How White People Can Be Real Allies - And Start a Real Revolution

Across the country, there are hints of a revolution brewing. Occupy Wall Street gave us our first whiff, but there wasn't enough momentum to sustain it and the media's propaganda containment strategies successfully put it on hold. Today the smell if revolution is much thicker, but it's coming from an entirely different segment of the population: People of color. And there is enough momentum to sustain this revolutionary movement as long as it takes. You can feel it in the crowds at protests.

There are other groups out there looking for a revolution. A legitimate mainstream politician, Bernie Sanders, is hinging his entire campaign on revolution. He knows his only chance of winning is if enough people wake up from the fantasy the propaganda has been feeding them for decades. There are other groups out there who know in their private conversations that revolution is needed. Techies and defenders of our civil liberties know we need a revolution to overthrow the NSA surveillance/police state, and to prepare for the way automation is going to render much of human labor obsolete. Libertarians know a revolution is needed to revive the nearly-dead bill of rights, particularly the 4th, 6th, and 1st amendments. OWS knows a revolution is needed to defeat the 1% on Wall Street. Even the Tea Party has a revolutionary spirit, although their brains are so far down the propaganda rabbit hole that I doubt they'll be allies. Scientifically literate people know a revolution is needed to prepare for and slow climate change.

These are very broad demographics that are all starting to realize the United States has become a tyrannical government, and the corporate whores in power need to go. But we remain divided. The propaganda machine makes sure to keep us focused on our differences over issues that don't matter to the powerful. Abortion, gay marriage, small details of gun control- all important issues, without a doubt. But clearly not as important as our own government murdering and enslaving its own citizens, and spying on all of their communication. Clearly not as important as the ludicrously rich pillaging the planet and picking all of our pockets without consequence.

What can be done to unite us and make a peaceful revolution happen, before it becomes too late for a peaceful option? I submit that there is only one group that has the momentum, the motivation, and the sheer force of will and resilience necessary to sustain a revolution: The Black Liberation movement. The revolution already started, folks- On August 9th, 2014 when a government thug murdered Michael Brown and a few brave souls reached their breaking point and said enough is enough.

White liberals have tried to ally with the Black Liberation movement before. But all too often, those so-called liberals were still racist, and not willing to prioritize black liberation. They would join forces, but only really be interested in promoting their individual pet causes. Black leaders were told to wait for the right time, the right political climate, to just keep being oppressed a little bit longer. Black leaders are wary of attempts by so-called allies to co-opt their movement and dilute the core message. We all have our pet issues that are dear to our hearts. But it's time we recognize our position of privilege, and accept that no issue is more important than upholding the human dignity and equality of all our citizens. How is a black person supposed to believe that you really recognize their humanity and worth when you see black people being brutally oppressed but don't make it a top priority to do something about it?

Time For A Black Liberation Party

The way for the 99% to unite and have a true revolution against the white supremacist, corporate-owned government we have today is to unite behind the issue of dismantling white supremacy and liberating America's people of color. Fully commit your political will to this, and the rest will follow. If your pet issue is NSA surveillance, do you think that if an abolitionist party came into power, they would uphold the surveillance state? Of course not! Black Americans (that are aware of it) are as pissed about being spied on by the government as anyone! They're just more pissed about being killed and enslaved by the government. Would an abolitionist party ignore climate change? Of course not! Whatever your progressive issue is, black leadership will probably support it.

So why not unite behind the group that has both the most important issue and the most activist willpower? Let's help black leaders build a political party. Notice I didn't say "build a political party ourselves". We need to follow black leadership. This is their movement. White people have experience with the bureaucracy of political campaigning, and more financial resources to keep a party running. Let's unite a party behind the issue- and if you've got some other pet issue, great. You can join the Black Liberation Party campaign, and help develop the party platform on that issue. But the core focus of the party always must be black liberation- the rest of the platform is just the party's long term plan to do after successfully liberating black Americans.

Or we could just keep standing with our individual splinters dreaming of the day the others unite under our cause, watching the other splinters do their small marches and thinking "man, I wish these people would come to my group's rallies". Because that's worked really well so far, right?