For the first time in 40 years, the Republicans now control both houses in Congress, gained majorities in state legislators and at least 11 gubernatorial slots. The conservative right seems to have led a revolution in the command structure of the government; however, what implications does this have on the 32 million Africans in this country?

Affirmative action. Many newspapers, including USA Today, have said that the recent elections are a result of the rage of the white males in this country. They cry "reverse racism" when talking about affirmative action policies on the job or even on the college campuses. But is this a new or contemporary phenomena?

Many leaders, both black and white, have always known that the government of this country, as well as this society, is responsible for the condition of Africans in this country. This is because they knew that true freedom meant economic, social and political empowerment. That was true during the first reconstruction (late 1800s), and it is true during the second reconstruction (present day). When the African population during the first reconstruction was helped using federally mandated programs and federal legislation, and began to actually succeed in a number of economic and political fields, the whites in the South began to cry out. They began to set up negative propaganda initiatives against anything that they saw. When the government set up the Freedmen's Bureau, and it helped Africans to set up schools, institutes, colleges and hospitals, soon, whites complained about how Africans were getting a free ride. They began to cry out, "emancipate the whites!" as a slogan to get the whites fired up and to put negative pressure on the government to get rid of the program. A poster of that time said at the top, "The Freedmen's Bureau! An agency to keep the Negro in idleness at the expense of the white man." Of course, it has a stereotypical drawing of an African sitting on the ground and relaxing while white men are hard at work. (See Black Scare by Forrest G. Wood, pp. 84, plate 8.) This type of negative propaganda and negative pressure affected popular opinion, and the whites of the South, as well as the North, began to join in on the struggle. Soon, by using Congress, local government, and the Supreme Court, the whites eroded all of the civil rights legislation and government programs that had sought to empower Africans in this society, which ultimately led to Jim Crow in the South, and the "ghettoization" of Africans in the North.

Many say that history follows a pattern; that even though the same events do not occur again, the same situations occur again, and similar circumstances arise in the future. If that is true, then it should not be surprising that whites cry out again, 100 or more years after the first reconstruction, when the government uses tax dollars (that we all pay) to help the process of mainstreaming the African into American society. After the Jim Crow era, after civil rights legislation (that seeks to empower Africans in this country) has been passed, and after federally mandated and financed programs have been set up, the white community is at it again. As they attacked the Freedmen's Bureau, they attack affirmative action today. The only difference is, instead of crying, "emancipate the whites," they cry "reverse racism." It is the same thing, but is only a contemporary phrase for a contemporary situation. As the whites mobilized themselves, then, to wipe out government programs and intervention on behalf of the African, they have done so today, and will stop at nothing to destroy those benefits that Africans and others have fought so hard to achieve.

Stance on crime. Many in today's society say that we need to get tougher on crime. We need to build more prisons, put more police on the street, re-enact the death penalty, they say. What are the implications of this stance for Africans in America? Ever since the solidification of African slavery in this society by the 1660s, freed Africans were disproportionately imprisoned by the authorities. While they made up only 2.4 percent of the population of Pennsylvania, they made up over 40 percent of the inmates of that facility. Today, across the nation, while Africans make up only 12 percent of the population, they are over 45 percent of the inmate population, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991. According to a 1989 survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Africans make up only 12 percent of the number of drug users in this nation, but the FBI reported that they account for 44 percent of the arrests for drug possession. A study done by the New England Journal of Medicine found that 15.4 percent of white women who are pregnant used illegal drugs during their pregnancy, while the statistic was 14.1 percent for African women. However, African women were reported to the authorities at a rate 10 times higher than white women. Finally, Africans make up 40 percent of the death row inmates in this country, according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Legal Defense Fund.

Building more prisons, putting more cops on the street, three strikes and you are locked up for life will not solve the problem for Africans that are involved in crime (who are often the scapegoat for the entire American crime problem); it will only make the situation worse. This is especially true when you consider that preventative measures are never truly looked at by this same society. Grassroots African organizations have been turning around crime-infested African communities since the turn of the century, where police and government units have failed. Why? Because the Africans that do this know that the reason why most Africans, that are involved in crime, are involved is because of white supremacy. The Kerner Commission, dated Feb. 10, 1968, stated that, "What white Americans have never fully understood -- but what the Negro can never forget -- is that white society is deeply rooted in the ghetto. White institutions maintain it, and white society condones it." The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation convened 25 years after the Kerner Commission and stated that the conclusions of the Kerner Commission were more relevant now than in 1968. Those Africans that have reformed criminals have done so because they have removed the self-hatred from their minds and their hearts, and have channeled the rage that criminals have, while in the ghetto, into productive means for the survival of African peoples.

In conclusion, the recent change in the command structure of this country does not surprise me; it only follows the pattern of history that has been laid out in this country since its inception. Now, Africans must prepare to face yet another chapter in their sojourn in the wilderness of North America. What will behold us in the future is uncertain at this time, but as Frederick Douglass said before Jim Crow came on the scene, "(Slavery) has been called by a great many names, and it will call itself by yet another name; and you and I and all of us had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume."