The Practical Politics of PanHoodism

The Practical Politics of Pan-Hoodism:

Why it is our only solution in 2019



         Min. Paul Scott








Recently, there was a great debate held in Harlem to determine the political destiny of African Americans. On one side, you had people who ,vehemently, argued that only black folks whose ancestors were slaves should be paid reparations in Bitcoins. On the other side, folk countered that our efforts would be better served building a sneaker empire and establishing international trade with Africa.


After arguing for over five hours but failing to reach a consensus ,the participants exited the building, barely noticing the body of a 13 year old girl who had just been killed in a drive-by shooting a few minutes earlier…


Recently, there has been an ongoing debate over the political direction of black people in this country and what our focus should be as we enter the presidential election season. All this happening during a time when Reparations has gained ,well past due ,media attention.





Today , new movements are popping up such as ADOS ( American Descendants Of Slaves) created by social media personalities and Antonio Moore aka Tone Talks and Yvette Carnell and heavily advocated by Tariq Nasheed , the producer of the Hidden Colors documentary series. They are proponents of the idea that our collective focus should be on the affairs of black people in America whose ancestors suffered the horrors of continental US slavery.



While others are true believers of the traditional Pan Africanist approach that we should connect with the Motherland , as espoused by scholars such as Dr. WEB DuBois.






I believe that both ideas have merit and still fall under the Black Nationalism ideology advanced by Martin Delaney and Marcus Garvey. So I am not opposed to either of them.


For me, it’s just a matter of priorities.


As I look at my city , Durham NC and see the young black men being murdered in the streets, not to mention the spiked walls of gentrification that are rapidly closing in on a town formerly known as “Black Wall Street,” I have to ask, how can we bottle the various “solutions” that have presented to African Americans and pour a little out for the homies in the hood?


This is where “Pan Hoodism” comes in.


Pan Hoodism is the idea that your journey to uniting Black people globally does not begin 2,000 miles away , but in the hood down the street in your own city.


As African Americans, we have had no shortage of ideas that are good in theory. What we have lacked is application. How do we use all the black history books we have read, lectures we have attended and YouTube videos that we have binge watched to create a brighter future for the dismal reality in the less affluent black neighborhoods that are in virtually every city in America ?


The problem is that there is nothing glamorous nor sexy about community activism. We are a people who like entertainment and many of us would rather pay $30 and drive 100 miles to hear a Youtube scholar discuss whether the earth is round or flat than to take that money and give out free black history books to the youth in public housing. Not much different than the avid church goer who will plop a $100 bill in a collection plate to hear “Reverend Whoop and Holla” yell about a paradise in the sky while the people outside the doors of the church are living in poverty here on the ground.


Under Pan Hoodism we will use the macro-cosmic black liberation theories and apply them micro-cosmically to our local black communities.


The same strategies that we, theoretically, would use to stop tribal wars in Africa will be used to stop the gang wars in the hood. Also, the economic programs that we would invest overseas, would be diverted to improving the third world type conditions in public housing.



If we don't practice Pan Hoodism in our cities, now, even if we do receive reparations, a whole generation will be wiped out before the first check hits the mailbox.





Ecclesiastes teaches “there is a season for everything and a time for every purpose under Heaven.” In 2019, it is the season to use Pan Hoodism to get black folks out of Hell.






Minister Paul Scott is the founder of Black Messiah Media based in Durham NC. He can be reached at (919) 972-8305. Follow on Twitter @truthminista