When Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh recently stated that “India needs a strong military, weak defence can leave nations vulnerable to subjugation,” his words carried profound implications far beyond South Asia’s geopolitical landscape. For African Americans, a community with centuries of experience fighting for autonomy and self-determination, this warning resonates deeply with historical lessons about the relationship between strength, vulnerability, and freedom. From the systematic disarmament during slavery to the destruction of prosperous Black communities like Tulsa’s Greenwood District, history has repeatedly demonstrated that economic, political, educational, and physical weakness invites exploitation and subjugation. The challenge for Black America today is building comprehensive strength across all these dimensions—not through separatism or aggression, but through strategic empowerment that ensures communities negotiate from positions of strength rather than dependency. As both history and the IAF chief remind us, the price of inadequate defense is measured in freedom lost. Continue reading
Tag Archives: African American history
The Illusion of Progress: Gen X and the Racial Gap That Never Closed
Generation X grew up believing that they were witnessing the closing of America’s racial divide. They were the children of desegregation, the MTV generation that danced to the same music and quoted the same sitcoms, certain that friendship and cultural crossover were the evidence of progress. But as African American Gen Xers entered adulthood, the promise of that era unraveled. The gap they thought was narrowing—socially, economically, politically—was, in fact, widening beneath their feet.
The illusion of progress was sustained by proximity, not equality. African American Gen Xers shared classrooms and workplaces with White peers but inherited none of the institutional wealth or security those peers took for granted. The generation that came of age watching The Cosby Show now lives in a reality where the racial wealth gap remains as wide as it was in 1983, African American homeownership has stagnated, and the number of Black-owned banks and hospitals has collapsed. What looked like inclusion was often absorption without empowerment.
For African American Gen Xers, the realization has been sobering: cultural visibility without institutional ownership does not create equality. Their friendships across color lines did not prevent their neighborhoods from being redlined, their schools from being defunded, or their communities from losing the very institutions—banks, hospitals, and media outlets—that once secured collective advancement. The “post-racial” dream of their youth has given way to the recognition that representation is not power, and proximity is not protection.
Now entering the height of their careers and influence, Gen X African Americans carry the weight of that truth. They are the first generation to see the bridge of progress collapse beneath them and the canyon of inequality still unspanned. Their story is not one of failure, but of awakening—a generation that mistook shared culture for shared destiny and now knows that progress without power is only illusion. Continue reading
When the Public Library Closes Its Doors, the HBCU Library Must Open Its Own
In an era when truth itself feels negotiable, HBCU libraries have become the quiet battlegrounds of a larger war over knowledge and power. As public libraries face censorship, defunding, and political interference, these institutions—long the custodians of African America’s intellectual heritage—may be the last line of defense between ignorance and empowerment. Private HBCU libraries, with the right public support, could emerge as fortified centers for civic resistance and collective education, while public HBCU libraries must prepare to defend their autonomy and archives from political intrusion. The fight is no longer just about books or budgets—it is about who gets to define reality. In that fight, every preserved manuscript, every digitized archive, and every open reading room becomes an act of survival. Continue reading
hbcupolitics 