Racism on the rise in America

The New Black Panther Party met recently in Atlanta, Georgia for the National Black Power Convention. On the agenda: Black unemployment, racism, police abuse and self-genocide.

Group leaders say that black people are threatened with extinction if the right decisions are not made by this generation of black leaders.

“The New Black Panther Party is dedicated to the liberation of our people and to the unifying of black organizations here and throughout the world,” said Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz, the Chairman of the New Black Panther Party.

The convention brought over 50 organizations together and is set to be followed by another convention in New York in October. The follow-up convention is expected to draw representatives from 60 to 70 black organizations from the United States and Africa together to address racial inequality in America.

“History has proven in America that it is very difficult or impossible for blacks and whites to exist in America on an equal basis. We exist now in America but on an unequal basis. So, our focus is not that question. Our focus is what we can do for our people,” said Shabazz.

Shabazz argues that it is simply not possible for blacks and whites to fully exist peacefully in America.

“We seek a nation of our own,” he said.

In Shabazz's opinion, US President Barack Obama has been marginal president, “at best."

“It is impossible for him to directly address the black question or the questions of the oppressed,” said Shabazz.

Race relations between blacks and white have been continually tense throughout US history. With the election of a black president, an anti-black mood has swept through the country, notably among the Tea Party movement.

“Whites across America are buying guns at a record rate, there’s an anti-black mood that has been unprecedented,” said Shabazz.

Calling the Tea Party movement racist, Shabazz said: “We are at war, and we must prepare for war.”

Shabazz said that the immigration controversy is a part of the same racist mood in America.

“The same dog that bites them [Latinos] bites us too,” said Shabazz.

Shabazz argues that the true immigrants are the white colonists who came to America and killed the native populations and said the Black Power movement is in solidarity with the Latino and Native American populations in America.

“That anti-immigration mood is part of the same racist forces. That policies of wiping out ethnic studies in Arizona is a part of the rising tide of racism that is coming into America. So, we are uniting the black, the brown, and the red. We are certainly uniting because we are under attack,” said Shabazz.

When asked about the possibility of a war with the Tea Party Movement, Shabazz simply replied: “Let’s get it on.”