Defining Black Leadership

Defining Black Leadership At The Start Of A New Millennium

Revelations of famed Black national leader Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson's dalliance with a 39-year old female employee of his Rainbow Coalition sent shock waves through Black America. And while the vast majority of Blacks favor forgiving Jackson, claiming that "he's entitled to a mistake," the reaction from mostly White America has been predictably negative and self-serving. From the Republican side of national politics Jackson's detractors have pounced upon the bombshell revelation that he fathered a so-called "love child," as one more "aha" that he's no better than his friend, former President Bill Clinton who was literally caught with his hands in Monica Lewinsky's sexy thongs.
But beyond the apparent inability of Rev.Jackson to keep his fly closed, is the mundane question of how does this new version of Penisgate affect Black leadership in this country. Will Jackson's tinkering with the proverbial Forbidden Fruit undermine his credibility, and in so doing sully all of Black leadership? And will this revelation pave the way for his friend Rev. Al Sharpton to step into the number one spot? And what long-term effects will Jackson's hanky-panky have on Black leadership and the people that he's supposed to lead?
To begin with Jackson's behavior will definitely cast a shadow on the Black leadership collective because he's the guy sitting on the top of the heap. If he spits in the wind flecks are bound to land on those below. But more than that Jackson's own international credibility will be now stained by this unwelcome news since he's considered by the world community as the de facto premier Black leader around the world. Still, bad breezes from the rear end, perhaps signaling a more serious arrival, blow away just as good ones, and unpleasant news lasts only nine days and then is relegated to yesterday's stale news. And Jackson's indiscretion never amounted to a full-blown scandal so he's back on the job without missing a stride.
Of course there will be those who will do the moralistic sermonizing jig thing to paint Rev. Jackson as a raunchy old Billy goat who should not be allowed to come near young women. And there will be just as self-righteous a group who will hide behind the Biblical behest of "Those without sin cast the first stone." None the silly chatter or the pros and cons about children out of wedlock, will not amount to a hill of green beans or does it really matter what the heck Sam from Ohio thinks about the situation who gives a damn anywhere. Black folks care less about Jackson's sexual exertions and bed-hoppings as opposed to his ability to lead. And it is here that his dalliance creates an impact for the simple reason that if it was ordinary Joe Blow playing the beast with two backs with half dozen spunky bimbi around town nobody would bother.
But its Rev.Jesse Jackson we're talking about and he's undoubtedly one of America's most respected Black leaders, and whose ability to lead and inspire is now called into question. Indeed, Jackson's second Viagra-like spring has served to highlight the crisis in Black leadership that exists today inspite of everything being said. The rush to defend and forgive Jackson, married now for 38 years with five grown children, suggests the desperation of the Black community and the slim pickings present when it comes to Black leadership the pool is woefully limited. It boils down to two people Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Alfred Sharpton.
No one can doubt that Rev. Jackson has had a remarkable career but I submit that it reached its zenith in 1984 when he ran for President of the United States. As it relates to the issue of Black leadership this single event is most important. First, by seeking the presidency Jackson's move was highly symbolic in that it served to unite and strengthen America's Black leadership after the slow meltdown of the post-Civil Rights era. Next, it galvanized ordinary Black support like never before because Jackson's leadership served to inspire millions of Blacks long left out of the political mainstream. It also created the most powerful role model for young Blacks who felt that it was impossible for a Black man to aspire to the presidency of the USA.
But perhaps the single most important impact of Jackson's entry into the presidential race was that as America's paramount Black leader at the time, he now had a national platform to raise social, economic, political and racial issues facing the Black community. At that moment in history Rev. Jesse Jackson was the undoubted national leader and spokesman for all of Black America. His 1988 entry into the presidential race was still symbolic but not to the extent of the first race and while it did present similar opportunities, Jackson's leadership obeying the inner dialectic of everything had begun to decline having reached its pinnacle with the first presidential try.
No less charismatic than Rev. Jackson, the burly Alfred "Al" Sharpton is today known all across America as an uncompromising fighter against injustice in the Black community. Born on October 3, 1954 in Brooklyn Al Sharpton has placed his life on the line for the causes he believes in. A razor sharp firebrand oratory style distinguishes Rev. Sharpton from all Black leaders as well as his penchant for saying exactly what's on his mind. Sharpton has become the voice of conscience of Black New York, and to some extent Black America, as he's grown to be both loved and hated.
