Bread and Circuses

​The political movement of Africans in America, in this essay, is referred to as Black Americans, since the Black Power Movement has actively and notably plateaued. Analysis of the recent context, exacerbated in the digital age, exposes where the pivot point happened, where former pinnacles of Black life and progress——most notably in art, intellectual culture, and radical consciousness. Where some Black Americans have been hoisted into Black misleadership and the middle class, others have been forcibly conditioned to be disinterested in movement altogether. 

Black American liberation efforts have become complacent.

Year after year, the cultural unity that seemingly rooted itself so deeply in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s has left fewer and fewer traces in the current soil. There is already much thought asking and partially answering why the Black American liberation struggle has become complacent and/or repetitive, but the Roman poet, Juvenal, might offer something new. Though centuries old, what he wrote is ever relevant and even reflects the present state of Black America:

​“…for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.” (Toner, 1998, p.69)

​Juvenal argued that if people are given a pacifier like “bread and circuses,” they will never revolt. Have Black Americans become complacent with the few bones thrown at them by America to quiet their once revolutionary cries? Or, have Black Americans been disillusioned by our neutralized efforts to effectively organize because of government retaliation?

20th-century Barbadian revolutionaries faced a similar challenge. The Black Nationalist People’s Progressive Movement had a publication edited by Leroy Harewood titled Black Star. The internationalist paper covered local Barbadian issues, news, and world events to demonstrate solidarity with their contemporaries in struggle like Marcus Garvey. The writers looked to stimulate the minds of the people by pointing out the contradictions between what they deserve as human beings and what they were actively experiencing. They exposed the contradictions through a perspective of promoting self-knowledge with Pan-African and socialist teachings. 

In June of 1969, Black Star published “A Vote to Break Our Own Necks” in response to the people’s election of Errol Barrow over a socialist candidate,

“Never before in the history of this island had a political party done so much to open the eyes of the people to the harsh realities of life. Yet they refused to wake, to move forward…What we of the PPM tried to do was to make the people understand the truth and to strip away all pretense and make-believe. We failed not because we are wrong, but because of the deep “inferiorisation” of our people. And in this respect, the people have also failed.”

Today, Black Americans are in the same predicament. Though it may not be directly due to the “deep inferiorization” of Black Americans, it may be because they have been forced into complacency in their position in the world. They have been force indoctrinated with capitalism leading them to believe that they too can be billionaires. They have been forced to be indoctrinated with individualism, leading them to believe that no good deed goes unpunished. They have been indoctrinated with colonialism leading them to disbelieve in their own power. 

The condition of the majority of Black Americans sits on a fence built by the colonists, on the lawn of the colonists, in the neighborhood of the colonists. One lawn is pulling for electoral passion while the other lawn seeks to make Black Americans disinterested in the system holistically, all benefiting the structure. The survivalist character forced onto Black Americans comes from the need for individualism created by their oppressors. The necessity of individualism and survivalism serve the role of preserving capitalism and is marketed to Black Americans through prosperity gospels and self-help books on how to think and die rich.

Despite the colonial forces at play, the radical potential of Black Americans bubbles under the surface, and the changing of their condition rests on breaking the limits that colonialism has placed on their imagination. The means and the desire to reach collective liberation are more at the ready than Black Americans have been made to understand. As a people, Black Americans have more material means at the ready to care for one another than at any other time in history, yet still fall short of the revolutionary feats of the forefathers. 

Where Fred Hampton had limited resources to distribute mass-free food to children in Chicago, the technology to create free food at a low cost exists in ways never before predicted yet is not being used to organize politically.  

Where Mutulu Shakur had limited access to natural resources to use ancient healing practices on Black Americans, the ease of access to natural resources exists now but they aren’t being used in the same revolutionary nature.

It is crystal clear at this point that the issue is not about what Black Americans have and don’t have. The issue is beyond the haves and the have-nots which is emphasized by the soaring Black middle class. The challenge faced by Black Americans, placed on them by the oppressor, has pushed past their literal needs and has become immaterial. The oppression has become immaterial, a manufactured lack of interest in liberation. It is what James Baldwin referred to when he said he was “terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart.” 

He could not have predicted that there would be a full-scale attack on the moral engagement of Black Americans lasting all the way to the present forcing a disconnect with the radical tradition of Black America. Today, Black Americans are smothered with a 24/7 stream of videos, news, and literature that tries to bait their emotions to keep them in a state of paralysis. 

Black Americans need new tools and strategies to sufficiently face their oppressor and complete the destiny of liberation. Between the deconstruction of past Black liberation movements and the full-scale media assault by the capitalist class meant to grind the revolution to a halt, the question facing the struggle now is how can they engage in a cultural shift that gets the people to prioritize more than bread and circuses? 

The duty of the organizers of the revolution is crystal clear too. The work to convince families, friends, and coworkers to expand their political understanding cannot be tainted, as it often is, by savior-complexes and condescending speeches. Organizers should not assume the role of paternalists, but rather the role of architects. Organizers have the duty of building a culture that enables people to make connections and realize that everything rests on them. Organizers have the duty of pushing the people to assume their own independence outside of the manufactured one under bread and circuses. The people’s independence should be collective, but not exactly identical which means that everyone understands the end goal but not everyone has the exact knowledge of how to get there. At this point, the people will come together and compare notes, and force themselves forward. 

So where does this leave the condition? 

The modern organizer is burdened more heavily than ever. They must merge the forces from history and from the present to do their part in helping the people fulfill their destiny. One continuous historical force is described by a Moroccan proverb, “There is no beauty but the beauty of action.” The role of the organizer is not reserved for a singular type of person, it is for everybody who engages or is interested in pushing the people forward — and the more the merrier. The organizers must take action and all action for the betterment of the people is action needed, from conversations with our immediate communities to designing the blueprints for after the imminent revolution, to engaging in direct local struggles like protests and resistance to state violence. Local progress will lead to collective contributions to the larger struggle, which will lead to autonomous communities that rely on the people for stability instead of the oppressor. 

Collectively, the organizers must evolve their strategies beyond protest and militarization; the digital age requires a digital analysis and therefore a digital struggle. Organizers must adapt to the new conditions that create new struggles, even if that means letting go of older methods.