Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson

Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson

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Economics and Afrikan Nationalism,

Dr. Amos N. Wilson

Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political, and Economic Imperative for the

Twenty-First Century

Blueprint for Black Power details a master plan for the power revolution necessary for Black survival in the 21st century. Blueprints posit that an African American/Caribbean/ Pan-African bloc would be most potent for the generation and delivery of Black power in the United States and the World to counter White and Asian power networks. Wilson frames this imperative by deconstructing the U.S. elite power structure of government, political parties, think tanks, corporations, foundations, media, interest groups, banking and foreign investment particulars. Potentially strong Black institutions such as the church, media and think tanks; industry; collectives such as investment clubs and credit unions; rotating credit associations such as Afrikan-originated esusu, tontine and partner are analyzed. Pan-Afrikanism, Black Nationalism, ethnocentrism and reparation are assessed, often misused and underused financial institutions such as securities, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, underwriting, and incubators are advocated, thus elucidating oft-negated opportunities for economic empowerment.

Extracts from Chapter 1| WHAT IS POWER

"The oppressed and downtrodden, having been traumatized by the abuse of power by

their powerful oppressors, often comes to perceive power itself as inherently evil, as by

nature corrupting and therefore as something to be eschewed, denied and renounced.

The pursuit of power is viewed as unworthy of virtuous persons, and the desire to

possess it as sinful. Therefore, many among the powerless and poor feel compelled to

find in their powerlessness and poverty the emblematic signs of their Godliness and

redemptive salvation. How convenient a precept for rationalizing and maintaining the

power of the haves over the have-nots! As the result of their ideological manipulation by

the powerful and their own reactionary misperception of reality, the poor and powerless


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have been made to perceive the pursuit, possession and application of power in their

own behalf as unbecoming to themselves. This is even more the case when through

their naïve acceptance of the self-serving deceptive propaganda perpetrated by the

powers-that-be, their own reactionary self-negation, and their nursing of their internalized

inferiority complexes, the poor huddled masses perceive the possession and exercise

of power as the inherent and exclusive prerogative of the ruling classes or races." "To a

significant degree Afrikan Americans accept and obey predominant White American power

and its authorities (at least from social-psychological standpoint) because they agree with

the rules of their establishment and expression as defined by White Americans; share

with White Americans the moral, legal, and other values and perspectives which justify

them; and to some extent (limited and of recent origin) because they, i.e., Blacks, have

been permitted by White Americans to participate in political and social processes by

which White power is given legitimacy. To a limited degree, Afrikan Americans have

been permitted access to certain positions of competent and legitimate authority. These

factors contribute mightily to their acceptance of White American power (domination) and

the White American monopoly of positions of authority as legitimate. These forms of

giving consent to the social power status quo on the part of Blacks help to obscure as

well as deny the fact that they are in fact a dominated and severely exploited group

(regardless of class); and helps to obscure the fact that their uncritical acceptance of the

'rules,' moral beliefs, perspectives, and their customary-traditional participation in the

'American (White) political-economic process and system is tantamount to the legitimating

of their own oppression and to the consensual insurance of their own powerlessness.

Rules, beliefs and consent are manufactured by those in power to justify, legitimate and

serve their interests. In its origins White American power was not legitimated (i.e.,

voluntarily or contractually consented to, morally justified or politically-socially ratified) by

Afrikan Americans who at the time of its origination were held in captivity (slavery) and

to this point in time have been largely excluded from significantly participating in American

legitimating processes. From the historical point of view of Native and Afrikan

Americans, White power, in whatever form, is illegitimate. This is because such power

rests essentially on the near physical and genocidal decimation of Native Americans,

the theft of their


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properties, on the exploitation or forced labor (enslavement) of Afrikans, and on the

systematic exclusion by Whites of both Black and Native Americans from the influential

exercise of practically all forms of 'legitimate' power and authority in the United States.

