

Racism has been alive for centuries, and still is. In Stokely Carmichael’s speech “Black Power,” he speaks aloud to a predominately white institution (PWI) about African American culture and their struggles, which was mostly revolved around racism and its effects. He speaks not only for himself and his own generation, but the generation preceding him and, more importantly, the ones to follow. One of the most important topics that he stresses is the importance of the role of white people in racism. He conveys to his audience how important it is for them not only to recognize the issue, but to find ways to take preventative measures and stop them. Most notably, it is the responsibility of Caucasians to take action in their own homes and societies. They have the power to influence others in their respective communities, which has the potential to put a stop to racism at long last, but fail miserably each time the chance is given to them. 

In order to prove his point, Carmichael uses the example of white liberals. Over time, white liberals have been looked at as less and less “liberal” by the black community. They have been accused of not keeping their word, and revealing themselves as false realists. Some are even called racists hypocrites. Many African Americans feel as though white liberals give their verbal support to their community and other African American affiliated movements, but take no further action in order to help them progress. Carmichael even gives the example that they are aware of the economic struggles that African Americans experience, but fall short in efforts to prevent or cease the issues. He passionately asks, “Are the liberals willing to share their salaries with the economically insecure black people they so much love? Then if you’re not, are you willing to start building new institutions that will provide economic security for black people?” (Carmichael 321). If white liberals are as invested as they claim to be, then they should be willing to make certain sacrifices beyond the bare minimum to support the black community. However, it is obvious by their actions (or lack thereof) that they do not live up to their high verbal standards. 

Although Caucasians may declare their support of African Americans, they do not even communicate with them. Some even say that they are afraid to make contact of any kind. In fact, Carmichael even goes on to say, “White people would have to admit that they are afraid to go into a black ghetto at night. They are afraid. That’s a fact. They’re afraid because they’d be ‘beat up,’ ‘lynched,’ ‘looted,’ ‘cut up,’ etcetera, etcetera. It happens to black people inside the ghetto every day, incidentally, and white people are afraid of that” (Carmichael 325). If white people are afraid of black people, they will always only give their verbal support, as this can be done from a distance. Nevertheless, there will never be any physical interaction, which is one of the reasons why racism still exists today. 

Due to the fact that there have been so many accusations of the counteracting actions of white liberals, three scientists decided to do research on their behavior, and how they act on certain situations. Prior to their research, they did some investigating and conducted some interviews, and according to their conclusions in the article “Encounters between Blacks and White Liberals: The Collision of Stereotypes,” “Many blacks perceive white liberals as hypocritical and selfishly motivated in their relations to black people” (Poskocil 715), and some African American high school students even gave their thoughts that “Many white liberals are more racist than George Wallace” (Poskocil 715). The three scientists (Linn, Mann, and weights) did different studies on blacks and white liberals in order to find results on liberal behavior. In the end, Linn’s findings resulted that the attitudes of conservatives towards blacks were readily obtained and more accepting than the behaviors of the white liberals. Also, Weitz results were similar, proving that white liberals who claim to be so supportive, in reality are much less friendly and helpful to black people than that of the white man who is not liberal at all. So, the white man who does not claim to be liberal at all, or at least in verbal support of blacks, are in fact more helpful to their community than the liberal white man. Therefore, proving that white liberals are in fact racist hypocrites, and offer just about no support to the African American communities. 

The Civil Rights Act was implemented in order to ensure that each and every United States citizen was allotted their equal rights to vote, equal employment opportunities, equal access to public places, and also the desegregation of schools, which was geared towards African Americans so that they are truly counted as equal in the United States. Unfortunately, these laws did not really help much at all. Yes, African Americans could now legally vote and had equal access to public places, but the discrimination was still there. African Americans were still afraid to vote, because Caucasians would threaten them, or give them an extremely hard time if they were to express their right to vote. Even though they were able to enter public places shared with the Caucasians now, they most times were not served with the same amount of kindness and willingness as would a Caucasian. In fact, some were even denied their right to own land: “Defendants were indicted for conspiring to prevent Negroes from the free exercise of leasing and cultivating lands, solely by reason of their race and color, under the Civil Rights Act, which gives such rights to all citizens and provides a penalty for their infringement” (Michigan Law Review 483). The implementing and enforcement of the Civil Rights Act clearly is not enough to end racism towards African Americans alone. There must be some sort of intervention of the white American society in order for the problem to be resolved. 

In his efforts to prove African American innocence to the colorless institution, he explains to the students the failure of the Civil Rights Act. According to Carmichael, the laws and regulations of the Civil Rights Bill were not actually made for African Americans, but in reality made for Caucasians. He feels as though when a human is born, they are born free, and when they are not truly free, it is because that freedom has been taken away from them. As for African Americans, they’re freedom was stripped from them by the Caucasians. The civil rights bill was only a way of telling the Caucasians to give them their freedom back. It was not to grant them freedom because in reality, as American citizens, they actually were free. On page 322, Carmichael states:

…I am black. I know that. I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore, I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn’t know that. Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me. So some boys had to write a bill to tell that white man, ‘He’s a human being; don’t stop him.’ That bill was for that white man, not for me. I knew it all the time (Carmichael). 

Speaking on behalf of the entire African American community, he longs for them to be looked at as human beings, rather than just “black” or African American. They are human beings with the same rights as the white man, and they deserve to be able to express those rights. Because the white man could not see that, African Americans were denied their rights by the entire white society, and to this day, racism is still prevalent in today’s environment. Therefore, even with the Civil Rights Bill at hand, it is still the responsibility of the white community to put a stop to racism and discriminatory views.  
