An Analysis of Three Political Models of Community Control

Abstract

A sense of often clashes with the concept of the rugged individualist. Over the long haul, Americans generally have been lumped together as an undifferentiated mass, while at the same time they were socialized into accepting the so-called Protestant ethic. They were encouraged to be individuals in a society that did not accept them on these terms. As a result of this inconsistent practice, many blacks perceive themselves as individuals first and blacks second, thus creating an identity crisis. Although facing other kinds of problems, such as conflicts stemming from social class antagonisms, no white ethnic group faces this same set of contradictions once the first generation has passed on and their offsprings lose, or give up, their ethnicity. For those Americans who tend to see themselves as first and individuals second, another kind of identity crisis emerges because the American political system has already defined the state of being black in negative terms. Within the community this two-dimensional interrelated identity crisis has elements of class conflict, encounters originating from a caste system, and ideological struggle all meshed. An identity crisis of one kind or another exists within all segments of society and its roots can be traced to the weaknesses of the socio-political system in the main. Bennett alludes to this problem of identity crisis in an indirect sense: