I hope I have not given the impression I think Black Americans are all the same, it is has not been my intention to say so. I can't really discuss Black Churches other than to wonder if 'their' Christianity is different from the kind represented by say, Pastor Jeffress and Pastor White. I was raised in a Christian household and don't understand where these people are coming from, let alone where they are going to. As 'Malcolm X' might argue, many if not most West African slaves might have been Muslims, but did they need to believe in the salvation of Jesus Christ and the Resurretion as the only hope they had of living a better life? This is what Malcolm would probably dismiss as being another form of slavery, an emotional one. It is a bit odd to refer to it, perhaps, but in Eastern Nigeria after the devastation of the Biafran secession, there was a surge in the number of people, not just Igbo who embraced an eschatological vision of Christianity, as if the reality of life on Earth in the here and now was too bleak to contemplate -or change.
Thereagain, when Jeremiah Wright from the pulpit chanted 'God Damn America' it was because he believed that by ignoring the scriptures, America had lost its way, that it was not truly a nation of faith. But how would any politician implement the scriptures when they are part of a pick'n mix menu and Pastors of any colour choose the cherries that make their pie taste the best? I am not longer a practising Christian, but I wouldn't eat an American pie that offers bait and switch rather than a purity of faith that can not be realised in everyday life outside of various legal measures to ban Abortion, Homosexuality and anything 'transgendered' as well as Divorce; laws that insist the Government can and indeed, must control your body and your mind. Does this mean Black Christians in America are homophobic because of their Christian faith? Not being monolithic, I guess some are, some aren't.
I don't know enough about prison reform to comment, but I assume it was a rare example these days of bi-partisan co-operation in Congress, and doubt the President even read the Act, but was given an A4 precis with photos and bullet points prepared by Under-President Kushner.
Under the Trump Administration, the Black community has benefitted more than they did under the Obama administration.
-How? Not being a community in the first place, according to you, what benefits have disabled Black Americans received from an administration that is taking the axe to the Americans with Disabilities Act? By your own meaure, the advances made for all LGBTQ Americans must also include the Black Transgendered Americans whose rights are being taken away, not protected or extended. As for health care, how many Black Americans are either losing their access to health care, or can't get it because of -pre-existing' conditions, and how many are mired in debt because of the costs of health care for members of their families? Your Government gives away trillions of dollars in relief, in loans, in compensation for jobs lost to tariffs on China -with that kind of money it could probaby have paid off every debt owed by Black Americans, but has not -the priority has been to help the rich.
The first video is a good one, but I recall some of the Feminists in the 1960s went way beyond campaigning for wage equality or reasonable issues that most people could identify with and support, and I think in the US there are extremes in social movements that do make mistakes, as the speaker identiifies -incidentally, I had no idea there was a statue of Lenin in the USA, so that was a revelation. Even odder, one of my closest friends met Che Guevara in Cuba, but that's a long story.
As for Malcolm X, I don't know how many Black Americans admire him, the film by Spike Lee was poor not because of its attempt to elevate Malcolm's status to hero, but because I saw the fillm after reading Manning Marable's brilliant biography (I reviewed it in this section some years ago)- Lee left out a lot of details that did not fit with his image of Malcolm. He was a complex man, a sensational speaker, and touches a lot of nerves, but in the end is he not just one among many Black Americans across the decades who reject the USA and seek a form of autonomous existence within America so great is their alienation and lack of trust in 'White America'? It must have some emotional appeal, but I don't see it as being in its details soemthing that appeals to a majority. But then neither do Libertarian ideas attact anyone other than those who want a Utopia to replace the unacceptable reality that makes them so discontented.