Vince Everett Ellison: The Defeatist Language of the Civil Rights Movement

By: Vince Everett Ellison

While celebrating this Black History Month, I think it is time for America to re-evaluate the language of the Civil Rights Movement.  Some have described the language of the Civil Rights Movement as uplifting and stirring.  Was it? “We shall overcome.”  “I Have A Dream.” “I’ve been to the Mountain Top.” Should we evaluate language solely because it incited people to act or based upon what the action wrought and continually creates?  For example, should a speech culminating in riot and murder be measured the same as a speech assuaging a lynch mob? Of course not.  The word and language employed should be weighed exclusively by what is created, whether it be prosperity or poverty, peace or strife, love or hate.

When measuring the language of The Civil Rights Movement and what it created and continues to create, how can one say it was stirring and uplifting when it created a dystopia where racial strife is worse and Black people are at the bottom of every socioeconomic statistic in the western world? Sadly, the Movement continues to deflect blame from the free people in the Black community and their enslavers in the Democrat Party and place it on the heads of hapless Republicans who have never had any control in the Black community. Ironically, this lie only benefits the savage racists of the Democrat Party leadership that necessitated the movement, to begin with.

Since it is evident that this Civil Rights language is responsible for creating this dystopia, why is this language of defeatism and victimization recited in our society daily like Shakespeare and the scriptures?

Consider this: In 1957, the Civil Rights Movement instilled a mentality of victimization and cowardice in most of Black America when instead of urging Black Americans to demand and forcibly exercise their right to vote, Martin Luther King in his “Give Us the Ballot” speech, implied that Black Americans did not have the right to vote.  He pleaded with the Federal Government to “give” Black Americans the ballot.

In fact, Black men were granted the right to vote in 1870 with the 15^th Amendment, and Women were afforded the right with the 19^th Amendment in 1920. Then the twin necessities of slavery, fear, and weakness entered their hearts, inviting the violence of the White Democrat racist into their midst.  Most Black men being too afraid of White Men to exercise their rights, taught their children the ways of the coward.  The language of the Movement agreed. Sadly, Black male cowardice has remained a constant plague in American society.  This is nothing new. Black men had allowed White Democrats to beat and murder their families for generations. The language of the Civil Rights Movement didn’t have to convince them to allow it, but it did teach Black Democrats the lie that there was virtue in it.

Here’s the truth, Black Americans were and remain free. Free men do not “ask permission” to access something they own.  They demand it and personally enforce it.  The choice not to do it will result in you being viewed with contempt by all men of honor and evil men ravishing everything you hold dear. Fredrick Douglass said, “A man without force is without the essential dignity of humanity.  Human nature is so constituted that it cannot honor a helpless man. Although it can pity him, and this it cannot do long if the signs of power do not arise.”  Nevertheless, the defeatist language of the Civil Rights encourages marching, singing, begging, and garners disgust from all free people with manly hearts.

Other examples: Planting the false claim of perpetual slavery and White Supremacy in the minds of future generations, in his “I Have Dream Speech,” Martin Luther King said, “one-hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation the Negro is still not free.” That is not true.  According to John Locke, we are all born free.   Jesus Christ said in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

In 1968, instead of acting like men and resigning from a job where they were disrespected, the “I AM A MAN” signs worn by the striking Memphis garbage workers reinforced a slave mentality where a Black Man’s knowledge of his intrinsic worth meant nothing unless first acknowledged by a White man. This mentality remains a barrier to Black self-esteem and empowerment even today.

Muhammad Ali said, “You have to be sick mentally to want to force yourself into a place where you’re not wanted.” Instead of helping Blacks to have esteem for themselves by reinforcing the Christian virtues of self-improvement, self-defense, self-love, and love of humanity, the Civil Rights Movement reinforced the lie of victimization and cowardice by employing the non-Christian language of “Forced Integration” and “non-violence” by stalking and begging to be in the presence of racist white Democrats who hated them.  Non-aggression is a Christian virtue, not non-violence.  And Christians should not offend unless they are offending for Christ.  Stalking is not only offensive; it is unmanly.

Worst of all, the Civil Rights movement exploited the language of the “Black Church” and the Church itself.  The Church, a place of peace and refuge where Black Christians prepared themselves to live forever in the presence of Jesus Christ, was sold by the Black Preacher to Godless Democrats and became a helpmeet to every unchristian Democrat Party policy from abortion to LGBTQ.

The evil Democrat Party benefits from the defeatist language of the Civil Rights Movement and has always benefited from the subjugation of Black Americans.  Accordingly, there will be no effort to change this dynamic by them or their minions in the Black Clergy, public education, or media. It must be done by us, the free people of the United States of America.

The current condition of Black Democrats verifies that the language of the Civil Rights Movement has convinced them that they are not free.  It convinced them that America is irredeemably racist and that the safe slavery of their former masters in the Democrat Party is preferable to the dangerous freedom of a true American.  Consequently, most Black Democrats sadly continue to live in fear and still ask permission before exercising rights that belong to them exclusively.

There are many more words and phrases in this outdated Civil Rights Movement language of defeatism and victimization that should be buried. Some of these are equality, systemic racism, government-guaranteed, we want, we don’t have bootstraps or boots, Black “Leaders,” underprivileged, white privilege, reparations, 40 Acres and a Mule, marches, protests, gun control, Affirmative Action, quotas, set-asides, etc. All have failed.  All stamp Black Americans as inferior and cause enmity, strife, and race hatred among fellow Americans.

Language can make war or peace.  It can express love or hate. It can motivate or depress. Abraham Lincoln plied the English language to heal a broken nation. Churchill weaponized the English language to defeat the evils of Nazism. Roosevelt activated the language of his country to stare down economic doom and repel an invasion.

Conversely, language has also been activated to propel a people to their doom.  The master orations of Hitler, Mussolini, and Castro extolling brotherhood, national pride, and benevolence led to war, poverty, and death.

If they are to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity, Black Democrats must re-access their language.  There is no profit in telling your people that they are not free; that they are too irresponsible to defend themselves; that they’re too stupid to navigate parental freedom in education, or that there is virtue in a dysfunctional society where cowardice, immorality, sloth, crime and substance abuse are excused because they falsely claim these actions are caused by the all-powerful White man.

If Black Democrats really covet a place as free Americans, they must bury the defeatist language of the Civil Rights Movement.  They must stop saying “one day we will be free” and accept that they are free. They must stop singing “we shall overcome” and understand with GOD “we’ve already overcome.” They must forcibly exercise and defend their rights as all “free” men do. They must seek justice, not equality; educational choice, not education slavery, work not welfare; admiration, not envy.  Above all else, they must commit themselves to the good work of uplifting GOD, nurturing family, and loving all humankind.

Vince Everett Ellison, is author of the new book, 25 Lies: Exposing Democrats' Most Dangerous, Seductive, Damnable, Destructive Lies and How to Refute Them.