Policy Is a Tool of Social Engineering | Blueprint for Black Power

Peace and blessings, everybody. This is Damon K. Jones, publisher of Black Westchester magazine, powered by Black Westchester.com. And thank you for joining tonight. We're doing a special every Monday, Black History Month, Black Power.

And tonight, we're talking about a thinker whose work explains something many people feel but rarely understand clearly. Dr. Amos Wilson wasn't just a psychologist. He was a systems analyst of power across his wonderful books: *Black-on-Black Violence*, *Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children*, and *The Development of Psychology of the Black Child*. He examined behavior, education, identity, and why communities often act against their own long-term interests without realizing it. He didn't look only at racism. He looked at conditioning. He looked at incentives. And he looked at structure.

But tonight, we're focusing on the book where he stops diagnosing the problem and he starts prescribing the solution: *Blueprint to Black Power*. Because in this work, Wilson argues something uncomfortable. Progress doesn't come from awareness alone. A people can be informed. A people can be passionate. A people can be even politically active but still remain powerless. Why? Because behavior follows power, not slogans. And until institutions exist that reward productive behavior, communities like ours will keep repeating the same cycles while expecting different outcomes. So tonight, we're not discussing motivation. We're discussing structure.

Now, every election, brothers and sisters, the same pattern appears in the black community. We mobilize, we march, we trend online, right? We celebrate representation, and very little changes. Not because people don't care, not because people aren't engaged, but because engagement is not leverage. Wilson explained that groups who control economics influence politics. Groups who depend on politics without economics become permanent petitioners. So instead of negotiating, they request. Instead of bargaining, they appeal. Instead of exchanging support for policy, they offer loyalty and advantage. And once loyalty is given without conditions, it has no market value. You cannot negotiate, brothers and sisters, with what you are willing to give away.

Wilson pointed something out deeper than spending habits when we're talking about consuming versus producing. Consumption can be psychological comfort. Buying feels like participation. Supporting feels like progress. Representation feels like ownership. But ownership and participation are not the same thing. Ownership controls hiring, contracts, direction. Participation only places black people inside someone else's structure. A community trained to celebrate access more than control. They will feel included while remaining dependent. So the culture rewards visibility instead of infrastructure. See, we promote influencers more than we promote manufacturers. We celebrate entertainers more than we celebrate institution builders. We track popularity more than we track production. And when we ask why wealth doesn't accumulate in black communities, in black families, because money flows to ownership, it doesn't flow to likes, applauses, and follows.

Now, what was Amos Wilson's blueprint for black power? To understand Wilson fully, you have to understand his blueprint for black power. This was not a motivational book. It was a manual. He argued that black power would never come from emotional unity alone. It had to come from organized institutional control. Control of our schools, control of our business networks, control of our political organization, control of our family structure, control of our economic cooperation. Wilson described something he called coordinated self-interest. Individuals strengthen the group, and the group strengthens the individuals. But when a community acts only as individuals, it competes internally while depending externally.

*Blueprint for Black Power*, Chapter 9, "The Policy Formation Process," pages 185 to 208. "Foundations as Vehicles of Social Engineering." Foundations, in a number of instances, can become the vehicle for the restructuring of important social institutions. The newly restructured or created institutions may themselves become vehicles for the transmissions and ultimate institutionalization of ruling class interests into the cultural sphere. Thus, the ruling elite, in effect, through its foundations, mounts a cultural war against alternative and competitive ideologies by attempting to shape and delimit intellectual discourse in academia and in the larger society. Foundations, foundations using their funding mechanisms, may seek not only to change the types of questions academia and the general populace may ask and the issues they may perceive as important, but also the methods by which these questions and issues are confronted. We must note that method and technique are not value-free or publicly neutral or politically neutral. Excuse me. Let me read that again. We must note that the method and technique are not value-free or politically neutral. Marcus speaks to this issue when he asserts that the very concept of technical reason is perhaps ideological. Not only the application of technology, but technology itself is domination of nature and men. Methodical, scientific, calculated, calculating control, specific purposes and interests of domination are not fostered upon technology subsequently from the outside. They enter the very construction of the technical apparatus. Technically is, excuse me, technology is always a historical social project, and it is projected what a society and its ruling interests tend to do with men and things.

