The hypocrisy that is Garveyism

Michael Dingwall, Contributor

I normally don't pay much attention to Black Power movements like Garveyism and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). For me, they are nothing but talk shops. However, while watching CVM-TV recently, I was shocked about what I learned about the UNIA.

On that programme, both the president and the 'lady president' were being interviewed about Garveyism and the UNIA. One of the issues that came up was the relationship between Dr Julius Garvey (son of Marcus) and the UNIA. The presidents were asked if all was well with the relationship since Dr Garvey's expulsion from the movement.

To the visible shock of the host, the UNIA head told us that Dr Garvey had been expelled not because of some policy difference, or something of the sort, but because he married a white woman! Officers of the UNIA are forbidden to marry outside the black race! I must admit that I, too, was shocked.

MIXING FOR MOBILITY

The president was trying to make the point that many black men married white women because they wanted upward social mobility. Though not accusing Dr Garvey of this directly, the implication was very clear. I am still amazed, however, that the 'remote' possibility of true love being the reason why Dr Garvey and that white woman getting married was eluding the UNIA president.

Anyway, isn't it very interesting that here we have a movement that is practising the very racism that it so often and strongly condemns?

Also, during that programme, another Garveyite preached the need for us blacks to be "self-reliant". You know, I wonder why it is that the UNIA decides to practise this 'self-reliance' with only this ban on inter-racial marriage; I mean, why stop there?

Why don't the UNIA and other Garvey movements practise true 'self-reliance' by shunning everything that isn't black? Why not ban the use of the white man's BlackBerry, the Internet and other communication technologies? Why not ban travel on the white man's planes, ships, buses and cars? Why not ban the use of the white man's medical technologies? Why not ban the use of the white man's electricity?

TAKEN TO THE ABSURD

Indeed, seeing that Marcus Garvey preached 'One God, One Aim, One Destiny', why don't these movements show true self-reliance by aiming to follow God's original destiny of us going around naked? After all, the very clothes we wear are products of mass production - which is based on the white man's technology.

I guess the UNIA and other Garvey movements have figured out that while we can do without the white man's spouses, we can't survive without his technology!

Also, notice how we blacks like to feel validated only when the white man approves? Many of these Garveyites, and others, migrate in droves to these white societies because we see no hope in ours. We shun our own universities for the MITs, Oxfords and Harvards because ours are deemed inferior. We think our music is of any worth only after winning the white man's Grammy. No 'Africa for Africans' here!

I really do hope that the real truth about these Garvey movements, including the new Garvey civics curriculum that is to be rolled out in our schools, is not censored to the point of being only a shell. In particular, I hope our non-black students are taught about what it takes to be a UNIA officer.

I have always maintained that these Garvey movements are outdated. After watching that programme on CVM-TV, my convictions have not only been strengthened, I am beginning to think that they border on madness!

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