Who is Afraid of Black Power?

by Phillip Agnew and Damon Davis

Fall 2020 / 6320 AFK

Originally published on page 17 of Wartime, the publication of Black Men Build, in October of 2020

Someone must be. We don’t scream it no more. We don’t chant it no more. We don’t sing it no more. We don’t whisper it no more. We don’t look up to it no more. We don’t aim for it no more.

Are you afraid of Black Power?

Does it intimidate you? Does it feel too strong? Feel like it turns too many people off? Isn’t kumbaya enough?

Fuck That.

It’s BEEN time to talk about Black Power.

We been avoiding it. Running away from it. Acting like it don’t exist. Like it ain’t the key to freedom.

We know why you scared. Because Power has always been used AGAINST you. Power been used to impose someone else’s imagination on your life.

But Power is ours. We deserve Power. We need Power. To do with it what we please. To share it, expand it, use it to define our path and determine our future. Freedom is Power and Power is Freedom.

Don’t be scared.

This Empire has taught us that power is control, conquest, domination and exploitation. That’s not power, it’s Cowardice. It’s frail. It’s fleeting. It must always remind others of its presence.

Power is the ability to define phenomena, and the ability to make these phenomena act in a desired manner. Black Power is self determination to live a full and meaningful life. Nothing matters without the Power to make that happen.

Power is freedom. Flying is a metaphor for Freedom. Birds symbolize freedom like no other animal.

Our symbol of Black Power is the Crow.

The crow is constantly vilified and associated with evil and death. They are hated by the Western world because they are Black. The idea of “black” as pure evil is a white supremacist invention.

But, the Crow is one of the most intelligent and compassionate birds. They also move together and protect each other. They have funerals for their dead. Crows symbolize transformation and change. They are watchful creatures that have a sharp and powerful foresight. They always believed crows to be cleansers of both land and mind.

They travel in a flock. Flocks move as one-unit. They are formless until they are not. If they choose it, they can be one unified force that can defeat any threat. The individual bird never loses its autonomy but, in fact, chooses to align and move with the flock for the greater good of them all.

We have nothing to fear of Black Power. Black Power is ours for the molding. We either Build or Destroy. Black Men Build.