The story of how the Ford Foundation transformed the focus and method and methodology of political science is a case in point, demonstrating the impact large foundations can have on the academic and public discourse and opinion. Peter Seold outlines the process beginning with the following observation. Let me turn my light on so I can see this part. Before World War II, the field of political science had focused either on the formal operation of government institutions or on the moral and ethical issues of governmental policy. By the 1960s, its attention was revised on voting patterns. The lone scholar sitting in the library examining the details of a state constitution and philosophizing and philosophizing on the morality of legislator of legislature actions was replaced by a team of survey researchers who sought to understand the electoral choices of American voters through the use of random samples and questionnaire surveys. This transformation became known as the behavioral revolution. In a little more than 10 years, the whole foundation of political science was altered as behavioralists came to dominate the major journals and departments in the field. Traditional scholarship was brushed aside, labeled as philosoph as too philosophical and abstract and therefore unable to meet the task of scientifically understanding modern political modern modern political behavior. The victory was so complete that in 1961, the American Political Science Review published what what amounted to an official declaration of victory by Robert Dah, a leading behavioralist, entitled "The Behavioral Approach to Saint," "The Behavioral Approach to Political Science," epithet for the moment of, for the moment, to a successful protest. A crucial factor that determined the intellectual complexion, the intellectual complexion of the post-World War II political analysis was the inst institutional leverage exercised by the foundation as a representative of the interest of the corporate elite. The rise of the prominence of the political behavior approach did not signal the very, did not signal the victory of a particular perspective in the marketplace of ideas. Rather, it demonstrated the very significant influence that institutional support by major foundations can have on the production of ideas in our society. The behavioral revolution referred to above was not primarily the result of spontaneous internal changes in the attitudes of political science. The development of academic schools of thought or of changes in political science research technique. The revolution was deliberately engineered by external forces. These forces sought to determine the primary or principal determinant of what of what questions are considered important by the discipline and what methods are used to research these questions. CEO goes on to demonstrate that the behavioralist revolution in the American political science establishment was largely the product of for, of the Ford Foundation's efforts to restructure political science to meet the needs of the economic elite. From this perspective, the triumph of the behavioralists in political science was not p, was not principally the result of the mood of social sciences. Nor was it the result of the development of the behavioralist or of more accurate portrait of how the system operates. Rather, it was a consequence of the operation of social forces in the larger political economy as mediated by the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation has a major institutional representative of the ruling elite whose major concern is to preserve the stability of the American class race status quo and institutional social order sought to define the sought to define the agenda for the social research. The role of the Ford Foundation in this process was to identify actual and potential threats to the status quo and address them with a program of political research which would aid the struggle to maintain political stability.

Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. Happy Monday. Welcome back to "On the Shoulders of Giants." I am Joseph Ward. Continuing my reading of Dr. Amos Wilson's great book, *Blueprint for Black Power*, a moral, political, and economic imperative for the 21st Century. And we're reading pages 185 to 208. I start off on page 185 where it says, "Foundations as vehicles of social engineering." And basically, you see the video in the video, I opened up with the gentleman giving an overview of this book and the ideologies and things that's in this book about how we um go about operating as a group of people or how we are how we were programmed to operate. But even in this uh, what I was reading from, page 185 is talking about how the Ford Foundation was able to socially help social engineer the um, the social science and the behavioral science revolution. And that's what that's what we was talking about in the last video. The importance of think tanks, the importance of institutions, the importance of, like the gentleman saying in the video, ownership, controlling things, having power, not just being participants. Right? So in this part of Chapter 9, Dr. Wilson moves on from explaining how policy is created to exposing how policy is used as a weapon of group power. Right? This section is less about government and the mechanics of the government and more about the relationship between power, organized interest, race, economics, and social engineering. So think about like this. If the first half of the chapter is about how policy is made, then the second half of this chapter is about why policy is made and who it who the policy is designed to serve. Right? And the the central argument of this particular section of this chapter is policy in itself is never neutral. Every major policy benefits some groups while deval while disadvantaging, excuse me, I'm wrong. Policy is never neutral. Right? Every major policy benefits some groups while disadvantaging other groups because the policy was not created to lift all boats. You know how they say the rising tide lifts all boats? It wasn't designed to do that. It was designed to lift specific boats because those are the people who created the policy. Dr. Wilson is arguing that powerful groups use policy to preserve their positions, to accumulate resources, to shape public consciousness, and to ensure their continued dominance. Cuz see, black people, we misunderstand policy. We evaluate policy based on stated intentions rather than actual outcomes, which shows our position and our lack of power as a group of people in the society. And that's why this book was written so we can learn how to build some type of power for ourselves. But we got to be a, we got to first be willing to read and then know how to read and then know how to comprehend what we read and then practically use the information. But that's why we here. That's why we here. So the central thesis of this part of the chapter, of chapter, the second half of Chapter 9 is policy is one of the primary instruments through which the ruling groups maintain and expand power. Policy is one of the primary instruments through which ruling groups maintain and expand their powers. Policy determines economic opportunities. It determines educational outcomes, political influence, social mobility, wealth accumulation, cultural legitimacy, and institutional access. Dr. Wilson insists that if black people want power, they must learn to analyze policies according to who benefits from the policy, who loses when the policy is enacted, who gains the resources from the policy, who gains [clears throat] influence from the policy, and overall a power play. Who gains institutional control because of the policy? We play the game wrong.