The rules and beliefs which provide the means for legitimating White power were in fact

pre-established, preordained and imposed on Blacks against their will by Whites from

the beginning. The illegitimacy of White American power is founded on the illegitimacy

of its original sins--genocide, theft of property, and enslavement." "For social power to

be exercised effectively the power holder must possess or control some important or

valued material and/or social resource(s) which is the basis of his power. By

strategically rewarding or depriving others of these resources, he may use them to

influence behavior in ways compatible with his interests. Resources when used for such

ends are referred to as power bases or resources. Power bases or resources may

include physical safety, health and well-being, wealth and material possessions; jobs

and means to a livelihood; knowledge and social skills; social recognition, status and

prestige; love, affection, social acceptability; a satisfactory self-image and self-respect…

We have no intentions to review the quite sizable number of possible power bases here.

We shall constrain ourselves to brief, but pertinent, discussions of those power

resources which are of important relevance to Afrikan Americans and the power relations

between them and European Americans. These power resources include property,

organization, race consciousness and ideology. We do not include state politics in our

discussion at this juncture because in the context of contemporary Afrikan American

social, political and economic culture and the more basic issues it must resolve,

state politics is of secondary importance to the Black community. Black politics and

activism without the Black ownership of and control over primary forms and bases of

power such as property, wealth, organization, etc., is the recipe for Black political and

non-political powerlessness.

The rather obtuse pursuit of political office and the ballot box as primary sources of

power by the Black community and its politicians without its concomitant ownership of

and control over important resources has actually hindered the development of real

Black power in America. More ominously, there appears to be a paradoxical and positive

correlation between the number of Blacks elected and appointed to high office


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and retrogressions in the civil and human rights extended to Black Americans during the

past twenty years. Increases in homelessness, poverty, unemployment, criminality and

violence in the Black community; disorganization of the traditional Black family,

inadequacies in education, increases in health problems of all types, and a host of other

social and political ills have all attended increases in the number of Black elected and

appointed officials. That is, the more elected and appointed Black politicians, the more

social, economic problems the Black community has suffered. While we are not implying

a causal relationship between the increase of the number of Black appointed and

elected officials and the increased misery indices of the Black community, we are

implying or asserting that their increase obscures those things which are responsible for

and do little to ameliorate or uproot the increasing prevalence of social and economic

problems in the Black community. The community's concern with the election and

appointment of Black political figures helps it to maintain false hopes that their

attainment of office will significantly resolve its problems. The activities of Black

politicians, given the current inadequacy of social organization and economic resources,

harmfully distract the Black community's attention from recognizing and eradicating the

true causes of its problems and the remediation of its powerlessness." "The

responsibility of the Afrikan American community is to ensure Afrika's economic

development. The ignoring of Afrika by the Western nations provide windows of

opportunity open to native Afrikans to drastically reduce the massive outflow or flight of

capital, which has been estimated to exceed 80 percent of the Gross Domestic Product,

and to reinvest it in their own countries. Afrikan peoples and nations across the Diaspora

must apprise themselves of a full, ongoing knowledge of the social, economic and

cultural history of Afrikan nations as well as their contemporary status and reorganize

their sociocultural and economic structures so as to initiate and fuel continental Afrika's

growth and development. The Afrikan American community, especially, should vastly

overhaul and reconstruct its educational orientation toward knowledge of the

Motherland. It must realize that its own economic salvation is coterminous with or tied

to that of Afrika's. It must invest money and human resources in Afrika's development

and perceive its economic prosperity as its special responsibility and mission. The

Afrikan American community must become vigilantly and jealously


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interested in U.S. and European policies toward Afrika and seek to influence those

policies in both its own and Afrika's favor."

DR. AMOS WILSON NATIONHOOD QUOTES

No Black person has ever been taught to think

like ―White Folks‖. If you thought like Whites, you

would want your own nations, to control your own

neighborhoods, to control your own economy, to

have your own military, to control the resources

in your own ground. Blacks come out of these

schools and universities to be highly educated

servants, slaves not in control of their own

destiny. You would want to remove them from

power. Knowledge must be wielded to a sense of

purpose, people-hood and destiny. Then it

becomes protective of your survival as a people.

It is measured by how it protects your survival as

a people, nationhood. Change your mind, your consciousness and change your

circumstances. See your consciousness in terms of its Afrikaness, its life enhancing

benefits, its consequences for your survival and goals as a people, measured in terms

of its characteristics, what it must acquire. You must have certain intentions to do this.

