Self-Determination and Nationalism – Worrill’s World

Harold Cruse describes this dilemma of the African in American Community, in this country, in his most profound analysis of our movement in his book, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership (New York Review Books Classics). Cruse framed the American dynamic in this manner when he said, “On the face of it, this dilemma rests on the fact that America, which idealizes the rights of the individual above everything else, in reality, is a nation dominated by the social power of groups, classes, in-groups, and cliques — both ethnic and religious.”

It is so clear that every national/ethnic group understands their political, economic, and cultural interest. It is so natural for them to function in a nationalistic manner in their struggle to acquire and maintain power. The African Community in the United States of America has not fully conceptualized and reached a consensus on our nationalistic agenda. Many of us function as if we are scared of really acting out what we really know, for fear of being called racists.