Carmichael
contended that a genuine coalition had to be built between groups with
similar self interests. Further, he argued that each group must have
its own independent base of power from which to negotiate the terms of
a working alliance. Black power, he said, was an attempt to build the
strength on which future coalitions could be established.
Carmichael also attacked the concept of integration. If blacks wanted
good housing or good education, integration meant leaving a black
neighborhood and finding these things in white institutions. "This
reinforces, among both black and white," he argued, "the idea that
'white' is automatically better and 'black' is by definition inferior.
This is why integration is a subterfuge for the maintenance or white
supremacy." If blacks could gain control of their own neighborhoods,
each community, black and white, could define its own goals and be
responsible for achieving its own standards. When both societies had
built the kind of communities they wanted, meaningful integration
between equal, though different, communities could occur, Carmichael
contended.
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