The world has gone in an odd, to some, frenzy about a photo that surfaced last week. A West Point graduate class was shown raising their fists in the iconic "Black Power" gesture, and some folks were not having it. The 16 soon to be graduates of the legendary Military Academy were then under investigation for sporting this gesture in the photo and my question is why. Did I forget to mention the obvious? All 16 graduates were black, and all 16 graduated were female. This combo is notoriously bad among backwards thinking individuals who deem African Americans, and women should be in their place, but i digress. The argument is that the cadets were making a political stance which is against the rules in the military. In more specific terminology, Tess Owens, a writer for Vice News says "...concerns were raised that the pose violates West Point's honor code, which mirrors the Defense Department's federal Hatch Act, in that it prohibits members of the military to participate in political activities while in uniform." Now with ongoing sensitives race relations in the US as of late I can see where West Point could deem the photo political, but I don't see it that way. I mean some people are calling the photo racist. I wish you could see my face right now because it's got one of those confused face memes, better yet here you go.
These women are willing to put on a uniform, be flown all over the world to make sure people can still even go to West Point Academy. In my opinion the "Black Power" fist shows solidarity in my people. The fist shows unity and togetherness. The Olympians in the famous photo at the 1968 Olympics raised their fists not to show a political statement, but to show black solidarity and power in a time where it was non-existent. Times are different now to certain degree, we use it as a greeting some times that's how non-political the fist is these days. We know the obvious face of the Raised Fist The Black Panther Party, but that' not the origin. The Raised Fist goes way back to the Mesopotamian era. Their Goddess of sex, peace, and UNITY was depicted with the fist in order to bring the people together. Sounds exactly like what I expressed above.
I think that with both the ongoing crisis with African-Americans and White People, we look too deep into things like this. I believe that the 16 cadets were trying to show a photo of solidarity. A photo that expressed a "we made it" type of tone and didn't realize that people would react so negatively about it. There were long time West Point benefactors wanting the girls to not graduate and be expelled. It's sad to think that we live in a world were unity and togetherness can be symbolized as a political stance.
I'll leave you with this, I was watching the Nightly Show w/ Larry Wilmore and it showed a video of the 2011 class of graduating cadets in a not so famous manner at a concert.
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