-opted by white elites. Empowered by whites to maintain control and order among the Black masses, the Black bourgeois often co-opts the sentiments and power of Black Nationalism to further its own interests. Groups like CORE helped to undermine Black militancy in favor of self-interest, ôa role akin to that played by bourgeois-nationalist political elites in an underdeveloped country undergoing a transformation from colonialism to neocolonialismö (Allen 70).
In his discussion of Malcolm XÆs strategy for finding political allies, Allen explains that Malcolm understood what was truly needed for real democratic process in U.S. society. He understood that so long as the basic structures and institutions underlying a capitalist economy were in place, inequalities and oppression would exist. In this discussion, we see two main principles of AllenÆs history of Black Nationalism. The first is that the very structures that whites use to oppress Blacks have the potential to be used by black bourgeois-elites to profit by reinforcing this oppression in their own interest. As Allen (35) writes of MalcolmÆs awareness, he knew white radicals would have trouble adopting a
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