There is little doubt that in the upcoming battle for the White House that in the words of De La Soul “the stakes are high.”

Like all other political seasons, this moment mandates that economically marginalized populations (working-class, the poor, and a tenuously positioned middle-class) be prepared for a major, yet never-ending battle in the larger war for resources in America. It is late in the game for non-elites to believe that this nation has any concern for its citizenry.

The most disturbing aspect of the current political season is the continuation of what can be appropriately termed an astounding disengagement from the process among Blacks. The alluded to disengagement emanates from disparate segments of Black America. While many Black Christians place their hopes in the unchanging hand of God, African-American women busy themselves viewing reality television shows and Black men watch professional sports as if their lives depend on it.

From my perspective, the most troubling politically disengaged Black populace are contemporary Black Nationalists, many of them operating in the name of the Black Panther Party. In many ways, the decision of aspiring Panthers to avoid the political arena reveals an astounding lack of understanding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense legacy. I am certain that Fred Hampton, the Chairman of the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party, is rolling in his grave as wannabe Panthers pose with armaments while phrase-mongering to anyone in their vicinity. Sadly, such groups are so engrossed in such foolishness that they have by-passed Chairman Fred’s call for political engagement delivered in his observation that “war is nothing but politics with bloodshed and politics is nothing but war without bloodshed.”

The decision of huge swaths of Black America, including self-proclaimed leaders, to not engage the political process reduces to a putrid, yet familiar, smell of unadulterated cowardice, confusion, and inefficiency. It is an all too familiar, if not favored fragrance of Black America.

At a crisis moment such as this, I am astounded by how many African-Americans have no desire to understand the political arena. Such people do not understand that it is the political arena that sets the price of “being black and poor.”

In many ways, Black America’s failure to engage the political process is tantamount to surrendering prior to a minor skirmish, well before a major battle.

Although my lack of faith in the majority of Black America becoming politically astute flows from several places, I am convinced that this matter boils down to a daunting belief by Blacks that they have no power and therefore do not matter in this nation. Such a perspective feeds into the squandering of a legitimate ownership claim for this nation; a claim that was earned via our ancestor’s blood, sweat, and tears. Make no mistake about it, the ownership claim of persons of African descent begins with their arrival to the Jamestown colony and therefore predates the founding of this nation. Yet, at the present moment where political engagement is needed, far too many Blacks refuse to move, yet stand prepared to complain loudly when the cost of being poor and Black is raised to an even more burdensome level.

Although I am not foolish enough to believe that the lack of political engagement is not the sole reason behind the misery and suffering of Blacks, however, I am sane enough to realize that it is a contributing factor in that process.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.