Though I came late to the talk today, I have heard Davarian speak on the same topic before and I have to admit that it was a lot to take in, the first time around. Second time around, so many bells were going off in my head and I kept feeling like "oh, I get it".
Two interesting thoughts occured to me. The first is the notion that blacks are a sort of colony within the United States who saw (and see) commonalities with oppressed and imperialized peoples of the world. What occured to me was the fact that Native Americans are also a mistreated minority group within the boundaries of the United States and many mainstream Americans do see them as "nations". The term nation is often applied to large NA tribes like the Iroquois and the Cherokee. So, it is not too much of a stretch to see a nation of blacks within our nation. The obvious difference being that Native Americans actually maintain boundaries and have seperate governing bodies to run Indian affairs so they are a closer fit to the nation-state but I was intrigued by this similarity and started wondering about other minority groups and if they too could be considered colonies or nations?
Also, the theme of globalization and cross-country pollination of the American Civil Rights Movement and other anti-colonial movements in the world was fascinating to me. My other aha! moment was when Davarian showed the minister of defense of the BPP in the photo. I had seen the photo before but what struck me this time was the fact that they called his position a "minister" which is a foriegn term (building on the idea that their was a sense of greater connections to the outside world) Americans use the term secretary of defense. Right?
Love this stuff
Jen
Jen Martin
Brookline High School
History Department