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By Terrance Knox
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
As the child, I learned not to expect much from political leaders, especially black leaders. I grew up around the hushed tones of gossip about the community leaders who would “make things happen for you” if you stopped by for a drink after work.
A generation after Dr. Martin Luther King’s death, mass cynicism permeated my ghetto, and I have always blamed the self-serving black leadership. We believed that they would do right by us because they were us…wrong!
The new millennium has watched the congressional black caucus devolve into one of those R&B oldies groups that tour the chitlin’ circuit, replace original members with look-alikes and haven’t had a hit since the Carter administration. Not only has the aging black leadership refused to groom potential successors, but it also attempts to hold on to every ounce of power it has—regardless of the deleterious effects on the community.
In sub-Saharan Africa, rulers aggressively hoard power, threatening life and limb if challenged. The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Reps. Charles Rangel and Ed Towns—similar to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe—will never voluntarily give up the spotlight. When they choose to pass the torch, we are always blessed with a crop of relatives, cronies, preacher pimps and buffoonish minstrels who preserve the continuity of egoism and ineptitude.
It only makes sense that Jesse Jackson is angry with Sen. Barack Obama (in what he thought was an off-air comment, Jackson said he’d like to cut off Obama’s nuts for talking down to African Americans) since the senator-turned-presidential hopeful has negated the old guard and their rhetoric. From out of nowhere, he has snatched their torch!
America has suffered greatly because of the failures of black leadership after Dr. King, and this listless leadership is sabotaging real progress in our inner-city communities. This co-dependent, abusive and dysfunctional relationship must end. It is time for CHANGE.
Terrance Knox is a co-president of Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, but the opinions expressed in this column are independent of LID.
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