Social media is a hub for political commentary, and it’s been my go-to for information on grassroots organizations. In a previous post, the now mainstream ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) movement and their agenda was addressed. Well, there’s another movement, somewhat similar to ADOS, that’s gotten my attention. FBA (Foundational Black American).
Film producer, author, and radio personality Tariq Nasheed, who coined the term, advised that Foundational Black American refers to one’s culture and lineage; it is not a group or organization. With FBA, you don’t have to have a specific political affiliation, group chapters, or events.
There’s been some discourse between both FBA and ADOS creators, most notably on Twitter, around the lack of clarity for the ADOS movement. The New York Times write-up for ADOS seemed to have been one of the precursors.
There will be a Foundational Black American Convention in Atlanta next year, organized by Tariq Rasheed and the Melanoid Nation Foundation. It will be a non-partisan, educational event featuring Black American professionals and a think tank forum. They’ll be brainstorming solutions for an FBA agenda, and the topics of discussion are as follows:
- Strategies on getting reparations
- Strategies on Black business development
- Creating directories to connect with Black businesses
- Organizing retainer pools for Black lawyers
- Networking with independent Black-owned schools
- Creating discussion panels with Black health professionals
- And much more
Both Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore have reiterated that the ADOS movement is a political movement centered around lineage, reparations, and a Black Agenda for African Americans. They had a successful conference at Simmons College of Kentucky this past October, and guest speakers included Marianne Williamson and Dr. Cornel West. Several local chapters have been created in the process as well. This movement has also sparked national discussions from political pundits as well as celebrities like Talib Kweli.
I feel that FBA and ADOS have been extremely effective in sparking much-needed conversations for my community and helping us organize in a way that I’ve never seen before. Nationality has been a topic that’s taken the backseat for too long. And with the synergy that’s spreading in the U.S., and hopefully, around the diaspora and continent, clarity can’t be that far away.
Until Next Time…
HONEST MEDIA 
Let’s get it done.
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Beginning as a young boy watching the original release of the 1977 TV miniseries ‘Roots’, I can recall how bewildered I’d always get just by the concept of Black people being brutalized and told they were not welcome — while they, as a people, had been violently forced to the U.S. from their African home as slaves! And, as a people, there has been little or no reparations or real refuge for them here, since. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, the narrator notes that, like the South, the Civil War era northern states also hated Black people but happened to hate slavery more. …
After 3.5 decades of news consumption, I’ve found that a disturbingly large number of categorized people, however precious their souls, can be considered thus treated as though disposable, even to an otherwise democratic nation. When they take note of this, tragically, they’re vulnerable to begin perceiving themselves as beings without value. I’ve observed this especially with indigenous-nation people living with substance abuse/addiction related to residential school trauma, including the indigenous children’s unmarked graves in Canada.
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