There are a lot of controversial moments, works, and speeches in African-American history; not just significant and progressive works but controversial ones that introduced a radical idea to the African-American framework, incited action and/or changed the way some interpreted the plight of Blacks in the diaspora. This list does not include the “I Have A Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. which is one of the most celebrated texts in modern history; rather, it includes those ideas rejected or challenged by the mainstream as well as those that resonate in the minds of many unconventional thinkers today. These are just a handful of those works and ideas from the library of provocative manifestos.
Willie Lynch Letter
Many times, on our comment boards, readers tend to invoke the historical document, the Willie Lynch letter, as a way to explain the roots of Black discord. Well, the Willie Lynch letter is now suspected to be a total fabrication. Who wrote the letter? We still don’t know. Nevertheless, the contents of that letter have sparked a critical discussion in the Black community.
The story is that in 1712, a sla-ve owner named Willie Lynch delivered a speech to other sla-ve-owners about how to control their sla-ves: by pitting them against one another. He instructed them to separate sla-ves by skin color, age, and sex in order to breed distrust and hate. Many have gone to explain this to be the reason between the division between lighter skinned and dark skinned peoples as well as the stressed relationship between black men and black women. The Willie Lynch letter is seen as the blueprint for self-hate in the Black community. Even though the letter is not authentic, it has ignited an important conversation about the ills of relations amongst Black people.
The Talented Tenth
The infamous intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois promoted the idea of developing a vanguard in African-American society as a way to promote progress. He expressed this idea in his essay entitled “The Talented Tenth,” published in 1903. He believed in cultivating the leadership skills of one in ten Black men through education and civic engagement in order to lift up the whole race with the expectation that they would reinvest in their communities.
“The Ne-gro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education then, among Ne-groes, must first of all deal with the “Talented Tenth.” It is the problem of developing the best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the worst.”
The idea of creating a leadership to lead the masses is nothing new. The Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin embraced the model of a vanguard to lead society. Today, the debate continues: are Black success stories doing enough to reinvest in their communities? It would be interesting to see how DuBois would weigh in.
Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks
Ebonics first gained notoriety when the Oakland Public School District recognized it as a primary language in 1996, thereby recognizing that its Black pupils needed to learn standard English as if they were non-English speakers. The term was actually coined by psychologist Dr. Robert Williams in 1973. He later published a book titled “Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks.” He explained that Ebonics “includes the various idioms, patois, argots, idiolects, and social dialects of black people.”
The nation was in uproar when the district made its announcement, mocking it as a plan to recognize slang. Ebonics continues to be so controversial because of its recognition of unique black learning styles. Based on the general disregard of public schools to address cultural learning differences, the Oakland Public School District’s move with Ebonics stands as a landmark event for educators, those for and against. Renowned African-American linguist John McWhorter had stated “I have no problem with taking Black English into account in schools. But when this goes as far as translation exercises or textbooks in Black English, I am opposed.”
The Isis Papers
By many accounts, psychiatrist and author Frances Cress Welsing’s interpretation of race dynamics is utterly and extremely radical. Her groundbreaking book, The Isis Papers, presented an exhaustive analysis of white supremacy and broke down how the white minority works to oppress the majority through overt means and covert means like institutional racism. She also examined the cultural and behavioral differences between Blacks and Whites, attributing those differences to evolution and melanin production (or lack thereof). Isis Papers is not a widely embraced text but it has gained a cult following amongst non-conventional thinkers; its alternative interpretation of the world is tattooed on the minds of many non-conformists.
By Any Means Necessary
“We declare our right on this earth…to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” There’s no question as to who uttered these memorable words in 1965. It was the phrase that summed up the political legacy of Malcolm X, a civil rights leader who was distinguished from his fellow activist Martin Luther King Jr by his more aggressive approach to Black progress. Although some assert that the term was coined by French intellectual Jean Paul Sartre, Malcolm X made the words influential. A self explanatory phrase, he endorsed the route of employing all tactics to achieve the desired end of black equality.
The Mis-Education of The Ne-gro
“Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: ‘that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.” -Carter G. Woodson
What book should be required reading for those educators who refuse to address culturally relevant education? Carter G. Woodson’s “The Mis-Education of The Ne-gro.” Published in 1933, Woodson explored how detrimental it was for Black pupils to be exposed to not only curricula that ignored them but essentially framed them as inferior. Although Woodson did address the books that specifically regarded Blacks as inferior and savage, he did outline how important it was that education be a tool for empowerment and the delicate role it played in a racially oppressive world. Woodson saw how education can be used as a form of brainwashing of the “Ne-gro race.” Today, don’t we still wonder what it would be like to be exposed to an education system that embraces a Black point of view?
The Bell Curve
In 1994, the best-selling book by the late Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and American Enterprise Institute political scientist Charles Murray, sparked controversy due to its claims about racial differences in intelligence. They implied that IQ differences were genetic and that “the debate about whether and how much genes and environment have to do with ethnic differences remains unresolved.” Although not out-rightly denouncing the intelligence of Blacks, the book did fuel the arguments of racists who use the “Bell Curve” to explain the underachievement of Black students.
