
            Civil Rights for all Americans has been a continuing problem since the start of American history and even today. White Americans have for the most part perpetuated this problem without offering any solutions. For centuries black people in America have been at the receiving end of white violence. This violence was extremely unwarranted and inhumane. Psychologically African Americans felt inferior to whites and this was not at their own behest; white Americans feared strong black people. This fear motivated them to make sure African Americans never garnered a sense of pride in themselves.  However, movements like the Civil Rights movement and Black power movement fostered strength and pride in the black community.  The black power movement however, developed out of a deeper need for black independence and black pride: things White America feared out of guilt. Simon Wendt’s “They Finally Found out That We Really Are Men” and Alvin F. Poussaint’s “How The White Problem Spawned BLACK POWER” in the historical context of Stokely Carmichael’s “Black Power” speech reveals that White guilt not only played a key role in motivating the black power movement, but also in perpetuating hypocritical double standards surrounding the movement’s practice of self-defense and nationalism.

Black people have always had to deal with inferiority to white Americans for their looks or social standing. White people perpetuated these feelings by making sure blacks were dependent on them in some form to keep African Americans from being independent. Independence fosters feelings of pride; pride that was not acceptable or unheard of in a racist America. Stokely Carmichael felt that Black people needed to build themselves up without the help of white Americans because whites were more useful doing work in their own communities and their interference did nothing to help with black dependence upon whites (Carmichael). The integrated moment in the south created many issues. Black civil righters were becoming disenchanted with the integration movement and annoyed with white volunteers due to these pressing issues. Blacks felt that white volunteers were either there to serve their own guilty conscience, to be so called rebels, or simply to be in charge of black people (Poussaint). In relation to each other both text explores how the reasons white people were motivated to “help” African Americans were not beneficial to anyone but themselves. The inferiority that black people felt when white people took it upon themselves to take leadership roles in these freedom groups motivated them to exclude white Americans, as their participation was unwanted or simply not needed. Black people, who were once integrationist, wanted to be in a movement were they felt powerful and in charge of themselves. Although this wasn’t the only problem in the Civil Rights Movement that brought about black power movement, it was most definitely a key promoter. Militant groups like the Black Panther Party had little to no white help/interference in their endeavors. 

 Guilt is felt by humans with humanity when they realize they have made a mistake or committed some type of wrongful action against another human being. If white Americans in the time of black struggle possessed humanity then it is likely that they would feel some form of guilt regarding their involvement in those struggles. In his speech Carmichael states, “Anything all black is only bad when you use force to keep whites out. Now that’s what white people have done in this country, and they’re projecting those same fears and guilt on us (Carmichael 324).” Carmichael’s point here is that white people have been guilty of using force to keep black people out of white society, and that now they fear that blacks will take this treatment and turn it back onto white people. This guilt and fear of black retaliation plays into the negative association with black power and Black Nationalism. White Americans already knew what white supremacy encompassed violence, so they expected Black Nationalism and power to encompass those same violent tendencies. However, that simply was not the case; the black power movement that started was a movement meant to inspire African Americans to be self-governing and promote positive feelings within the black community. “Working-class African American men found pride in physical protection of themselves and their people; they denounced the philosophy of non-violence and “considered it degrading to their manhood (Wendt).” Wendt explains here that black men found pride in being on the defensive against racist attacks. Whites feared black groups whose members were like these men because they had witnessed what angry and inspired black people were truly capable of. Nat Turner was a slave who led a bloody rebellion against his slave owners. This was in fact a black man who was fed up with the harsh treatment he received from white people and the outcome was something to be reckoned with. However, African Americans who did practice physical action against whites did so to protect themselves. It was not motivated by revenge or vengeance.

There is a hypocrisy surrounding the BP Movement and the ideals that its promoters hold, in more specific terms: self-defense or the term its critics like to use - violence. White guilt caused by the abuse of African Americans made the white public to fear a strong black community that defended itself and its people. In his, “Black Power,” speech Carmichael states that “White people beat up black people every day- Don’t nobody talk about nonviolence. But as soon as black people start to move, the double standard comes into being.” Strong black men, in particular, were threats to the white community. Black men in the BP Movement valued their masculinity having been deprived of it for so long. Defending oneself and one’s family against racist attacks was considered to be an affirmation of black manhood. This ideal of affirming manhood inspired black men in the black power movement to use armed/physical self-defense, whether they were a part of the militant group the black panther party or not. “The emerging Black Power move-ment re-emphasised blacks’ right to self-defence and publicly vowed to repel racist attacks with armed force. In popular memory, Black Power continues to be reduced to angry cries for violence that fostered race riots, betrayed the integrationist and non-violent vision of earlier activism and ultimately failed to achieve its seemingly unrealistic goals (Wendt).” The association of black power and black panthers with violence has often overshadowed the good of this movement and political group. However, the violence that did occur within this movement was not unwarranted.

Between being told they were inferior and having to deal with violent treatment, African Americans had a serious plight in the years following slavery. Analysis of Simon Wendt’s “They Finally Found out That We Really Are Men” and Poussaint’s “How the White Problem Spawned Black Power” in the historical and cultural context of Carmichael’s speech revealed much about white hypocrisy, guilt and fear when it comes to the BP Movement. The guilt that white Americans held in the century following the freedom of slaves made its way into the nonviolent civil rights struggle; which in turn created a need for a less inclusive movement. Groups like the BPP in the late 60s struggled to garner a positive public persona; their militant rhetoric overshadowing their true intentions of black pride and independence. White America couldn’t quite accept a movement that inspired black people to be strong and self-sufficient. Black masculinity was also a threat to white society; strong black men of the BP Movement were not passive in their fight for equality as their brothers had been in the nonviolent freedom struggle (The Civil Rights Movement). Expecting a race of people, after years of vicious harassment, to repeatedly turn the other cheek is ludicrous and one-sided. African Americans had a right to defend themselves and their people, although many, white and black, felt nonviolence was the only way to protect the rights of blacks. They also had the right to be proud of who they were without having to stroke white people’s egos and bear the burden of white guilt. 
