Ben Jealous in Kansas City
HIP-HOP NAACP NEEDS TO GET TOUGH. I like Roslyn Brock. I like Ben Jealous. They are both likeable people. And when you think about past NAACP leaders like Ben Chavis, Brock and Jealous are a vast improvement just by walking into the room. Jealous did well pushing health care reform and jobs. He spoke forcefully regarding the lack of urgency in the Senate on black unemployment. And I know it’s too early to comprehensively analyze his work but…
….So far this new young NAACP leadership is starting to remind me of the conundrum Ebony magazine finds itself in. Do we want to be popular and put celebs on the cover and talk about nothing or do we want to be important? Since Ebony is teetering on the brink of bancruptcy I can understand throwing Prince on the cover when you need fast cash. But the NAACP leadership is not on the brink. They can swing for the fences. Ms. Brock and Mr. Jealous will have to ask themselves: Do we want to confront big issues that may stoke controversy? Or do we want to feature celebrities and keep in light and fluffy with occasional references to big stuff in between?
The NAACP convention in Kansas City kept it fluffy with a speech by Michelle Obama, Muhamad Ali’s daughter and Blair Underwood. At some point Brock and Jealous are going to have to get to the serious stuff and make noise. The first thing I thought of when I saw Blair Underwood’s name on the program is: That should be Charles Ogletree speaking in that slot — before the first lady. Next year’s convention will be in Los Angeles so get ready for more celebs and less issue confronting at that location. I understand the political difficulty of being hard on the first black president of the United States but there are important issues out there he is not speaking out on and who better to ring the bell than the NAACP? The 26 year old crack/powder disparity? Fifty-four shot in one weekend in Chicago? Black children more likely to go to jail than to college?
So far this NAACP has failed to:
1. Take on the President on the Elana Kagan, who never hired a black or Latino person in her life.
2. Failed to put fourth a simple obligatory request to the President name an African American to the Supreme Court. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton put more pressure on the Obama people than the NAACP did.
3. Failed to defend Thurgood Marshall when Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans Jeff Sessions and Jon Kyl attempted to re-write his history. This should have been easy.
4. Failed to get loud regarding the Oscar Grant verdict. They put out a press release and that was it. There should have been marching in the streets on this one.
5. Failed to speak out loudly in favor of DC voting rights. President Obama said nothing. NAACP said nothing.
6. Failed to speak out loudly on the Pigford/black farmers settlement.
7. Failed to put pressure on President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the crack/powder cocaine disparity…
ms burke, i agree!!!
Black people are a great people! But we have to begin to care for ourselves. We have to unite and stop begging people to speak out for us and our issues. We must break down barriers that keeps us divided against each other!
Sister I hear you, however we need to put that pressure on these groups to help validate their existence. The NAACP has a Legal Defense Fund that once had leadership like Clarence Mitchell who was referred to as the 101st senator. We need to pressure the Urban League because our current problems stem from financial issues, i.e. lack of capital in our communities. Currently, and every election year it seems the LDF is working on redistricting and stopping the red lining that happens in districts like Mel Watts. As bloggers and social commentators I hope the people reading this blog educate themselves on what their Local branch of these organizations are doing and go out and help them do. We are so quick to comment from our CPU’s instead of getting from behind the desk and working. (I include myself) However, the reality is we are preaching to the choir and the digital divide is what is really hurting us. Most of the people that this will reach will not need to hear this call to action. They have “arrived” if they are blessed to use the internet. That bus driver working a late shift, that construction worker, that mason. that fisherman, does not have internet access and can only learn from Murdoch, Viacom, and the Tribune……
Don’t forget the big one!!!!
FAILURE to make note that the Establishment Machine – that the NAACP is a part of – controls every single institutional seat in Black America and yet at a time of great grievances held by Black America in many areas – they never seem to place their own theories on trial.
For example why is the lack of jobs in the Black community proof of RACISM but never does anyone ask if the establishment that now controls these areas ascended into power with an balanced economic/academic/productivity plan that would sustain the productive power of the community instead of merely attack the “Consumers of Labor”?
When does this entire establishment machine get forced by the Black Rank & File to realize that THEY ARE NOW THE ESTABLISHMENT?