... The Afro-American community must accept the responsibility for regaining our people who have lost their place in society ... (We) must be prepared to help each other in all ways possible ... Afro-Americans must unite and work together. We must take pride in the Afro-American community, for it is home, and it is power.

-- Statement of Basic Aims and Objectives of the Organization of Afro American Unity, June 28, 1964

If there is any lesson to be learned from the passage of Prop. 209, it is that America cannot be trusted to protect the rights of African people. As if the Three-Fifths compromise, the Dredd Scott decision, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, and other atrocities sanctioned by the American government weren't enough; Prop. 209 is America's current rebuke of African people. I can offer a litany of examples chronicling America's institutional and individual disdain for African people, but what would be the point? Any honest person (black, white, yellow, brown or whatever) in his heart knows the truth, and that such will remain the same until African people step forward to reclaim our destiny from the clutches of our oppressors.

The time is ripe to heed the long-standing, and often overlooked, calls for Black Nationalism. Contrary to the prevailing, misinformed assumptions, Black Nationalism as an ideology, and inaction is not a rabid assertion of Black supremacy. Unlike white Nationalism and patriotism, Black Nationalism and its proponents do not seek to humiliate, exploit, or oppress any person or people. Rather, Black Nationalism is a positive affirmation of the cultural, political, social and economic identity of African people. In its most rudimentary forms, it reacts to the brutally violent and repressive conditions under which African people live. Racism and white supremacy creates an environment where whites are viewed with suspicion, and Black folks are beholden to each other. The most basic expression of Black Nationalist thought is that Black people in America are bound by the common experience of racism and the struggle against it.

Progressive attempts to qualify a unifying Black or African identity stem from recognition of a common culture different from mainstream American culture. The distinct nature of "Africans in America," is attributed to African ancestry. Therefore, regardless of white supremacy (a very real fact indeed), African people are united by their shared African-influenced heritage and culture. Nevertheless, the sense of a shared identity, be it in reaction to racism or descending from African origins, produces the concept of racial solidarity, which is the cornerstone of Black Nationalist thought and action.

Black Nationalists claim only what is entitled to all other sovereign people; these include: freedom from foreign oppression, control of internal economy, and unrestricted domain of political and other institutions affecting the quality of life. The battle cry is that African people must claim the rights and responsibilities of racial solidarity, self-determination and self-reliance. By invoking such, Black Nationalists affirm that African people, and African people alone, have the right to define the terms of our existence. As the quote above indicates, it is the responsibility of each individual to safeguard the interests of African people as a whole.

An objective look at Black Nationalism in theory and action will reveal both regressive and progressive tendencies. Reactionary forms of Black Nationalism are principally concerned with changing the balance of power from white to Black. Again, this is not to be confused with "Black supremacy;" Black Nationalists do not want to oppress whites. As a reaction to white power, it seeks to assert Black autonomy in the creation and implementation of all matters concerning African people. Black police in Black communities. Black teachers for Black children. Reactionary expressions of Black Power have come in the form of the African Methodist Episcopal church and other "Black" oriented Christian denominations: the Nation of Islam and so-called "Recycle Black dollar" campaigns.

However, they fail to challenge the ideological assumptions and implications of Christianity, patriarchy and capitalism. With Christian, patriarchal and capitalist institutions unfettered, the spiritual and material realities of the masses of African people remain the same. Instead of praying to a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus who affirms European superiority, "Black" theologians alter the divine message to meet their own interests; the bourgeoisie class becomes native rather than foreign, and Black men replace white men as the political and social hegemony.

Black Nationalism becomes Revolutionary when it challenges more than the question of who is in power and is actively engaged in dismantling ALL oppressive ideologies and institutions. This includes the artificial construction of race. But before there can be any fellowship among humans, we must first address the immediate realities of life. As an African, I have no choice but to be concerned with the fate of my people as a whole. It simply is a fundamental question of reality. I, and the millions of former slaves, would not be in this country if it were not because of a false European assumption about the inferiority of our Black skin. So it is under the shadow of this Western-created identity that we struggle for independence. Therefore, as a Black Nationalist, I organize on the basis of race as a matter of survival, on both a personal and collective level. Foremost on our quest for self-determination is a reconstruction of the image of Africa and African people.

According to the European construction of race, black skin and African heritage are proxies for licentious and degenerate behavior. Therefore, the assumption is that when a crime or any wrongdoing is committed, the perpetrator is a person of African descent. This is why in the case of Rosewood, Florida, the false accusation of one white woman against a "nigger," was the only mandate mobs of white men needed to destroy and take the lives of law-abiding African men, women and children. We see a very similar case in 1993, when a white woman, Susan Smith, of Union, S.C., claimed her two toddler sons were kidnapped during a car-jacking committed by "a Black man." Her phony charge brought about a nationwide manhunt, ending only when Smith confessed to killing the children herself.

Our ability to reconstruct our image is essential to our understanding of who we are. Without self-expression, Africans and other marginalized people are destined to be defined in opposition of European standards. Since all we know is based upon reaction to foreign concepts, any so-called revolutionary action is bound to repeat those of the oppressor. This has been the major criticism of Black Nationalism.

As we begin to recognize the fallacy of the European representation of who we are, logically, other prevailing assumptions must also be challenged. To complete the revolution we must reconstruct not only the image of, but our relationship with, the Creator, humanity, and the natural and material worlds.

Black Nationalism is reactionary to the extent that it limits revolutionary change to the benefit of one group over another. It is only through the exploration of African roots and origins that African people are able to develop literary, historical, philosophical, political and social canons and institutions free from European influence. This revolutionary (evolutionary) expedition culminates in a revolution of soul and society. This is Black Nationalism at its highest expression.

Palmer is a fourth-year African American studies student.