01 Sep 2026 Linda Lee Tarver: From Slavery to Self-Determination: Why Black America Should Reject Dependency

“Black Americans should be suspicious of anyone who attempts to repackage dependency as liberation,” Project 21 Ambassador Dr. Linda Lee Tarver writes.

“Black Americans should be particularly alarmed by the rise of socialism because our history is a journey from being controlled to being free, from being property to owning property, and from dependency imposed upon us to self-determination.”

Read Dr. Tarver’s full commentary below.

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Black Americans should be particularly alarmed by the rise of socialism because our history is a journey from being controlled to being free, from being property to owning property, and from dependency imposed upon us to self-determination.

I do not use the word slavery lightly. Socialism is not the racial chattel slavery endured by our ancestors. But when government increasingly controls the necessities of life—food, housing, health care, education, employment and economic opportunity—it can create a dangerous form of modern economic servitude. The more government controls that you need to survive, the more power those who control government possess over you.

That is not empowerment.

The slave master once said, “You cannot provide for yourself, so I must control you.” The socialist message sounds more compassionate: “You cannot adequately provide for yourself, so government must provide more for you, own more for you and make more decisions for you.”

Black Americans should be suspicious of anyone who attempts to repackage dependency as liberation.

History provides warnings.

Venezuela’s socialist government created MERCAL, a massive government-backed grocery network offering subsidized food while government expanded control over food production and distribution. Venezuela ultimately experienced severe shortages and long lines for necessities. In one notorious scandal, enormous quantities of government-purchased food were discovered decomposing in storage.

Cuba’s heavily state-controlled food system continues to rely on rationing. In 2024, Cubans stood in lines at state-run markets for monthly chicken rations, while shortages forced the government to reduce its subsidized daily bread ration.

The Soviet Union demonstrated the same fundamental problem on an enormous scale: Government could dictate prices but could not guarantee products would be available. By its final years, shortages and queues had become a routine part of Soviet economic life.

The lesson is simple: Government can decree a lower price. It cannot decree abundance.

A politician can order the price of bread down. He cannot order another loaf onto the shelf.

That history should cause us to scrutinize Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for five government-owned grocery stores in New York City. I understand the concern about food affordability. But why should our answer be government ownership rather than creating conditions for entrepreneurs—including black entrepreneurs—to own those stores?

Black history offers a dramatically different model.

In 1921, Tulsa’s Greenwood District—Black Wall Street—contained 108 black-owned businesses, including an extraordinary 41 grocery and meat markets.

Think about that contrast. Our ancestors came out of slavery and said, “Let us own the grocery store.” Socialism comes generations later and says, “Let government own the grocery store.”

That is not my definition of progress.

I spent more than 34 years in Michigan state government and served as a Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner. Government has a legitimate and necessary role: protect our constitutional rights, maintain public safety, enforce laws fairly and remove unjust barriers to opportunity.

But there is an enormous difference between the government protecting my freedom and the government controlling the conditions of my existence.

The civil-rights struggle was not a struggle to exchange one master for another. Black Americans fought to exercise the rights of free people—to vote, work, worship, own property, build businesses, educate our children and determine our own futures.

We should therefore reject political philosophies that measure black progress by how many things government provides for us.

I would rather see government help 100 black entrepreneurs open grocery stores than have government open five stores it owns.

We do not need government to become our landlord, grocer, employer, parent or pastor. We need government to protect our liberty and then give free people room to flourish.

As a Christian minister, I also reject the idea of government becoming the source to which we look for every human need. Government has an ordained purpose, but government is not God. It cannot replace family, faith, work, charity, community and personal responsibility.

Black America does not need another master—corporate or governmental.

We need ownership.

More black-owned grocery stores. More black-owned banks and businesses. More homeowners. More entrepreneurs. More access to capital. More educational freedom. More strong families and churches. More opportunities to build generational wealth.

Our ancestors did not struggle from slavery toward freedom so their descendants could celebrate dependency as liberation.

Slavery represented the ultimate denial of ownership—our ancestors could not even own themselves. Freedom must therefore mean more than receiving benefits. Freedom means having the right and opportunity to own, build, work, choose and pass something to the next generation.

Black Wall Street understood that.

After generations of fighting for a seat at the economic table, we should not surrender the table to government. We should build more tables.

The next chapter of black America should not be government ownership. It should be black ownership.

 

Project 21 Ambassador Linda Lee Tarver, Ed.D., Th.D., is an election integrity expert, educational advocate, author and former Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner with more than three decades of public service experience.