
People generally interpret writings and speeches in their own context with the ideals that are used during their time period and not the time period in which the work was written. This can cause many misinterpretations of a writer’s works. Stokely Carmichael gave a speech about racial inequality called “Black Power”. If it had been given in the present, the speech would be taken in a very different and violent way. It would also be taken as a throw against police brutality since that is currently the main area of concern for racial inequality. It would not be taken as a way to empower blacks and focus governmental efforts on racial inequality instead of other events such as the Vietnam War. Therefore, the context of the time period in which it was given is very important. People do not normally consider the context of the time, which can causes a lot of confusion and hate. “Black Power” was given at the height of the Vietnam War and of the outcry for equality from blacks and whites alike. This changes the way the speech is interpreted to more of a cry for help than an outcry for violence. The only way to truly understand any form of writing such as a speech is to understand the context of the period in which it was written or given.

Stokely Carmichael’s main idea in “Black Power” was that black people are not the problem, white people are (315). This seems fairly obvious in a time of racial inequality but he goes into detail of different problems concerning inequality and points out his distinction. He draws attention to situations where things need to change like Vietnam and the idea of integration. He also goes into how the problem began, pointing out misconceptions along the way. Carmichael points out the issue in the very beginning of how racism truly began in Africa when white missionaries went to Africa and tried to “civilize” Africans and although the Africans could have very well been civilized in their own way, the whites wanted them to change (316). Therefore showing that the whites are the ones creating the issues, not the blacks. Carmichael believes that civil rights bills do not give rights to colored people, they simply tell white people that they are not allowed to take those rights away. In this it shows a very different perspective on the civil rights movement entirely; previously people believed that colored people needed to be given the rights of a citizen and the right to vote. Carmichael makes his point against that, stating that everyone is born with rights and freedoms; the whites, being a majority, just take them away. Everyone already has rights, therefore they cannot be given to anyone. So then the only way to fix “racism” and inequality is to treat its source not to try to give rights back to the victims. Instead of giving colored people rights and attempting to enforce these new laws by protecting them, Carmichael believes that white people need to be brought to the realization that what they are doing is morally and ethically wrong. Especially given the document they stand by.

Nelson W. Polsby wrote an article on the general public opinion of the Vietnam war in the 1960’s called ”Political Science and the Press: Notes on Coverage of a Public Opinion Survey on the Vietnam War”. Polsby polled many news network’s coverage on a public opinion poll and analyzed his findings, of the coverage and of the public opinion of the Vietnam War. The public opinion poll found that nearly a vast majority of the public felt the war should be ended with some sort of negotiation in the near future, a very small minority thought that escalating it would end it. Polsby discusses why the poll was done, because of the rising tensions in America in 1966 due to another bombing in Vietnam that the U.S. did and the fact that there was no data like it yet. A group in California decided to then make a survey and use it to poll the public opinion. The results of this poll were only published in a few minor papers on the inner pages. The few papers that did actually post the results of this poll did not post all of the results, just a small amount of the lesser staggering results of it. It did eventually make its way to the New York Times front page and “bore less resemblance… to the original Stanford report” (Polsby). The New York Times, first statistic that they posted was purposely misleading to try to show the public that the people polled wanted all-out war. The poll was then used in a misleading way in many other papers.

     Stokely Carmichael’s speech “Black Power” was given in 1966, the same year Polsby’s polling placed. Carmichael’s beliefs and feelings about the situation in America are swayed by many of the same things as everyone else’s, especially the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was happening during this time period and many Americans were openly against it. Polsby’s article not only shows the actual public opinion of the war but also shows how the media’s portrayal. Carmichael speaks about the Vietnam War in his speech and says that he is very strongly against the war and believes that black people turn into “paid killers” and “black mercenaries” (320). He also says that no one else has taken the same position on it as his group, but according to Polsby other people have, the media has just been portraying a misleading false truth on the public opinion of the war during this time. This shows that Carmichael might have had more supporters of the protest against the Vietnam War than he thought. The polling done in California tends to agree with Carmichael, that there’s a more important battle for democracy of colored people in American, than fighting for the democracy of another nation. The poll shows and Carmichael agrees that the first thing that has to happen for things to change is for the war to end.

To this day many people think that the Black Panther Party was a radical and violent party, but that’s not what it stood for. Yohuru Williams’ journal “‘Some Abstract Thing Called Freedom’: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Legacy of the Black Panther Party” talks about the misconceptions of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party (BPP), and shows how the BPP really started and what it stood for. According to Williams the BPP is thought of in mainly two ways, but both of them think that the BPP is only about violence and was useless. Williams says that this is because of the media and that these are misconceptions (16). The BPP had great influence on culture and helped stir up black pride. Part of the origin of the BPP is a group of blacks trying to change Harlem schools to be more integrated and to teach black history. The BPP was founded in 1966, first in Harlem with Stokely Carmichael being the main voice for a call to power and then in many other cities leading up to the Oakland BPP where afterwards it became a nationally linked group. The BPP’s main focus was to serve the community and build new institutions, most of them also just happened to believe that they should be able to defend themselves. The reason they are most known as violent protestors is because the most public and media covered events of the BPP were the ones containing guns and violence (17).

More and more media outlets were purposefully creating misconceptions during this era, and this most certainly changes how Carmichael’s speech should be viewed. Carmichael’s speech was given in the height of the Vietnam War but also at the beginning of the black power movement. Carmichael helped start the BPP entirely, partially with the content of his speech. In a first reading of this it is very easy to ascertain that Carmichael views himself as being alone and the public views his party as being violent. The BPP seems to be focused on the violence of a single entity but if the speech is read with the view that Carmichael is not alone and the main focus is not violence it is empowerment then the whole meaning changes. It changes to be that Carmichael is one passionate voice of a many people and that those people believe in progress, not destroying things and killing people for no reason. One man believing in something no one else does and willing to fight for it is almost crazy, but one man believing in something that everyone else does without knowing they do and willing to fight for it is purely courageous. It also shows that the so called “violent” and not violent are going after the same thing in almost the same way, it just shows that Carmichael wants a more aggressive change. He wants to empower the blacks by integration and having the focus of all Americans.

The point of learning history is so that the same mistakes are not made twice and so that the good can be repeated. However, facts of history give no insight on how people felt during the time periods, they just show what happened. This text shows us something very different than what the facts of history can. Facts are just facts, alone they have no meaning and no symbolism. So then Carmichael gives us that emotion the facts of history cannot, he shows how blacks truly felt during this time period. Carmichael giving a speech instead of trying to put out fliers or messages in major newspapers gives a more real message. Instead of just being a name on a page at the end of an article he becomes an actual person with real significance. It also gives a firsthand account of what is happening, versus a reporter just doing research and presenting it. In giving this speech a majority of people, including himself, thought he was alone in his ideas but he was not. Carmichael is a prime example of someone who believes in an ideology even when he thinks that no one else does and this shows great character. One has to persevere and be very courageous to speak out against the masses on their own. 

Carmichael also embodies his persona and gives a whole different ideal towards civil rights than are presented in history. He creates a very important perspective that needs to be shown, especially this day in age. Carmichael’s true idealism of what the constitution says, that all men are born equal, is very important. This history from this era has just begun to start again. America’s in a war with no other support and discrimination is at an all-time high in the country. Again there needs to be a voice of reason for people to understand that what they are doing is wrong. If everyone would just take Carmichael’s idea that the white people are the problem, not the colored people then a lot of the issues currently happening would be solved.
