I think the Black Arts Movement does the same thing for its Black writers and readers that Native Son did for me. Before reading Wright’s novel, of course, I knew my skin is Black. But I was not aware of the wedding of imperialism, capitalism, and racism. Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Touré, Carolyn Rodgers, Jayne Cortez, and others brought these detrimental powers to the forefront of American society in their literary works, speeches, and community work. Because of the determined and self-sacrificing commitment of the Black Arts Movement writers, their works continue to penetrate the walls of academia, the hearts, and minds of multi-generational seekers of freedom and righteousness who recognize that the tripartite/apartheid wedding of imperialism, capitalism, and racism continue to minimize the quality of their lives on multiple levels.

This malicious wedding has exploited the visibility of wealthy Black athletes, a previous Black president, the accomplishments of high-profile Black movie actors at the same time that homelessness, joblessness, lack of health insurance, food shortages, shockingly high gas prices, unfathomable student-loan debt, rapidly increasing inability to purchase homes, police brutality, rapid increase in violence,  and many other oppressive horrors that summon enhanced/increased attention to Black survival—all demanding the continued indoctrination of the work, performed by the Black Arts Movement that continues a call for Black determination, self-defense, and the knowledge that comes with self-respect.

For the same reasons that political powers destroyed Marcus Garvey’s influence over the Black populace, the Black Arts Movement remains a radical threat to the forces that stifle multiple manifestations of Black productivity. A younger generation of Black literary artists heavily influenced by the Black Arts Movement radically and respectfully challenges the misogyny and homophobia apparent at the inception of the movement. This current inclusion of gender and sexuality strengthens the agency and comprehensive agenda of the Black Arts Movement’s current practitioners. This movement has a long history in its consistent impugning the comprehensive “isms,” the patriarchal, commodified, colonial abuse, stifling the agency of Blacks and other global people of color. Such a mission threatens any empire or colonial power that thrives on the intellectual innocence and desperation of a people whose main goal is a struggle for every-day necessities taken for granted by the hegemony.