These intentionalities are the intent to be truly free, truly self-determining, to create

prosperity for yourself and people, to be able to protect your interests by any means

necessary, to stop depending on white folk for your life, job and well-being. Your mind

will generate what you need when you give it a goal or purpose. If you want to develop

an Afrikan-centered curriculum, start by asking ―What problems must we solve as an

Afrikan people? Our problems include the problem of being dominated, not controlling

our nations, being poor in the midst of affluence. What goals do we want to reach?

What quality of life do we want to enjoy? What kind of people must we become in order

to solve the problems that we must solve as a people? What kind of attitudes,


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relationships toward ourselves, one another, and Europeans/Asians/Arabs? What

institutions must we develop so that we can act in terms of our interests? What kind of

social and educational experiences must we expose ourselves and young to become

the kind of people we need to become to solve the problems we need to solve? Unless

education, politics and economics are designed to solve our problems as a people they

are pointless. What kind of education and knowledge and information and skills and so

forth must we develop so that we can build the institutions, develop the relationships,

attitudes to be the people we need to be? Then work from there to look at your

developmental psychology. In what ways do we grow and develop? At what point are

we most ready to undergo particular kinds of experiences, so that we can match those

experiences, with the developmental readiness of ourselves so we can maximize the

kind of growth we need? We are only free in this country to do the wrong things. We say

freedom is being able to do what we want to do-but ask yourself- What makes you want

to do a thing? Your wants and desires have been induced. What we want and desire

maintain the system of domination and destroy us as a people. Our problems, behavior

etc. have a political and economic function. We are ―alienated‖ so we can serve aliens.

Our alienated psychology shows that we are controlled from outside. This state of

alienation is functional for European/Asian/Arab power. Equality. Equality with whom?

With enslavers and exploiters. Or do we want a new social system different from the

current one. This is a moral issue and should have been debated and deliberated by the

Black community. The ―Civil Rights Movement‖ [NAACP, CORE, etc.] was founded on

faulty moral premise of ―Equality of opportunity and results. You must know who and

what you are as a people. Question all that you have accepted as right and true. Your

time given to certain tasks in your curriculum is determined by your culture and history.

If you say you suffer from low self-esteem, etc. then give time to that in the curriculum.

Failure to do this causes Black children to be destroyed by the time system in these

schools and universities, which are set up to deal with the problems of

Whites/Asians/Arabs.

Familiarly referred to as Brother Amos, he provided the average person with an acute

analysis of where we are and the things that affect us. He served as a council to

energize our race and those in positions of influence as to how to carry out their


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leadership responsibilities. Dr. Wilson's activities transcended academia into the fields

of business, owning and operating various enterprises in the greater New York area.

"When we get into social amnesia - into forgetting our history - we also forget or misinterpret the

history and motives of others as well as our motives. The way to learn

of our own creation, how we came to be what we are, is getting to

know ourselves. It is through getting to know the self intimately that

we get to know the forces that shaped us as a self. Therefore knowing

the self becomes knowledge of the world. A deep study of Black

History is the most profound way to learn about the psychology of

Europeans and to understand the psychology that flows from their

history. If we don't know ourselves, not only are we a puzzle to

ourselves; other people are also a puzzle to us as well. We assume

the wrong identity and identify ourselves with our enemies. If we don’t

know who we are then we are whomever somebody tells us we are.

"The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness," Afrikan World InfoSystems, New York, 1993 p. 38

This book presents two groundbreaking lectures by Amos Wilson. The first, European

Historiography and Oppression Exposed: An Afrikan Perspective and Analysis, was

among the first contemporary analyses which delineated the role Eurocentric history

writing plays in rationalizing European oppression of Afrikan consciousness. It

explicates why we should study history, how history-writing shapes the psychology of

peoples and individuals, how Eurocentric history as mythology creates historical

amnesia in Afrikans in order to rob us of the material, mental, social and spiritual

wherewithal for overcoming poverty and oppression. Moreover, these engrossing

lectures provide information on the relationship between the rediscovery and rewriting of

Afrikan history and achievement of liberation and prosperity by Afrikan peoples. The

second lecture, Eurocentric Political Dogmatism: Its Relationship to the Mental Health

Diagnosis of Afrikan People advances the contention that the alleged mental and

behavioral maldaptiveness of oppressed Afrikan peoples is a political-economic


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necessity for the maintenance of White domination and imperialism. Furthermore, it

indicts the Eurocentric mental health establishment for entering into collusion with the

Eurocentric political establishment to oppress and exploit Afrikan peoples by officially

sanctioning these egregious practices through its misdiagnosing, mislabeling, and

mistreating of Afrikan peoples’ behavioral reactions to our oppression and our efforts to

win our freedom and independence.