So, key points: Policy is a tool of social engineering. Powerful groups use policy to protect their interests. The myth of neutral government. Economic policy is power policy. Education policy shapes the future. Policy creates winners and losers. The importance of resource allocation. Policy reinforces existing power structures. [laughter] Excuse me. Black communities must develop their own policy agenda. Political power requires policy expertise. Think tanks and research centers are essential. Control of information leads to control of policy. Group consciousness influences policy success. Policies can be used to manage populations. Power must be institutionalized. So those are key points. All right. So with that being said, let's jump back into the reading, page 189. And then we jump back on these uh key points.

189: "Education for Servitude, Corporate Philanthropy, and the Shaping of Black Higher Education." The prospect of black education for social equality. The history of black higher education essentially involves the origin and evolution of the black of the black private college system beginning from the Reconstruction era to World War II. This is the case because up to 1938, and for quite some time thereafter, when the United States Supreme Court ordered the states to provide substantially equal facilities for black and white state and land grant colleges, the VA, the vast majority of black college students were enrolled in and private institutions of higher learning. And these institutions were controlled or identified with black church organizations, white m, white missionary and industrial philanthropy. As late as the 1930s, black church organizations controlled colleges which enrolled 14% of black students. Missionary and industrial philanthropy controlled colleges which enrolled 61% of these students. The black state and land grant colleges enrol wrote most of the remaining 25%. The mission societies made their most important contributions to black higher education from the 1860s to 1915. By by then, the mission, the mission societies had established over 30 colleges attended by the majority of black and professional students. Many of these institutions were and remain the leading black centers for higher education.

"The Triumph of Black Industrial Education." Missionary philanthropy was soon replaced by industrial or corporate philanthropy as the dominant force shaping the quality, character, and mission of black of black higher education. By the turn of the century, mission philanthropy organizations such as the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the American Missionary Association, and the Methodist Episcopal Freedman's Aid Society, Presbyterian Board of Missions for the Freedman, and the Northern Missionary Societies were virtually bankrupt, and that campaign to develop black higher education sputtered out, sputtered out before getting an insight of their goal.

"The Extension of Equal Education, Civil and Political Rights to African-Americans." The colleges they had supported were left out, were left without sufficient endowments to ensure their survival. From from the eve of the First World War onward, the industrial philanthropy gained ascendance as the major force in black higher education after having struggling with missionary philanthropy for that position since 1867, when the Peabody Educational Fund was established. Beginning about 1918, black colleges became increasingly dependent on industrial philanthropy to fund factually, uh, faculty salaries, retirement benefits, scientific equipment, laboratories, substantial endowments, libraries, and other material resources. The resources necessary for colleges to be recognized as accredited institutions. Crucial to the economic visibility and educational development of black private colleges were the philanthropic organizations financed primarily by the northern industrial capitalists, such as the Southern Education Board, the General Education Board. By um, the former board was absorbed by the latter in 1914 under the title of the General Education Board. The General Education Board, which served as a clearing house for industrial philanthropy and which marketkedly influenced the character of southern education through its dispersements of grants to the region's educational institutions and state departments of education, became the premier philanthropic trust among a number of powerful northern industrial funds. By 1909, Rockefeller had supplemented his initial grant of 51 million by others amounting to 53 million. As Anderson notes, by 1921, Rockefeller had personally donated 29 million to the board. Moreover, the board became an interlocking directorate of Northern Industrial Philanthropy as the members directed dispersements of old and new foundations. The General Education Board either directly controlled such funds as the Peabody and Slater Funds or granted cooperation of funds such as the Phipe Stokes, Julius Roenwald, Carnegie Corporation, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Funds, all establishments between 1902 and 1917. Anderson quotes historian Lewis Harland as saying that the General Education Board exercised virtual, virtual monopolistic control of educational philan, philanthropy for the South and the Negro. Anderson himself further asserts that the role of industrial philanthropy is shaping black education then is largely a story of General Education Board and its trustees, agents, and the cooperating foundations.

