The Passivity effect
On Saturday December 9th, 2017 President Donald Trump visited the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. In a move to score political points, President Trump was given a private tour of the museum and in a speech, described the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a "man who I've studied and watched and admired for my entire life". This is ironic because everything Trump has done since he's been in office has been contradictory of everything Dr. King stood for. Whether it's attempting to ban immigrants from majority Muslim countries, or even allowing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to implement B.I.E (Black Identity Extremists), Trump has only left destruction in his wake. We knew what we were getting when Trump was elected. The fault comes from Black American "leadership" as well as naive Black Americans who did not care and were satisfied with Barack Obama being the first Black president.
Although legendary Civil Rights legends such as John Lewis did not attend the opening of the museum, which is justified, you have members of organizations such as the NAACP saying that it is not up to Trump to "tell us what Civil Rights means in Mississippi". I agree with this statement, but where were these same civil rights leaders and other Black officials in positions of influence when Trayvon Martin was killed? What about Mike Brown, Eric Garner, etc. ? They were nowhere to be found and chose to remain silent. Instead, we expected former President Obama to do something about these unlawful killings, and when he did not, most Black people did not want to hold him accountable. Those that did were publicly or privately shamed. This passiveness led to the rise of Trump, and an administration that is racist, sexist, and does not care about unity. We set the stage for this because Black officials as well as average Black Americans thought the election of Obama would usher in a progressive era of racial tolerance, which turned out not to be true. By the end, most of us came to our senses and realized that we did not demand from Obama the same thing we demanded from previous presidents, which was that Black Americans in the United States are not mistreated and have the same benefits that all other groups have. This has not been accomplished and we expect Trump to do something about it. That will not happen because Trump was not put in office for the betterment of Black people. Instead of worrying about his political views, and him visiting civil rights museums, we must regroup and brainstorm new strategies to empower ourselves.
Ultimately, these Black officials along with groups such as the NAACP are not there for the benefit of Black people because they are controlled by the same racially biased system we are fighting against. Empowerment must come from a grassroots level and waiting for the next black martyr to come save us will not do any good. We must be proactive rather than reactive since our survival depends on it, and realize that empowerment is not a spectator sport. In order for it to be successful we must all partake in it.