends well.  Jonestown is one example, the Branch Davidians is another.  I mention the issue of potential legalized molestation because of Colonia Dignidad.  And a prime example of the dangers of living by the unchallenged dogma of one man can be seen in Aum Shinrikyo.

My point is simply that no good can come of black people secluding ourselves off from society.  Fact is, integration CAN work, but to simply sit and complain that we didn’t get our 40 acres and a sterile animal speaks less to pro-blackness and more to entitlement.  Yes, black people were slaves, but this whole “the American dream is a lie” shit is the mantra of the defeatist who want to be proud victims.  If YOU want the American dream, you must be prepared to fight, sacrifice and above all know that everyone won’t win.  Again, as Gil said, we’re not a monolith and neither are any of the groups that these so-called leaders compare us to.

Did they have advantages?  Yes, but that doesn’t mean we take our ball and hide in a tree house?  We WORK HARD, and if shit doesn’t work out, you keep at it.  I’ve seen too many successful black people in my family to say white supremacy is that big of a force to prevent black success.