So let's get to our key points and we going to knock out our first three key points.

So, policy is a tool of social engineering. Policy is a tool of social engineering. Dr. Wilson argues that policy is designed to shape societies. Policy influences where people live, where resources flow, who receives opportunities, what values are promoted, and which institutions grow stronger. Policy does not simply respond to society. Policy actively creates the societies. Dr. Dr. Wilson wants us to understand that governments and powerful institutions can shape behavior through policy choices.

Powerful groups use policy to protect their interests. Dr. Wilson repeatedly emphasizes that organized groups use policy to advance their collective interests. They seek policies that protect their wealth, that secure their political influence, that strengthen their institutions, that increase their opportunities for their members, that limits threats to their position. Dr. Wilson argues that this behavior is normal in politics. And another question, or the real question is, why are black people often discouraged from pursuing their interests with the same intensity? Why, why are black people often told to choose the moral route while other people choose the correct route? Because they shape the way we exist. See, black people, we're not in as much control of our lives as we think we are. It's hard to tell you, but you're not.

Third key point is the myth of neutral government. Dr. Wilson challenges the idea that government acts as a completely neutral referee. He argues that government reflects power relationships. The groups with the greatest influence often shape the priorities, the budgets, the laws, the enforcement practices, and the public investments of said government. Until black people get our [ __ ] together, we're going to be subject to being controlled by such policies and said government. Government policy often reveals which group possesses the most organized power. [clears throat] Government policies often reveal which groups possess the most organized power. Think about it.

All right, back to the reading. Page 193: "The Foundations and Think Tanks, the Selling of New Genriches and the Republican Party of 1994." [clears throat] In November 1994, the nation and African-American community was astonished by a near revolutionary change in the political composition of their national legislative chambers. Both houses of government came under the solid control of the Republican Party. In the House, the Democrats, excuse me, in the House, the Democrats were routed after 40 years of of predominance. The ascendance of the Republican Party in the House and the Senate was accentuated by its stunning takeover of numerous state houses, state legis, state houses, state legislators, and local governments. To many pundits and ordinary citizens, especially in the black community, the triumph of the Republican Party omnously signaled a drastic turn in the political right of a very large segment, if not the large majority of the white American population. In the aftermath of a campaign based on race politics and the rejection of liberal values, many of the blacks and progressive communities were pervaded by a lingering sense of foroding and menace. The ex, the expectation that national and state governments shall grow increasingly mean, quarreled. It says, oh, let me read that again. The expectation that the national and state governments shall grow inc, increasingly mean spirits, mean, I'm talking about mean quarrel, meanspirited and repressive is is palatable. The expectation will grow, the expectation will grow should a Republican be elected president in the United States. For many in the African-American and progressive communities, the menace of the Republican Party rule is in, is incarnated in the person of N. Gingrich of Georgia, Speaker of the House. Within a decade, Gingrich has risen to become the chief spokesman of the Republican Party and a personification of a race-based, anti-lack, market-oriented politics. His and the Republican Party's ascendance is perceived by many in the black community to represent the electoral expression of the heartfelt, spontaneous racial sentiments and economic fears of the majority of the white American community. While this perception may be based on fact, the Republican sweep was good, a bit more complex than the mere expression of political discon, discontent, excuse me, of political discontent. The Republican victory was to a significant degree deliberately ostracized by well-funded political operatives. The ascendance of N. Gingrich in the Republican Party is a tribute to the white elitees masterful manipulation of the candidate selection, psychopolitical, and communication process. The triumph of N. Gingrich in the Republican Party is one, is one with the triumph of conservative white elite coop, cooperations, foundations, and think tanks. Their triumph is also one with white elite coop, corporate ownership and control of the electronic and print media. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. [clears throat] Most of Gopac and Gingrich's planning, development, and operational strategies occurred largely out of the public view. GOPAC has thus far refused to release the roster of its character members. However, it is known to be primarily supported by corporate executives, investment bankers, health executives, and others within and others whose bottom lines are affected by federal legislation. This cautery of GOAC supporters, supporters were able to raise $7.8 million to help pay for Genrich's media exposure and to train the farm team of Republican candidates it developed over seven years. GOPAC credits 33 of the 73 freshman Republicans in the House with being members of its farm team. Representative Bill Paxton, New York Republican, who is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is reported to have said that up to 80% of our new members were represents, were rep, were recipients over the years of GOAT activity tapes, seminars, meetings, training videos developed by Nuke Gingrich and Gopac were described free, were excuse me, were distributed free of charge to prospective candidates. Dates for Congress, according to the Times. They, they making sure they take care of business. They make sure everybody know what time it is, know what the play is, and they can be on the same page. But what are we doing? And are we listening? And are we paying attention?

