Anti-Americanism
has been a recurring theme among several influential
African American
political organizations and activists due to
racism against African Americans
domestically,
[1]
and against other non-white people internationally.
[2]
African-American anti-Americanism can be contrasted with
African-American patriotism
, although the two are not
necessarily
mutually exclusive
antonyms
.
History
[
edit
]
The African-American community is unique compared to
Afro-Caribbean
or
Afro-Brazilian peoples
in that "unique natural population growth resulted in a slave population that was already about four-fifths American-born by the late 18th century; after the
end of the slave trade in 1808
the number of African-born slaves in the South faded to statistical insignificance."
[3]
: 587
Revolutionary Anti-Americanism, as manifested by politically active African-American elites, was rare in the 19th and earliest 20th century, in part because African-Americans of the era were educated at institutions that manifested the paternalistic and elite worldviews of the high-caste WASPs who contributed to their establishment.
[4]
: 26
Some early African-American nationalism was integrated with the idea of the
African diaspora
and the concept of
pan-Africanism
, developed by
Alexander Crummell
,
Martin R. Delany
, and
Henry McNeil Turner
, among others.
[5]
: 186
Political organizations
[
edit
]
Several African-American radical and
underground movement
organizations professed anti-Americanism.
RAM
leader
Muhammad Ahmad
(previously Max Stanford) advocated for the destruction of the United States, along with other "white imperialist oppressors", including the
Soviet Union
.
[6]
Black Panther Party
[
edit
]
The
Black Panther Party's
founder
Huey P. Newton
criticized
American nationalism
.
[7]
Furthermore, the party believed that the destruction of the United States was a prerequisite for a
world revolution
.
[8]
Revolutionary Action Movement
[
edit
]
In 1966, the
Revolutionary Action Movement
(RAM) published a document titled "World Black Revolution", in which the organisation advocates for the destruction of the United States, along with
Europe
and the
Soviet Union
, which they considered equally as
imperialistic
and
white supremacist
as the United States.
[9]
Black Guerrilla Family
[
edit
]
The
Black Guerrilla Family
rejected patriotism for the United States
[10]
and called for the overthrow of the American government.
[11]
Literature
[
edit
]
Blood in My Eye
[
edit
]
In
Blood in My Eye
(1972),
George Jackson
calls for the destruction of the United States,
[12]
stating
[13]
"We must accept the eventuality of bringing the U.S.A. to its knees; accept the closing off of critical sections of the city with barbed wire, armored pig carriers crisscrossing the streets, soldiers everywhere, tommy guns pointed at stomach level, smoke curling black against the daylight sky, the smell of cordite, house-to-house searches, doors being kicked in, the commonness of death."
Research
[
edit
]
Johnson (2018)
[
edit
]
Studying
patriotism towards the United States among African Americans
, Micah E. Johnson identified a subset of the African American population which he termed "subverters".
[1]
Johnson describes subverters as African Americans who reject patriotism for the United States, due to the racial inequality present in the country.
[1]
Music video
depicting the
desecration
of an American flag by several African American men
During the study, one subverter expressed
[1]
"American patriotism glorifies a world that doesn’t exist. The idea is that all Americans benefit from their rights to liberty, life, and justice for all, but this is a false ideal because everyone isn’t allotted to those rights in America. I’m not patriotic because I don’t feel there is anything to love about this country that globalizes imperialism and capitalism crippling every nation it comes across."
YouGov (2022)
[
edit
]
In a 2022 survey of 1,000 American adults by
YouGov
, 12% of African American respondents described themselves as "not very patriotic", while 9% of African American respondents described themselves as "not patriotic at all".
[14]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Johnson, Micah E. (2018-09-02).
"The paradox of black patriotism: double consciousness"
.
Ethnic and Racial Studies
.
41
(11): 1971?1989.
doi
:
10.1080/01419870.2017.1332378
.
ISSN
0141-9870
.
PMC
8681865
.
PMID
34924643
.
- ^
Mullen, Bill V. (1 February 2018).
"Marx, Du Bois, and the Black Underclass: RAM's World Black Revolution"
.
Viewpoint Magazine
. Retrieved
20 January
2024
.
- ^
Kolchin, Peter (1983).
"Reevaluating the Antebellum Slave Community: A Comparative Perspective"
.
The Journal of American History
.
70
(3): 579?601.
doi
:
10.2307/1903484
.
ISSN
0021-8723
.
JSTOR
1903484
.
- ^
Allen, Ernest (2003).
"Du Boisian Double Consciousness: The Unsustainable Argument"
.
The Black Scholar
.
33
(2): 25?43.
doi
:
10.1080/00064246.2003.11413214
.
ISSN
0006-4246
.
JSTOR
41069024
.
S2CID
146343168
.
- ^
Gomez, Michael A. (2004).
"Of Du Bois and Diaspora: The Challenge of African American Studies"
.
Journal of Black Studies
.
35
(2): 175?194.
doi
:
10.1177/0021934704266716
.
ISSN
0021-9347
.
JSTOR
4129300
.
S2CID
145071588
.
- ^
"World Black Revolution"
.
Viewpoint Magazine
. 29 December 2017
. Retrieved
22 January
2024
.
- ^
Malloy, Sean L. (2017).
Out of Oakland: Black Panther Party internationalism during the Cold War
. The United States in the world (First published ed.). Ithaca London: Cornell University Press. pp. 161, 172?186.
ISBN
978-1-5017-1342-2
.
- ^
Newton, Huey P.; Erikson, Erik H. (1 October 1973).
In Search of Common Ground: Conversations with Erik H. Erikson and Huey P. Newton (New ed.)
. New York:
W. W. Norton & Company
.
- ^
Stanford, Maxwell C. (May 1986).
"Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM): A Case Study of an Urban Revolutionary Movement In Western Capitalist Society"
(PDF)
.
Freedom Archives
. p. 148
. Retrieved
19 January
2024
.
- ^
Security, United States Congress House Committee on Internal (1974).
Terrorism: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-third Congress, Second Session ...
U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 4074.
We are not motivated by patriotism of any form
- ^
Burton-Rose, Daniel (2010).
Creating a Movement with Teeth: A Documentary History of the George Jackson Brigade
.
PM Press
.
ISBN
9781604864618
.
- ^
Malott, Curry; Scott, Randall; Bailey, Elgin (1 February 2022).
"George Jackson's "Blood in my eye:" A critical appraisal"
.
Liberation School
. Retrieved
20 January
2024
.
One of the contributions of Blood in My Eye is its theoretical conceptualization of guerilla warfare depicting its battle ground in the U.S.
- ^
Sawyer, Kevin D. (6 August 2021).
"George Jackson, 50 years later"
.
San Francisco Bay View
. Retrieved
20 January
2024
.
- ^
"YouGov Survey: Americans' Views on Patriotism"
(PDF)
.
YouGov
. 15?17 June 2022
. Retrieved
20 January
2024
.