Since 2003, I have been sounding the alarm about instant groups parachuting into African American communities, dismissing and displacing black voter empowerment groups.
The day after the election, they pack up their sh stuff and leave town. They are not heard from again until the next presidential election.
Meanwhile, black voter groups that are connected to black folks are starved for resources and must make a way out of no way.
During Saturday’s National Action Network rally, Al Sharpton distinguished “leading blacks” from “black leaders”:
Some of the disconnect is when you have appointed leadership…We have gone through a strange era of imposed leading blacks rather than black leaders. They got folks out there talking for blacks that did not come out of a black base or a black community.There is a difference between leading blacks and black leaders. There is a difference between a black on TV, a talking head that’s not connected to a black body.
Sharpton added:
It is the era of leading blacks. And what we must do is build a young black leadership from a black base. And those that have paid their dues, showed their sincerity, and have a track record even though they are young, we have to embrace them. If not, they will hijack our community with people that are not like us, that don’t understand us, that will dismiss us because that’s their assignment.
Preach, Rev. Al, preach.
