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Black Leadership Analysis

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Oklahoma

Black Rebel Philosophy and Analysis 


Basic Philosophy
Andrew Duncomb is a Confederate flag supporter from Seminole, Oklahoma. His support for the Confederate flag comes from his belief that the Confederate flag is not racist. He points to the fact the Northern border states also had slavery. Therefore, slavery did not cause the war. Also, many slave ships ported and disembarked from northern ports. The American flag has as much blood on it as any other flag. 

He also points to all of the reasons to fly the Confederate flag. Many people want to honor their ancestors that died in the war. Others want to support and affiliate themselves with Southern culture. The flag can be flown out of heritage not hate. It can stand for rebel pride. 

Black Rebel also realizes that there are people who fly the flag to signify racism. He implores his fellow southern heritage supporters to denounce these people. Specifically, he called out a white supremacy march at Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is the largest Confederate monument in the country. Black Rebel recognized some of his friends went to the white supremacy rally. He assumes they did not have the proper information and if they did, they would not go. 

Ultimately, Black Rebel wants to influence other black people to see the positive side of the Confederate flag. If more black people can be turned on to the Confederate flag, they can join him in celebrating Southern culture. At the least, the flag would no longer trigger them, and people can begin to come together. Black Rebel reminds us that we are all part of the human race. If we can keep sight of our place in the human race, then we can stop attacking each other and work together in harmony. 

The media artificially create racial animosity so the elite can keep power. The government no longer follows the Constitution and strips our freedom every day. He specifically points to President Obama’s 2016 Executive Order. The Executive Order requires background checks while purchasing firearms in all establishments including gun shows. To Black Rebel, this is the beginning of tyranny and “When tyranny is law revolution is a must.” Black rebel uses this quote on tyranny frequently. 

In Black Rebel’s August 2017 YouTube, he made some disturbing claims. He has been to many monument rallies and says that ANTIFA, the group protesting the monuments, instigates violence. According to him the police stand around and make no arrest. He calls on “patriots” to stand up and fight back. He makes clear that he is talking about physical altercations. He wants to “put them out of commission one by one.” He tells Patriots to “cause as much damage as possible in a short time… if some of them have to die so be it. ” He calls right-wingers not willing to go to the rally “cucks”. “Cucks” is short for cuckold, a white man that allows his wife to have sex with black men. It is used to call a person weak. 

The problems of black people can be traced back to poor personal choice and bad parenting. The black community sets itself up for failure with such poor decision-making. When black people see the issues and don’t conform to the accepted behavior paths, they are ostracized. Because non-conformist are ostracized there is no one around to break negative habit patterns. Black society then descends further and further. Even Black Rebel admits that some people will have a more difficult time overcoming than others. However, self-reliance and independence can be achieved. 

What Black Rebel has right

He is right to attempt to use common humanity to bring people together. The flag is only colors and cloth as he said in his earlier videos. If there was a way to make people less triggered by the flag, it could help American advancement. 

What Black Rebel has wrong

The Civil War was chiefly about slavery. Some people fought for other reasons. However, the main reason was slavery.

The idea that states with large slave populations willingly fought for the North needs to be debunked. Delaware only had 1,800 slaves by the time of the Civil War. Most of these slaves lived in one county. Maryland was under martial law in 1861, and Lincoln jailed southern sympathizers in the state. Kentucky initially declared itself neutral in 1861. Confederates invaded Kentucky, and the Union came to attack the Confederacy. The North then occupied the state to prevent another invasion. When Kentucky voted later that year to join the Union, there were Union troops outside the capital. Missouri sent armies to the Union and the Confederacy and had a star on both national flags. So no state with a large slave population supported the North entirely, and they all had internal fighting over slavery.

Also, South Carolina seceded one month after Lincoln won the election and before he was inaugurated as President. In the Declaration of Immediate Causes, which is the document of South Carolina’s reason for leaving the union they state their constitutional right to own slaves. They asserted their constitutional right to own slaves because Lincoln was from the anti-slavery wing of the Whig party, now called Republicans. The previous Republican presidential candidate supported a national ban on slavery. Therefore, in the Declaration of Immediate Causes, they state their right to own slaves and the rights of all thirteen slave-holding states. 

Even if all the Civil War history is ignored, the Confederate Battle Flag was flown by the Ku Klux Klan during night raids on black townships. The history of the Ku Klux Klan is well documented, and one blog post can not detail the issue. Other white supremacist groups later adopted the flag. 

The modern use of the Confederate flag began in 1948 when the Dixiecrat party used the symbol at their national convention. The Dixiecrat political party was chiefly against desegregation and obstruction of the Civil Rights movement. The Confederate flag was added to the flag of the State of Georgia in 1956. The flag was raised over the South Carolina statehouse in 1961 on the centennial of the Civil War. Because of this timeline, many connect the display of the Confederate flag with those opposed to Civil Rights even if the official state documents don’t explicitly say it was done in support of Dixiecrats. 

