Empowering Minorities

[Name of the Institute]

Empowering Minorities

Introduction

In this paper I will be discussing the process and techniques which support the concept of empowerment of the members in a group of minority. The paper will also include historical inferences and institution is empowering the rights of minorities. The primary focus will on the origin, struggle and development of African Americans in the American society and their significance in the communal history of the United States. Therefore it is important to understand the concept of empowerment. Empowerment is a process whereby people, organizations, communities and others take control of their lives; realize their skills and abilities to manage their destinations. That consciousness surpasses individual initiative to overcome a certain particular reality, but also enables the collective level, allowing the overcoming of social dependence and political domination.

History of Empowerment

The concept of empowerment began in the United States during the late 70's with the civil rights movement and as a way of recovering the African American population and conquest of full citizenship, to be later used also by the liberation movement of the women. Around 1990, empowerment has become a central concept in the discourse and development practice. This term is very complex, since it has a simple definition and is open to many interpretations. The areas in which the empowerment methodology has been applied are varied: Ethnic minorities, women, migrants, victims of violence and abuse, promotion of rights and citizenship, sustainable development and community intervention, among others (Hale, 2006).

Discussion

A militant, confrontational movement of young African Americans, supported by some whites, that emerged out of the originally nonviolent march from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi, begun by James Meredith on June 5, 1966. On June 6, although accompanied by FBI agents, police, and admirers, Meredith was shot by a white man but not seriously injured. The shooting instigated others to join him, however, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As the march ensued the participants disputed the appropriate direction for the Civil Rights movement to take, and Carmichael emerged triumphant with his advocacy of Black Power. Carmichael approached defining the movement in a speech given at Berkeley on November 19, 1966 (Wynn, 2005). He also defined Black Power quite benignly as "a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community"; and he advocated that blacks create their own goals and institutions, rejecting those racist organizations and values found in U.S. society. Other black leaders defined Black Power as a concept of racial pride and constructive empowerment; still others denounced it as black racism, a menace, and a threat to integration. But Carmichael opposed integration anyhow as an affirmation of presumed white superiority, and youthful black militants adopted his view. White resistance and scattered urban riots occurred in the aftermath of Carmichael's Black Power advocacy. Although black militancy began to wain by the end of the 1960s, the Black Power movement clearly influenced the rhetoric, goals, and ...