Should African Americans Separate Themselves In America Or Return To Africa?

There are many complications when trying to decide what the future of an entire race in a country should be. In 1962, James Farmer and Malcolm X debated whether Blacks in America should be in favor of separation from whites or full integration into society. Separatism seems good in theory but brings up many new problems that Blacks would have to face. Should Blacks separate themselves in America or return to Africa? If they stay in America, how will they form the economy of their state? If they return to Africa, how will they relate culturally to the natives that presently live there? Blacks should have favored integration because separatism was utterly impractical. The largest problem with separatism is that of the availability of land. There are two options for Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam if they want to separate; they can ask for a plot of land within the US, such as a state, or they could try to relocate to Africa. According to Farmer, “before a large part of land could be granted to Negroes… it would have to be approved by the Senate” (521). The likelihood that the Senate in

Farmer brought this up by replying to Malcom’s proposal, “the fact is that the cultures are so very different… you have much more in common with me or with several people whom I see sitting here than you do with the Africans” (526). He proved this point by adding “they speak Swahili or some other language and you would have to learn those languages” (526). Relations with the native people of Africa would be extremely hard because of the vast differences in the American culture of the Blacks and the African culture of the natives. Farmer suggested that integration was the better option because “this is our country as much as it is White American” (526). America was the country of both Whites and Blacks. It would not be practical to give up the country that their ancestors had literally