Anyway been thinking a lot about this chapter from Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism lately.
Now, I think the biggest problem with the white liberal in America, and perhaps the liberal around the world, is that his primary task is to stop confrontation, stop conflicts, not to redress grievances, but to stop confrontation…
The reason the liberal seeks to stop confrontation — and this is the second pitfall of liberalism — is that his role, regardless of what he says, is really to maintain the status quo, rather than to change it…
This leads to the third pitfall of the liberal. The liberal is afraid to alienate anyone, and therefore he is incapable of presenting any clear alternative…
Fourth, I do not think that liberals understand the difference between influence and power, and the liberals get confused seeking influence rather than power. The conservatives on the right wing, or the fascists, understand power, though, and they move to consolidate power while the liberal pushes for influence…
Written in 1971. I can think of examples of pretty much all of these in recent history. Look at point 4, and then think about what happened during Obama’s second term. Zero judicial appointees went through, and they refused to appoint anyone to the Supreme Court for a fucking year. Now, there’s a conservative super majority in SCOTUS and a fuck ton of conservative federal judges with lifetime appointments across the nation. Republicans seized power. Democrats only ever aspire for influence.
