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COLONIAL EXPERIENCE       O'DELL

the head about a hamburger."  This is a commentary on the fact that our Movement has not given sufficient attention to developing the larger world view and perspective, which every movement needs to relate to it in its daily struggles.

This problem of definitions, the problem of an adequate theory of emancipation, becomes crucial to the success of our Freedom movement.  It requires the summing up of our particular experience in relation to American life and institutions over the past 300 years and establishing the relatedness of this experience to the general history of imperialism and colonialism in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  This is necessary in order to discard the bland euphemisms which all Americans are given as a routine part of their "education" and to replace these with ideas and concepts which are true to reality.  It is also necessary in order to deal with certain widely-held assumptions which may now be a stumbling block to further progress of our Movement.  Among the more important of these is the popular assumption that because the American nation was born in a revolution against British colonialism, it has remained a nation which rejects being a colonial power; a nation whose government policies are anti-colonial and have always been in accord with the freedom aspirations of other people struggling against colonialism.  It is also of significance to us that this view of the American tradition is most widely promoted by spokesmen for the liberal "establishment" in American life.  One calls to mind the frequent United Nations speeches by the late Adlai Stevenson among others. In the light of the historical record and the general literacy of the American population, it is indeed surprising that this view has such wide popularity. Especially does the experience of the Negro population in the United Sates strongly refute this mythology of American national development.

the American revolutions and the black community

The British colonial system in the Americas like that of other European settlements in the New World was based mainly upon two population components; namely the white settlers drawn largely from among the urban poor of Britain, and Africans pirated from the shores of the African continent and put into slavery in these European colonies.* Ruling over these two basic population components and also serving as an intermediary with the Crown in the "mother country" was a colonialist administrative authority.  In the case of

*The Indian tribal communities found in the Americas were considered to be the "enemy" of the colony and were, therefore, made targets for extermination.

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