Even in spite of all this historical evidence, Black Rebel is allowed to have his own opinion on the Confederate flag. He is also allowed to wear the flag on his body and fly it on his property. However, he or other Southern Pride supporters can’t use the government to push their perspective on other localities. Black Rebel travels to many locations to fight to keep Confederate monuments.

He also assumes that his friends in the Southern Pride movement that also go to rallies put on by White Supremacist simply don’t realize who is in charge of the rally. The idea his friends go to White Supremacist rallies out of ignorance is naive at best. If he was able to find information on who sponsored the rally, then his friends had access to the same information. Either his friends chose not to look, which means they don’t care to ensure they separate themselves from White Supremacist, or they know and simply are White Supremacist. If there is not a serious effort in the Southern Pride movement to separate themselves from racist, then the movement is racist. 

Ultimately Black Rebel does not see the difference in Southern culture and Confederate symbolism. Black people will always be triggered by Confederate symbols, at least as a collective. The history is too deep, and the pain is too recent. However, it would be productive to introduce more black people to the rodeo and agricultural communities. Black Rebel has a pervasive background in these fields that traditionally do not have many black members. If he were to drop the Confederate symbols, many black people would be willing to become more involved in those communities if they knew they would see friendly faces. 
Black Rebel will simply get into hot water with no personal gain by supporting the aggressive tendencies of the Alt-Right movement. The YouTube videos in which he threatens violence even in response to ANTIFA violence should be taken down. If someone commits a crime and they say Black Rebel inspired them, he could be implicated. The videos do not help Black Rebel or the Southern Pride movement. 
Where is Black Rebel on the Spiral?

Black Rebel is firmly in the Blue meme. The Neo-Confederate / Southern Pride movement is very similar to the Afrikaner Nationalism that Beck describes in The Crucible. In the crucible, he states the main elements of Afrikaner

Nationalism:

  1. Common language and religion
  2. Common struggle
  3. Common vision of the future

The Neo-Confederate movement has all these elements. They also justify their stances by talking about Southern respect and honor. Both the Afrikaner and Southern see themselves as victims of a well-funded Northern aggressor that did not understand their culture. Both have historically been seen as the oppressor of African people. Both people point out how the Northerners chastising them for oppressing Africans are no better. 

In The Crucible Don Beck also speaks on removing the Afrikaner monument. In the book, Beck talks about how removing the monuments and says “If the Afrikaners feel they have to come together to fight for their language they will unleash a wave of destruction.” Well in 2017 there is a group on the left that could operate on the same standard. Later in that chapter, Beck talks about how it is important for those in the Integral community to facilitate a compromise that could save lives. 

As a conservative, Black Rebel is not for change first or second order. 

Return to Series

Sources

  1. Fact Sheet New Executive Actions Reduce Gun Violence and Make Our Streets Safer. 

    www. Obamawhitehouse.archives.gov

  2. Here are Obama’s Executive Actions on Gun Control. http://www.forbes.com
  3. “Delaware” http://www.slavenorth.com
  4. “Maryland in the Civil War: A Volatile Border State Experience” http://www.civilwarmed.org
  5. “Kentucky’s Neutrality During the Civil War” history.ky.gov
  6. The State Historical Society of Missouri Guide to the American Civil War in Missouri http://shsmo.org
  7. “Where the Civil War began” https://www.visitmo.com
  8. Confederate States of America – Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union http://avalon.law.yale.edu

Solutions in I, WE, and IT Space

Many discussions on race get derailed by people not understanding that their proposed solution only addresses one aspect of a problem. When talking about race most conservatives focus on I space solutions. When presidential candidate Marco Rubio responded to a question on systematic racism, he sais: “I do not think there is a political solution.” Rubio was speaking about the I space aspect of systematic racism. No law can outlaw a person judging someone for the color of their skin. Most liberals focus on IT space solutions. Good examples of IT space solutions are Affirmative Action and quotas. These programs require companies to hire a specific number of minorities or face government penalties. The black self-sufficiency movements dominate solutions in the WE space. Dr. Boyce Watkins talks about the importance of black-owned businesses. He details how only black-owned businesses can give black people a fair shake in a capitalist system. Black self-sufficiency is also a correct view, but a limited view.
 
I-Space solutions focus on self-improvement. Usually calling for a modification in one’s morality or education. One form of I Space solution that is very popular at the moment is “Law of Attraction.” LOA states that positive thinking will bring positive results. Another is Tai Lopez’s “67 Steps” personal development program. The program focuses on increasing knowledge by reading books by famous entrepreneurs. The central idea of both of these methods is if you improve your thinking everything else will fall into place.
 
WE-space solutions focus on how black people support each other. Dr. Boyce Watkins is a big supporter and thinker in We Space solutions. He is a huge proponent of black-owned businesses. His “Black Wealth Bootcamp” teaches black people how to become independently wealthy and build an economy inside of America. Nation of Islam (NOI) professes black people should separate from America and start a newly independent country with the NOI at the helm. The central idea of these methods is if black people support each other, then we can overcome racism or create a small insulated community that we can thrive inside.
 
IT-Space solutions focus on how the government can be utilized to change people’s actions. The most controversial versions of this, as stated earlier, was Affirmative Action and quotas. Other methods include adequately funding inner-city schools, starting job training programs, and laws that prevent discriminatory hiring practices. The primary focus of these solutions involves the modifying of behavior through government control or providing public resources to the black community.
 
If a proposed solution does not engage all three aspects of a problem, then it will not create long-lasting​ effects or work for more than a few people. For example, if a person is very moral and intelligent, but is not allowed to go to school, then their life will not improve. If a group of individuals are fiercely supportive of one another but are not on a path of personal development, then they will not know what to support. If the government funnels money to a person who does not have the moral conviction to ensure the money will be well invested, then no real change will take place. The above examples are so simplistic the reader does not need more detail. However, the rest of the article will show how solutions that cover two of the three aspects are not sufficient either.
 
Tulsa Black Wall St ( I and WE)
 
O. W. Gurley founded Tulsa’s Black Wall St. He was a black land developer from Arkansas and a former presidential appointee under Grover Cleveland. Gurley purchased 40 acres of land and only sold smaller lots to colored families. The railroad industry around Tulsa was booming at the time. Many blacks moved into the area from Greenwood, MS. In a few decades, those 40 acres were home to black grocery stores, banks, and law offices.
 
On Memorial Day in 1921, Sarah Page, a white woman, accused a black man Dick Rowland of assault. Rowland was apprehended by police later that day. A mob of angry white citizens attempted to lynch him and attacked the black families in the Tulsa area. Many of the black citizens of Tulsa were World War I veterans. The black citizens united in armed resistance. Unfortunately, the blacks were outnumbered and outgunned by the KKK. The white citizens also utilized a bi-plane to drop firebombs on the black businesses. White​ citizens destroyed the entire business district.
 
Tulsa is an example of I and WE-space solutions coming together without any IT-space government protections. The black citizens of Tulsa collectively developed in the I space to Orange level, strive drive, consciousness. They worked together to create an isolated enclave in which blacks can build businesses, WE space solution. However, with no government protection, they were always vulnerable to white people at red/blue consciousness. In one weekend, a white mob destroyed decades of hard work. Black Wall St was later rebuilt, but it never led to any systematic change in the nation. It was always a small enclave in Oklahoma.
 
The Grassroot Independent Voters of Illinois (WE and IT)
 
The Grassroot Independent Voter of Illinois (GIVI) was a Chicago job training organization started with a 1 million dollar US government grant. Jeff Fort and Eugene Hairston were members of a Chicago street gang and started the Grassroot Voter Organization under false pretenses. The government began a four-year investigation that led to the conviction of Fort and Hairston. Unfortunately, the funneling of one million dollars into the gang community of Chicago lead to the rise of one of the deadliest Chicago street gangs Black P. Stone Nation. At the end of the ordeal, the Black P. Stones were 50,000 members strong.
 
The Grassroots Voter organization is an example of WE and IT-space solutions without I-space personal development. The members and leaders of this organization were criminals. They collectively did not have the I-Space development to handle the government money properly. This misappropriation of state funds led to a sharp decline in grant money given to Chicago. The GIVI is cited by conservatives to this day as an example of why government programs do not work.
 
Larry Elder ( I and IT)
 
Larry Elder is a syndicated black conservative talk show host. Black people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps is the center of most of his philosophy. However, he has utilized quotas and Affirmative Action to get into Brown University and accept many jobs in radio and television. When asked how he can now be against Affirmative Action after utilizing it, Elders replies that he would not have gone to Brown University, but he would have gone to another less prestigious university.
 
Elder is an example of a person who was given government help (IT- Space) and was able to self-develop to an Orange level of consciousness (I-Space) but lost the WE-space connection to other black people. Larry Elder may not be acutely aware of how he could be using his influence to help other black people, but he should not be belittling programs he has used himself. That is not to say other aspects of his message are helpful to black and white people alike. Unfortunately, he loses credibility with his stance on Affirmative Action, thus keeping people from taking the rest of his message seriously.
 
Larry Elder is a good example of how detrimental the Orange meme can be to the overall struggle for racial empowerment. He needs to believe he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, and he also needs to be successful to feel good about himself. So Elder needs to accept the help from Affirmative Action and belittle its importance. If he had not gotten accepted to Brown, he would never have had the credentials to get a nationally syndicated talk show. If he had stayed to his principles and turned down the acceptance to Brown, he would also have to accept a less prestigious school and fewer job prospects.
 
It is also important to point out Larry Elder is a “go-to” conservative pundit on racial issues. Because there are very few black conservatives, he is called to explain the conservative perspective on many cable news shows. If race was not an issue in hiring you would see him comment on non-racial issues. Larry Elder was a supporter of the Iraq War. However, you never saw him on cable news defending it. When racial protest happened in Baltimore, he was on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC.
 
Conclusion
 
The point of the article was not to belittle a solution to racial inequality, and one should understand​ the limitations of each type of solution. Personal development ultimately prepares you to take advantage of government help. Community solidarity keeps successful people connected to the community to help the less fortunate not fall through the cracks. The solutions “inter-are” and people should keep that perspective.

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