Is Systematic Racism Oppressing African-Americans?

Is Systematic Racism Oppressing African-Americans?
1835: An Anti-Slavery meeting on Boston common showing free Black people amongst the crowd. MPI/Getty Images
Emily Allison
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Commentary
Today in America, the history of slavery and racism is most often used to explain the crime and dysfunction that many in the African-American community faces. However, the EpochTV documentary “Uncle Tom II” tells a different narrative, revealing what they believe is the key to black success and empowerment. “My hope is this will help to break the spell that so many people are under,” says one of the film creators, “that keeps them angry, makes them bitter, blinds them from the truth, and realize that they are being deceived. That they’ve been lied to, that we’ve all been lied to our entire life.”

A Change in Character and Values

The narrative today purports that due to slavery and systematic racism, everything in the United States is structurally created to keep black people down. This belief is used to capitalize on anger and bitterness among African-Americans. The facts, however, tell a different story. The film follows the historical journey of the black community in America, making the case that African-Americans at the turn of the century had more functional lives than many today. The film attributes this to their culture of deep religious and strong Judeo-Christian family values and principles. The documentary shows how the farther away blacks today get from those principles, the more dysfunction is seen. It explains how the church formed the basis for the black community, arguing that it provided a sense of right and wrong, morality, and discipline that were once well-known character traits of African-Americans. They make the case that the church produced hope and stability of purpose, which held the black community together. Families were strong, and it was the norm for African-American children to grow up in two-parent homes. But eventually, that all changed.

“It’s not because of racism. It’s not because of police brutality. It’s not because of slavery. It’s not because of Jim Crow. It’s not because of white supremacy, white privilege, and all that crap they’re telling you now,” a man interviewed in the film argues. “It’s because of a lack of character. Black people lost character.” The film cites the crime, homelessness, rap, and gang culture associated with the black community today. “That is not black culture. That’s a facade. Throughout history, black folks have been honorable. They had integrity. That’s what black people were. But now our black people are Jay-Z, Cardi B, and George Floyd.”

An image from video footage featured in "Uncle Tom II" about race and the history of the African-American community. (EpochTV)
An image from video footage featured in "Uncle Tom II" about race and the history of the African-American community. EpochTV

Pawns in a White Marxist Agenda

The documentary examines organizations throughout American history that claim to be founded by and for black people. Instead, it reveals that usually, there is a white Marxist behind these groups. For example, Saul Alinksy is considered the father of community organizing and the progressivism we now see across America. He was a Marxist strategist and author of “Rules for Radicals,” which, along with the “Communist Manifesto” by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, is the playbook of today’s political left. According to the documentary, people in the 60s thought they were in black organizations, but white people actually ran those groups. It says Alinsky used the black population to achieve his political Marxist goals.
The EpochTV film examines BLM, which is supposedly formed by three African-American women but digs deeper to see if a white Marxist is behind it. What they discovered was a man named Eric Mann. Mann trains Marxists—including the women who founded BLM. Through video footage and examining Mann’s strategy and work, the film argues that BLM Inc. is a white-run organization with a white-run agenda meant to destroy America and use African-Americans as the front faces. According to the film, the goal of the Marxist can be summarized in this way: Capitalize on anger and emotion, and get people fighting among themselves to divide and weaken.

It shows footage of the Black Lives Matter founders saying that they are trained Marxists. But how does marxism relate to the black community? Does this ideology benefit the oppressed? The thinking and writing of Karl Marx focused on relationships of power—those who had power and those who did not. For Marx, it was the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Although the message of marxism is enticing, promising a utopia, it delivers a nightmare instead. The film shows graphic live footage of Marxist control worldwide, with tens of millions dead and always resulting in a more oppressive regime than what people were fighting against in the first place. It then explores cultural marxism, critical theory, and other ideologies impacting American culture today. The documentary explains that these ideologies had an agenda that infiltrated institutions and culture gradually, slowly, generation-by-generation. It says the fruit of this ideological infiltration is seen in most adults today, who are products of an educational system that has destroyed the United States and comprised it of Marxist ideas, secular humanism, and brainwashed, angry, divided people.

An image from video footage featured in "Uncle Tom II" about race and the history of the African-American community. (EpochTV)
An image from video footage featured in "Uncle Tom II" about race and the history of the African-American community. EpochTV

The Historical Success of African-Americans

The film examines the black community’s economic success and educational achievement during historical periods that are not commonly taught in schools today. What changed? Where did it all go wrong?

Booker T. Washington was an African-American academic born into slavery but went on to be an author, educator, orator, and presidential adviser. He taught the importance of hard work, faith and character, and education. The film shows how this school of thought, influenced by Judeo-Christian ethics, allowed post-civil war African-Americans to remake themselves and become inspirational and highly successful members of society. As a result, the black community of the early 20th century delivered healthy, stable families, innovation, creativity, and economic success. “No one can give us these qualities merely by praising us and talking well about us,” wrote Booker T. Washington, “and when we possess them, nobody can take them from us by speaking ill of us.”

The film shares African-American stories and how they were raised to love America. Many say they were taught about slavery but not in a way that made them hate others. They worked their lands, went to college, and owned their own businesses. It includes testaments from people whose parents grew up in the Jim Crow south, and how they were taught work ethic and that they could accomplish what they wanted. They were never taught they were oppressed and never saw themselves as lesser than others. Larry Elder, interviewed in the documentary, suggests there’s a strategic reason those lessons aren’t taught to black youth today. “Whenever you have something to be proud of, people have less chance of controlling you.”

The film cites facts that counter mainstream narratives of black history today, pointing out that the first slave owner in America was a black man and hundreds of black people owned slaves. In addition, it points out that even before the civil rights movement, during the 1920s and 30s, when Black Wall Street existed, black people overall were highly educated and prosperous.

Although the political left cites the Tulsa Race Massacre as the reason Black Wall Street and black success died in 1921, the documentary shows that Black Wall Street was rebuilt in 1925. By the 1940s, the black community was successful and happy again. The documentary says this was true for many places throughout the south and that the businesses, cultures, schools, and families didn’t begin to be destroyed until after the civil rights movement, with the introduction of socialist programs and government dependency.

The film poses a series of questions to black viewers, such as: are there things culturally and generationally that we’ve been doing, thinking, and believing that have contributed to the problems we face today? For example, did black Americans depend on the government at the expense of relying on God, fathers, families, and their character and abilities?

The EpochTV documentary describes the narrative today as saying black people were always at the mercy of white people and white people decide if they make it or not. However, it argues that blacks have not always been at the mercy of whites, at least not the ones who put Booker T. Washington’s values into practice.

The American Heritage

The film concludes that it is essential to know where we came from. Many black people have an origin story, but the film says that aside from the slavery origin story, as Americans, they have another origin story, and it is not 1619; it is 1776. The American origin story is filled with suffering, struggle, bloodshed, and overcoming adversity. An Irish immigrant who survived the potato famine, or a Jewish person whose family survived the holocaust, are all part of America’s story. It states, “you could go on and on and on and then what you eventually realize is that God, in his providence, has brought us all from hardship.”
Watch “Uncle Tom II” on EpochTV here.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Emily Allison
Emily Allison
Author
Emily is a writer for The Epoch Times and a freelance political journalist. With an extensive background in Political Communication and Journalism, she is committed to serving her country by bringing the truth about important issues of the day to the American people.
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