Fourth key point: Economic policy is power policy. Dr. Wilson explains that economic policies are among the most important forms of public policy. Economic policy determines access to capital. It determines business development, employment opportunities, housing markets, wealth creation, infrastructure investment. Dr. Wilson argues that many people underestimate how deeply economic policy shapes life outcomes. Who controls economic policy often controls the future. Who controls economic policy often controls the future.

Education policy shapes future power. Dr. Wilson devotes significant attention to education. He argues that education, excuse me, he argues education policy, education policy determines knowledge distribution. It determines leadership development. It determines cultural values. It determines economic opportunities through education systems. Societies produce power structures, societal hierarchies, and ideological beliefs. Wilson views education as one of the most powerful policy arenas because education helps teach you how to think, and sometimes it can teach you what to think.

Policy creates winners and losers. Every policy has consequences, right? Policies can create wealth or they or it can destroy wealth. It can strengthen communities or weaken communities. It can create opportunities or bore you from opportunities. Wilson argues that policies should be judged by outcomes rather than rhetoric. And the key question we should always ask when it comes to policies is who actually benefits from the actual policy.

Foundations' influence on the African-American community. It is page 197 with regard to the African-American community. One can confidently argue that a number of leading social political institutions like the NAACP and the Urban League have measurable, have to measurable degrees compromised the interests of the community in response to their being heavily financed by white wealth in general and white institutional wealth in particular. Foundations such as Ford and Rockefeller have loomed large in the lives of those in similar black civil rights organizations and in the life of the black community in general. For example, in an effort to cool down racial tensions in Cleveland, Ohio in 1961, the Ford Foundation granted CORE $175,000 for voter registration efforts, which were instrumental in the election of black mayor Carl Stokes. A democratic, a Democrat and supporter of the Vietnam War. Stokes was also considered to be politically moderate and friendly towards businesses. The Ford Foundation also influenced the general, the excuse me, influenced the generation of information regarding the African-American community through its funding of research organizations such as that led by black social psychologist Kenneth Clark's Metropolitan, Metropolitan Applied Research Center to the tune of a half a million dollars. So it was, they funded them with half a million dollars. Also, in an effort to claim racial t, to calm racial tension in Cleveland in 1961, this organization reported to have sponsored a secret meeting of civil rights leaders. Nine major groups were represented in order to execute a joint campaign in that regard. And so, even apparently black militant and libertarian politics and movements were not spared from the influence of the white corporate elite who were ostendably an enemy of black power advocates. According to Horowitz and Colony, in 1967, the black power conference was held in Newark, financed by 50 white corporations. They pro, they provide a very apt example of how white elite foundations sought to seek to shape and direct the social political character and orientation of the African-American community. It's why real power ain't been built. At the end of the month, in July of 1967, the most massive rebellion to date took place in the motor city of Detroit, leaving 45 blocks dead and millions of dollars worth of property damage in its wake. On August 1st, a day after troops left the city, 22 American leaders called on the nation to revisit its priorities, bring more resources to bear on domestic problems, and announced the foundation of the Urban Coalition to do just that. And the, the Urban Coalition, headed by John Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and former president of the Carnegie Foundation, included moderate negro leaders, Royal Wilkins of the NAACP, and Whitney Young of the National Urban League, as well as labor leaders, big city mayors, and businessmen like David Rockefeller and Gerald Phipe, chairman of the board of General Electric and trustee of the National Industrial Conference Board and Foundation. >> [snorts] >> Finance