Dr. Amos Wilson’s Last Interview (1995)

―All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an African empire, so

strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we in our lifetime can so

work and act as to make the dream a possibility within another generation.‖ — Marcus

Garvey

Dr. Amos Wilson died in 1995 under mysterious

circumstances. Few understand how he died; yet the method

appears similar to Dr. Khalid Muhammad’s death. Both were

warriors for the African race. Dr. Amos Wilson asked: ―Why

does the Black man say, ―Freedom is doing what I want to

do!‖ and why it is that everything he ―wants to do‖ enriches

the European?‖ In light of Marcus Garvey’s quotation

(1920s), in light of Carter G. Woodson’s statements (1930s),

but also in light of Ibn Battuta statement on our excellence

(1300s) our work will reward us. The African Blood Siblings has pointed out the North

Star. It’s time to point it out to others. This is how so many of our ancestors liberated our

ancestors.

It’s Dr. Amos Wilson’s last interview. …He was writing “Blueprint for Black Power”

(order from an African-owned store here) and they killed him but the ideas

live on and Black Power is ours. ..


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RAW: Now you have raised the possibility of genocide before in books such as Black-

on-Black Violence. Could you briefly talk about how Black-on-Black crime serves white

supremacy by playing a role in our own genocide?

WILSON: Well, what we are experiencing in the African American community is not just

confined to America. You’ll find this experience in the Caribbean, in Africa, wherever

you have large populations of Black people. You go to Brazil Black children are being

shot in the streets; people just get in their cars and shoot Black children. You will find

this sort of thing going on in Uruguay. A lot of us don’t realize that there are large

populations of Black People in Central America and South America. Africa is suffering

tremendously. You can even look the millions of Blacks in Europe. We are finding that

there is a general oppression of Black people across the globe as the global economic

system reorganizes itself, and reorganizes itself in a way to leave Blacks out of the

global economic system, just as they are being left out of domestic economic systems.

What you’re getting here when it comes back to Black-on-Black violence are reactions

to the dynamic economic changes. You’ve got a lot of people who want to lay all of this

on family values and the absence of old time religion and things of this nature. And

while that’s a part of the mix, you cannot just blame this all on the loss of family values.

People don’t eat values, you know. You have to actually work; you have to feed your

family. There are concrete material things that people have to have. The mere training

of people in family values is not going to solve this problem. As a matter of fact, when

you transform people’s material position in the world, you transform their values. So a

part of transformation of the values that we complain about is a result of the

transformation of the concrete living conditions of Black people. The key to

understanding the relationship that Black-on-Black crime has to white supremacy and

genocide is knowing the context in which the problem occurs. Too often people want to

talk about the problems that exist in the Black community as if they are unconnected to

everything else going on in the country. This is a terrible mistake in analysis. You have

to begin with the political and economic context in which a people exist in order to begin

to understand their behavior. When Blacks commit violence against other Blacks, they’re

committing it within a certain political economic context. Violent acts are social acts.

We may call them anti-social, but they are still social, whether anti- or pro-, which


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means that they have to do with the nature of relationships between people. That’s what

we mean when we use the word social. If we are to understand the social relationship of

Blacks to whites and to the social and political system in which we exist. When we look

at this system under which we exist as Black people, we’ll see a connection between it

and the kind of behavior the Black community is undergoing at this particular time.

RAW: So you’re saying that the rising tide of Black-on-Black crime is a direct result of

the position of powerlessness that we currently occupy vis-a-vis the restructuring global

economy?

