Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power is a argumentative speech he states at the University of California at Berkley, a predominantly Caucasian crowd. Carmichael wastes no time when reflecting on this nation’s issues with the unfair justice and educational system for African-American’s. He connects the country’s history of slavery and segregation to the growing issues in society when dealing with segregation in the two unjust systems. Although I did believe the speech was a bit over the top, these two informational articles used for this essay add a notion of logic to Carmichael’s heartfelt argument. Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power creates much needed clarity and hopeful justification for the African-American community with the help of the two cited sources’ statistical data presented.

 In the first article, Chronicles of a Two-Front War: Civil Rights and Vietnam in the African American Press by Lawrence Allen Eldridge, Eldridge discusses the unethical issues of having such a high number of African-American’s go into the Vietnam War only to die. Carmichael points at the USA’s unreasonable efforts in foreign affairs during the time of the Vietnam War. Carmichael calls the unlucky African-Americans who get selected into the draft become “hired killers”. In Eldridge’s efforts, he determines that the Vietnam War was unlawful and many Americans, especially African-American’s paid the price for it. Eldridge goes as far to explain, “By the 1960s, there was still a disproportionate death rate for black soldiers who were over-represented on the frontlines in Vietnam.” (King 154). This knowledge reviewed allows for the reader of Carmichael’s speech to be heavily convinced that Carmichael’s speech speaks legitimately towards the issues of the Vietnam War. The source gives Carmichael factual information, and shows that it’s racist to allow desegregation in the military but still support segregation in education, housing, etc. Thinking about the Vietnam War and the amount of unreasonable deaths has to make Carmichael’s opposition question their stance and whether it’s ethical. Carmichael’s opposition (the government during the time of his speech) apparently wants peace in America, but goes on to put hundreds of thousands of troops overseas to kill not only Vietnam soldiers, but women and children civilians as well.

 Let us not forget about the shook African-American community that lost fathers, brothers, mothers, and sisters during this time of sorrow. Carmichael’s brilliant phrase he uses in his speech is, “A man is born free. You may enslave a man after he is born free, and that is in fact what this country does.” (Carmichael 315). Putting these troops overseas against their will to promote hatred is effectively taking one’s freedom away from them, which has caused for severe controversy in this country’s government. History shows a heavy amount of violence between the white and black community’s. Creating a draft that makes a huge population of African-American’s that are virtually still slaves fight on the frontline of the Vietnam War is a recipe for disaster. Carmichael knows and states that we can’t create peace if our government continues to support war and violence in foreign affairs. 

 In the second article, Coloring Outside the Lines: Racial Segregation in Public Schools and Their Attendance Boundaries, studies prove that the biased opinions in the real estate business causes minimal diversity in public schooling which leads to inefficient education. According to studies, white families choose to live in predominantly white neighborhoods whereas African American families choose to live in segregated neighborhoods. In other words, African American’s don’t have a biased opinion on who lives in their neighborhood, it’s the white families who pride themselves on staying out of diverse neighborhoods, due to their judgment of African American families. The free education of public schools is effected due to the attendance of private and magnet schools has caused for an increase in segregation within school districts. On page 84, it’s stated that, “Clotfelter (2004a) found that while segregation within school districts decreased between 1970 and 2000, segregation between school districts increased during this period.“ The increased segregation in the educational system has led to a regression in today’s society showing that racism is still prevalent and affecting our communities.

The source displays that there’s been a complete lack of progression in the housing market when it comes to living in a diverse community. Ignorance has created a barrier between the white and black community’s of America. Carmichael states in his speech that, “If someone wants to live in a white neighborhood and he’s black, that is his choice. It should be his right.” (Carmichael 317) Sadly, every day in the real estate business, African-American families are judged by real estate agents when attempting to buy a new house for their family. The evidence provided in this article proves Carmichael’s statement to be correct about segregation in the housing market. Carmichael knows the problem is the way white families judge black families that try to move into their neighborhoods. If our citizens can’t even fathom at the idea of living near each other how do we expect our sons and daughters to interact with each other in the every day world? How can we expect our nation to progress together instead of divided? Riddle me that. These pressing questions can’t be answered until ignorance is wielded out of this horrific housing market to allow for maximization in diversity for our schools. It’s a disgrace that this issue still occurs today in America, this negatively effects integration and the educational system becomes top heavy and segregated, showing signs of regression. This article employs the importance of the desegregation movement several decades ago. It’s important to know the facts about segregation before reading Black Power because it will lead you to read the passage from a different viewpoint.  After reading Black Power, I thought Carmichael was over the top with his opinions and thought he was speaking out of a certain grudge he had instead of using logical reasoning, but after seeing the significance of these two articles and seeing the points that were proven, I realize Carmichael’s argument holds significant, yet ugly truth.

Carmichael’s emotional speech about racism and regression struck the mind’s of all who read and listened to this speech. Looking back at a sensitive time period for all, slavery and segregation is a sore topic for many. Carmichael’s voice is strong and gives clarification to the African-American community. Personally, it wasn’t until reading these two articles that I believed Carmichael’s argument had validation. With the help of knowledge of the unethical Vietnam War and the statistical evidence proved to me that Carmichael’s point of regression in America is true. Reading Carmichael’s speech after analyzing the two articles only made me feel hostile towards how we’ve treated minorities for decades now. When Carmichael delivered his speech in October of 1966, he made the inference that change wouldn’t happen for years and not until our society desires change. Carmichael’s thoughts made me question American’s progress in civil rights. I then realized I wanted to believe we’ve progressed on this topic but unfortunately these two articles give life to Carmichael’s perception that this country needs change. An astonishing 50 years have passed since Carmichael’s speech and his argument still holds significance that racism and segregation is still very much alive and well in the United States of America.