policy organization. The funds for Urban Coalition were to be provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Carnegie Found, the Carnegie Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. Regional coalitions between labors, Negroes, businessmen, and politicians were to be, were to be formed, and they were to work in close cooperation with the National Alliance of Businessmen, headed by Henry Ford II. Not surprisingly, the coalition placed primary emphasis not on mass income redistribution and federal reconstruction and rebuilding programs, but on the various involvement of the private sector in the crisis of the cities by commitment of investment, job training, hiring, and, and, and all other things that are necessary to the full employment of the free enterprise system and also to its survival. The basic strategy of salvation was echoed in the report of the special advisory commission civil disorders, which had been empowered by the president at the same time on July 27th, 1967, in the wake of the Detroit insurrection. It took into the causes of ri, it, it looked into the causes of riots and prescribed remedial action. The efforts of the white male elite establishment to redefine reality and redefine important and possibly revolutionary political ideological concepts are illustrated by Horowits and collodon following in the following example of how the elite sought to redefine the concept of black power and publicize its re, redefinition while vigorously repressing, i.e., killing, jailing, framing, ostracizing black power advocates for whom black power meant confrontation with the system and agit, and agitation for revolutionary change. The rich white establishment and its press began to promote recognition of the reasonable, the reasonable connotations which the term black power had in the mouths of possible millions. As the Wall Street Journal reported in July of 1968, black power is being newly redefined in a way that many, that may not be quite so frightening to the white man, and particularly to Wall Street Journal readers. And now seems to be happening in the torturous history of race relations in America, commented the journal, is that the black man is coming of age, while maintaining that extremist blacks and their radical ideas must be purged. The journal noted that the white America is the majority, and the new black leadership, while adopting more and more of a do-it-yourself stance, still does not want a complete break with the rest of America. Black power as self-help within the system, then, was the journal's preferred interpretation. And it has, and it has pleased to find that the black organizations which are heavily subsidized by journal readers on the one hand, and savagely repressed by the forces of law on the other, on the other hand, are coming around to this point of view. What is really being said now, in different ways by different leaders, is that the black man is beginning to feel strong enough to rely more on himself and less on the white man. This new emphasis on self-help is, in a sense, a return to the turn of the century philosophy of Booker T. Washington.

All right. So, let's get back. Let's get to this next key point. All right.

The importance of resource allocation. The importance of resource allocation. All right. Wilson repeatedly focuses on resources. Policy determines where resources go. Resources include money, jobs, schools, healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and business support. Dr. Wilson argues that budgets reveal priorities. Groups receiving resources gain power. Groups denied resources lose power.

Policy reinforces existing power structures. Wilson argues policies often reinforce established power relationships. This happens because powerful groups influence policy. Powerful groups control institutions. Powerful groups shape public discourse. The result of all of that is public, is policies frequently reproduce the conditions that made those groups powerful in the first place. The policies reproduce the conditions that made the groups powerful in the first place. And power tends to reproduce itself. Remember that power tends to reproduce itself.

Black communities must develop their own policy agenda. Wilson strongly criticizes reactive policies. Too often, he argues, that black communities spend their energy responding to other groups' agendas. Instead, black people should create economic agendas strictly for ourselves, based on us, not based on nobody else. Educational agendas. Political agendas. Institutional agendas. Stop reacting and start proposing. Stop reacting and start proposing.