WILSON: Yes, to a very great extent. We don’t think of crime as serving a social

function. Some people’s negative behavior serves the interest of other people. For

instance, Black children dropping out of school serves the interests of other people’s

children, who then don’t have Black people to compete against. Our dropping out

becomes a service to those who then can enter the positions for which we are no longer

in competition…. As a matter of fact, during the first reconstruction, Blacks were robbed

of the 40 acres and a mule promised them by the U.S. government as part of the

REPARATIONS for slavery. A lot of people think that’s just a myth; but that was an

actual act of Congress. This would have given Blacks an economic leg up, an economic

independence which would have served as a platform for our political independence as

well…. the white planter recognized that if you gave Black people this kind of land, they

would not be able to use them in the cotton fields; they wouldn’t be able to profit from

their destitution. It’s important to understand how you actually create poverty in a people

so that you can use their services. You strip them of everything; therefore, they become

utterly dependent upon you, and you use their dependency as a means of creating your

own wealth and power. Black people aren’t poor by accident. This serves the interest of

somebody. The energy that we put into hurting each other is the energy that we can’t

use to compete against other people. The stereotypes of Black-on-Black crime serve as

a justification for other people to take advantage of us. But in a deeper sense, it serves

to hide the criminality of whites. It makes us think that whites in America are not

criminals and have not created a criminal.


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RAW: Now is it not true that numerically and statistically, whites commit more violent

crimes than Blacks?

WILSON: Definitely, just as there are more whites on welfare. Because of the media,

you are lead to believe that Blacks are the only ones on welfare. But whites get far more

money out of the U.S. government. Most of the money distributed by the U.S.

government is paid to middle class white folks and upper-class white folks while we are

made to believe that it is the poor Blacks and the people on welfare that are getting the

bulk of the money from the federal government. You see, a service is performed there.

While the white upper class robs the nation of its wealth, and even robs the white

middle class, the elites point to Blacks as the ones who are bankrupting America. This

is why you get image after image of Blacks on welfare, Blacks on crime. Those images

serve the interest of those who are taking advantage of the system and want to hide

how and what they are doing to the system. Our so-called criminality, our so-called

being on welfare serves a useful political and economic purpose in the society.‖

RAW: In your book, The Falsification of African Consciousness, you write about the

critical role that history plays in developing the consciousness of a people. Could you

elaborate on how knowledge of our true history can help us to overcome the myriad of

problems facing us?

WILSON: Those who do not study history will repeat it. We’re talking about the first and

second Reconstruction repeating itself. What I find interesting is the attitude that we in

America have toward history, the belief that history is mere recapitulation of dates and

times. Some people actually believe that history is unimportant in academic life or the

life of a people. But one of the things that brings the importance of history to mind very

quickly is when you try to teach Black History in schools, watch the objection you et to

teaching Black history and culture. If history were so unimportant and meaningless, why

is it that we have such strong opposition to the teaching of African history and culture?

Why is it that the powers that be define how history is taught and what history will be

taught? It’s because they know intrinsically that history defines who we are. We are

history. We cannot live in the future – the future is always in front of us. And the present

is essentially the leading edge of the past. You don’t leave your past behind. The past


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lives in your brain; in your behavior; the way you see life and the way you see yourself.

Everything that happens to you in the present is filtered through past experiences

present in your mind. This means the past is operationally present at every moment. If

that past is distorted, if your perception of it is incorrect, if it’s absent, then when you

look at things in the present, your perception will be distorted. You will not be able to

effectively use what your see right in front of your face. You will not be able to take

advantage of possibilities that you have nor will you be able to design your own future,

because your history has been distorted. Whites have stolen and distorted the history of

Blacks so that they can influence the type of behavior we exhibit. They have been able

to shape our behavior to support their domination of us as a people. Thus, we continue

to serve their interest.

RAW: Even when some of us find ourselves in a position of power such as Mayor,

Governor, or President….

WILSON: Oh yes, definitely. You must recognize that consciousness is power; being

aware, knowing something, and being able to do something is what consciousness is all

about. This grants power. Remember, we act in terms of what we know, what we

believe, what we expect, what we value, what skills we have. All of this is part of

consciousness. Therefore, when you manipulate these things, you manipulate people’s

ability. History teaches us methods of coping. We learn from experience. Why do we

teach our children things? We don’t want them to make the same mistakes we did. In

teaching history, we transfer from one generation to the next methods of solving

problems. When we don’t pass history on, you don’t pass on problem solving methods

and techniques to the next generation. That generation, without a sense of history, is

unable to solve problems, because it has not received methods to do so. It’s important

to understand that the history we’ve been taught is not a history that brings with it

problem-solving skills and other things needed to solve the problems that we face as

African people.

Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson

Education

Transcript of Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson