People have asked why I changed the title of this column from “Urban Perspective” to “A Black Perspective.” It’s because the latter is what the column has always been. “Urban Perspective” was overly broad and did not sufficiently reflect my intention or my passion. However, despite the old title, this space has, and will always unapologetically examined how education, politics, economics and leadership, Black leadership, especially, impact the Black community..
First, let’s take a quick look at some leadership issues in Barack Obama’s presidency. First, a barrage of obscene personal and political attacks on President Obama came from Tea Party and other hard line conservatives. Gradually, there was a growing feeling in the Black community, not to throw the President under the bus, but to routinely critique and when necessary, criticize and hold him accountable on key domestic and foreign relations decisions. No president should be given carte blanche. However, despite growing calls for transparency, there was, and still is, much reluctance among Black elected officials, Black leadership in general and the Black community to hold this president accountable.
Actually, many Blacks still feel challenging Obama is sacrilegious; they still consider him an icon above anything even remotely smacking of criticism. Slowly, however, there was growing concern about his decisions, as well there should have been. (Of course, Blacks should be similarly concerned about Black leadership.)
Some traditional leaders, including civil rights leaders, began questioning Obama’s policies and actions, albeit gently. For example, even National Urban League president, Marc Morial challenged the President to deal specifically, and in more detail, with Black concerns. Professor Cornel West, and others have, for some time, urged Blacks to give informed “critical support” to the President. Increasingly, though supportive of him, Black people are saying they have a right, and even a responsibility, to hold him accountable for addressing their specific issues and concerns. (The same applies to Black leaders who too often conveniently sidestep their chief responsibility which is to stakeholders, not self-serving personal agendas.)
After the 1960s, a widespread assumption was that electing Blacks to political office would automatically lead to an improved quality of life for Black people. However, “Simply replacing white faces with black faces in old places does not translate into social justice and social change.” While many Black elected officials do honor their pledge to represent constituents’ interest, too many continue to mirror the dominant leadership model that is based primarily on individualism and materialism. Unfortunately, the dictum, “Blacks have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests,” remains largely rhetoric not reality.
Greater accountability and effective Black strategic alternatives go hand-in-hand. However, since the civil rights era, efforts to build a “Black agenda,” or Black united front, have not being sustained and the Black community’s fundamental needs and concerns remain largely unmet. There’s been some progress, such as a significant increase in the number of Black elected officials and greater access, albeit insufficient, to better housing, employment and higher education. Still, inner cities remain neglected; violence and hopelessness seem etched in the landscape, schools harm more than educate Black children and justice remains scarcely more than symbolic.
The preamble to the National Black Agenda, adopted in Gary, Indiana in 1972, asserted “Our cities are crime-haunted dying grounds. Huge sectors of our youth face prominent unemployment………Neither the courts nor prisons contribute anything resembling justice or reformation and the schools are unwilling or unable to educate our children for the real world of our struggles.” Sound familiar?
In some respects, things are worse today than during the civil rights era, damning testimony to ongoing racism and a complex, complicit indifference by Black leaders themselves. These days, the divide between middle-class and poorer Blacks is greater than ever which aggravates their already strained relationship and suggests fewer and fewer Blacks will be actively involved in efforts for real change. This is an ominous warning of the need for greater unity for a future that is arguably, the most challenging ever.
Far too many Blacks believed Obama’s presidency signaled problems heretofore intractable would be solved. Of course, this was a pipe dream. Although he was a sea change from George W. Bush, Obama had neither a magic wand, nor sufficient motivation to proactively address Blacks’ specific issues. And since Blacks did not hold him, or themselves, accountable for addressing their issues, they saw little from his administration.
A general absence of Black leadership accountability in California is evident at both the state and local levels. In Los Angeles, for example, immigration and education are key issues that have huge public policy and human rights implications. Yet, they are not a top priority for local Black elected officials whose collective silence has been an abomination. Also, these officials appear oblivious to the fact that Los Angeles also has substantial numbesr of Black immigrants whose needs are not addressed in a city that may be more diversified and has more immigrants—documented and undocumented—than any city in the nation.
What are Black leadership’s strategies to deal with the urgency of current problems? There is no single “Black agenda,” but Black people must demand effective, committed and ethical leadership as an alternative to the current leadership model that does not work for them. The combined silence of Black leadership and the Black community itself, continues to underscore the need for greater unity and accountability crucial for future success.