All right. Page 200. "The Need for African-Centered Information and Strategy Centers." Our view of the white male elite-dominated policy formation network. The power and influence it generates and extorts obviously implies that if detrimental effects on the African-American community are to be neutralized, they must be countered by an effective African-American controlled network. This network must provide the powers that be, the African-American community with the relevant information, intelligence, strategies, and tactics for advancing the community's interests and for liberating African peoples from their oppressors. We fully endorse Theodore Gross's proposition regarding the need to organize a black control intelligence agency and strategy center. In the collection, opinion of millions of blacks in America, their nu, their numerical minority position keeps negroes from claiming power and position in this country. This conclusion wholly ignores the potential of minority power in a democracy. The fact is that black powerlessness is due to in large measure, and due to in large measure, to the inability of negro people to develop a winning scenario for taking up positions of economic and political power. This is not a failure of numbers. It is often a failure of intelligence operations. In a nation that allocates resources according to power as well as ability, blacks simply lack the information and plans necessary to set in place a strategy for becoming both strong and equal. Intelligence power unequally belongs to those who can read maps. In modern times, powerful people possess and breed the mapped out, the mapped out channels of federal bure, of federal bureaucracy. They find and skillfully interpret the intricate charts of Wall Street, finance, the complex f, uh, folkways of large corporations, and the obscure roads of entry into credentializing institutions. They scout out the thickets of legislative and administrative bodies. Powerful people and groups tend to be the people who know the ropes because they have charted the maze of business, government, education, and banking. Like other activities associated with power, expert training in map reading and other intelligence activities has been reserved for members of the white race. In recent years, many of the critical charts that describes the energies of power in United States have been unlocked and made available for distant inspection by blacks. But few blacks have learned to use the charts and scrutinize the maps, have had discovered and to move comfortably through the maze of political and economic information that is indispensable to those who could locate, harness, and blunt institutional power. In order to become powerful and financially reach equality in the United States, blacks too must become expert map readers. To this end, they must organize and control a competent and well-funded intelligence gathering agency staffed by expert chart readers and intelligence operators. The intelligence unit is necessary to provide black leaders and strategists with all the charts and other strategic information that they need to scope out their problems, detect the presence of barriers and ways of entering closed places, set agendas, plan political strategies, and act nationally. Excuse me. And act rationally to attain agreed upon objectives. Hey people, we got to plan it out. We got to be intentional about what we trying to do. And if we're not being intentional about what we trying to do, then what really is we trying to do?

All right, next key point. Political power requires policy expertise. Wilson stresses that power requires technical competence. Black communities need people trained in economics, public policy, law, planning, governance, and institutional management. Why? Because policy decisions shape reality. Without expertise, communities remain dependent on outsiders. And you can't just Google it and become an expert or just ask AI. Takes experience, right?

Think tanks and research centers are essential. Well, well, well. Why? Why are think tanks and research centers essential, Dr. Wilson? Well, because he argues that successful groups invest heavily in public policy development. They think, or excuse me, they create think tanks, foundations, research institutions, and advocacy organizations. [snorts] These institutions produce ideas. They influence the media. They shape legislation, and they train policy makers. Wilson believes black communities need similar institutions. We do. We do. We do. We do. We do.

Control of information leads to control of policy. Remember that control of information leads to control of policy. Wilson revisits, he revisits a theme found throughout the book. Information influences public opinion. It influences political priorities, policy debates, and resource allocation. Those who define problems often define solutions. Control of information becomes a form of power. We should already know that by now. We should, we should, we should already know that by now.

All right, let's round this chapter out. "On the Black Hand Side, Black Power Networks and Institutions of Higher Learning." We have sketched out an outline of how white male-dominated ruling class in America seeks to bend the public policy formation process to its will. We have looked briefly at the public, at the policy planning and policy formation network of corporate interest research and educational institutions, policy planning groups, and option shaping apparenti of the government law making, making, regulation, and executive institutions it utilizes to actualize its class interest. It is tempting to perceive the forgiving discussions as primarily a description of how the predominant class in a class society seeks to work its wild, to seeks to work its ws on the subordinate classes without regard to their racial composition. Therefore, there, there are those who think that a class analysis instead of a race analysis would be appropriate here. They may argue that racism is only instrumental to ruling class interest. This proposition implies that the common enemy of both black and white masses is that domination by the ruling classes whose processes of ruling we have described so far. The ruling elite of America is practically ill, is is practically liy white, almost exclusively led by white males. Black Americans are excluded from this club and are in no way influentially a part of this special interest process or its policy planning, policy formation process or network. Even if black Americans were significantly a part of the power systems, they would be, they would be black only in skin color, honorary whites, assimilated blacks working in the interest of continuing white domination and supremacy. This is the standing price of their admission to the club of the ruling corporate elite. As to the masses, including black and whites of all classes, we agree with Web de Boys, who described them not as as not split along horizontal lines, i.e., an integrated division of blacks and whites along middle class, working-class, lower-class lines, but as splitting along a vertical, a vertical fissure, a complete separation of class by race, cutting across economic layers. He goes on to argue, even if on one side, this color line, the dark masses were overwhelmingly workers, but and embionic capitalist class, nevertheless, the split between white and black workers were greater, were greater than that between the white workers and the capitalists. And this depended not simply on economic exploitation, but on a racial folklore grounded in centuries of instinct, habit, and thought, and implemented by the conditioned reflex of visible color. The vertically, the verticality of the split between blacks and whites from the ruling elite, if there were an equivalent black class down through the very lowest of classes, implies that in reality, we are dealing with an exclusively white nation state which excludes blacks at all of its class levels. This, this connotes that desperate and exploitation of the subordinate classes of both ethnic groups by the ruling white elite. The ruling lower classes are joined in racial solidarity with the white elite against the realization of the true and full citizenship of blacks in the United States. Even the normal citizenship of blacks in this white nation means a sacrifice, or a sacrifice of black power, since full membership in that nation would require blacks to no longer see themselves as black, and they shed their identity and consciousness of themselves as a people with cultural and other interests separate from those of whites. This means that black power can only be realized and executed in the interest of African people at home and abroad if it is consciously based on an African-centered identity and consciousness and is motivated and guided by a conscious intent of African people to gain power equal to or in access to that held of European people. Black universities and think tanks must increase their African-centered outre, their African-centered research, their consultancy relations with the black community, and full, and fully engage themselves with black community development on all levels and on all areas for all African-centered control institutions must come to the realization that their primary reason for being is the protection and the betterment of African people. They must recognize their place and the role they must play in a vast network of institutions, groups, and individuals designed to achieve these ends. For if African peoples cannot be protected and their quality of life optimized by black power, then shoot, what's the point? What's the point?

All right, so that's the end of Chapter 9. That's the end of the reading of Chapter 9. So, let's get to the rest of these key points.

Group consciousness influences policy success. Wilson argues that successful groups understand collective interest. [snorts] They ask, "What benefits our people? What protects our future? What strengthens our institutions?" This group consciousness produces coordinated policy efforts. Wilson believes black political weakness is often connected to insufficient, to insufficient collective organization.

Policies can be used to manage populations. Policies can be used to manage populations. One of Wilson's more productive arguments is that policy can function as a mechanism of social control. Policy can function as a mechanism of social control. Policies influence behavior, opportunities, incentives, dependency, and mobility. Governments shape behavior through rewards, penalties, regulations, and investments. Dr. Wilson warns that powerful groups understand this process very well, but guess who don't understand the process?

The last key point is power must be institutionalized. That's why we need institutions. [clears throat] Wilson concludes that lasting power requires institutions capable of influencing policy. An example are schools, businesses, banks, media organizations, policy centers, and political organizations. Without institutions, power remains temporary. With institutions, power becomes self-sustaining.

Policy creates reality. The world we experience is heavily shaped by policy decisions. You got to follow the resources. To understand power, follow where money, opportunities, and investments flow. Power protects itself. Groups with power often use policy to maintain that power. Ideas become policy through institutions. Winning an argument is not enough. Institutions turn ideas into reality. A people without a policy agenda remains dependent. Wilson believes communities must create their own plans rather than waiting on others.

His, his complete argument for this whole chapter, though, but specifically for the second half, is that policy is one of the highest expressions of organized power. He wants readers to stop viewing policies as personalities, elections, and speeches or slogans. Instead, view policy as ultimately about controlling the process that determine who gets resources, opportunities, and protection and influence. Those who fail to influence policy live under futures designed by others. For Dr. Wilson, black power requires more than protest, representation, or awareness. It requires developing the institutions, expertise, economic resources, and collective organization necessary to participate directly in the policy formation process and ultimately shape policy in the interest of us, of our people, of black people.

So that's the end of Chapter 9. That is the end of Chapter 9 of *Blueprint to Black Power*. We are at Chapter 10. And Chapter 10 goes from pages 209 to 220. From 209 to 220 is Chapter 10. So we're going to be reading Chapter 10 next week. 209 to 220. So if you ain't got your copy, make sure you use the link in the description where you can get your copy of *Blueprint to Black Power* and continue to support this channel. Please hit that like button, comment, subscribe, and share. And just know I love you all. I appreciate your support. And I'll see you next Monday for the next reading.