To Blacks who face the evils of police brutality, white racism and discrimination, Al Sharpton is the messiah. A strong crutch to hold on to in times of need and a preacher with a big mouth who keeps injustice in the public's eye that otherwise would have been swept under the rug. Had it not been for Al Sharpton many, many issues would never have been exposed and public outrage would not have been forthcoming. He's led from the front and he's been very successful thus far. Rev. Sharpton is the heir apparent to Black leadership in the United States.
Still, setting aside Rev.Jackson's recent zipper problem, there have been some criticisms of both men who are remarkably similar in their style and actions. Both are media savvy and both guard their positions at the top of the totem pole zealously. It is this media addiction that has prompted cries of rank careerism, unbridled ambition, opportunism and exploitation of people's genuine problems as one more route to satisfying monumental egos. And to a very large extent both Sharpton and Jackson do have great egos that forever need to be stoked and satiated. And it's the leadership style of these two men more than anything else that will define and shape the notion of Black leadership at the start of this brand new millennium.
In many ways Black leadership has historically come from the Black Church as epitomized by the life and times of two Black titans Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. But after the ebbing of the golden age of Civil Rights activism and the assassination of both men, the Black Church has gone into retreat and abnegated his historical role even though it spawned a few radical Black leaders. While the Black Church took a more conservative stance Sharpton and Jackson broke from that tradition and remained in the mold of the preacher/activist marrying both philosophies into an action plan for the liberation of the Black community.
However both had to set up community-based organizations outside of the Black Church with a specific mandate to continue their work because of the inward focus of the Black Church that now placed more emphasis on matters of the spirit and soul and almost excluding advocacy on behalf of the Black poor. Jackson, who was born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, organized Operation Push (People United to Serve Humanity) a natural outgrowth of his experience with Dr.King's grassroots "Operation Breadbasket" and in 1986 he founded the National Rainbow Coalition.
Sharpton, on the other hand, after years of activism and advocacy, founded in 1971 the National Youth Movement and in 1991 the National Action Network (NAN) in Harlem. This civil rights organization today seeks economic justice and political empowerment of the disenfranchised. These two organs serve as clearing houses for speaking engagements and other paid work of both leaders and as a way to continue to organize the Black community throughout the United States.
But exactly who leads Black America today? Is it Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson? Or is it Kewesi Mfume of the NAACP?
The short answer to this question is none of the three. Black America today anoints leaders on a piecemeal, incident-by-incident basis because of the absence of a clear and coherent platform and the fact that the nature of the Black struggle is influenced and defined by many external forces. The upshot is that sometimes the struggle is driven by purely economic considerations and at other times by political reasons or a mixture of both. What this does is to create the conditions where a broad, open-ended platform is the norm that gives the struggle an amorphous quality. The focus is constantly shifting and so the leaders have to adapt to these changes.
As such America's Black leaders are today leading by reaction to the issues or injustices of the day rather than by a constant and focused approach to common issues of concern to the Black community. For example, if police brutality is the prevailing issue Black leadership will gather around this issue and just as soon as it gets cold move on to another without bringing closure to this specific issue. Critics of this kind of leadership say that all these leaders ever do is exploit the issues of the day, prepare snazzy soundbites that make the 6 o'clock news, and just as soon as the situation is milked for all that its worth they move on to exploit a new situation.
There's certainly some merit in this criticism because the present Black leadership never works for finality on issues. Too many times these issues hit national TV and newspapers; there's a lot of rhetoric, inflammatory oratory, and righteous anger and nothing else. In William Shakespeare's words they are "full of sound and fury signifying nothing." There is no follow-up action, no plan, and no contingency platform to prevent the recent injustice, and after nine days its no longer that important. And its not that Jackson and Sharpton have not done a great job of leading Black America, but its time to redefine and reorganize Black leadership.
And what of the NAACP, that venerated organ of Black leadership and activism? It is my held view that the NAACP is a paper tiger, a toothless old hag whose activism today is dependent on the generosity of corporate America. So it's a case of he who pays the piper calling the tune. In many respects the NAACP, in spite of Mr. Mfume's best intentions, is a modern anachronism, a hold-over from a bygone era, that struggles in fits and starts. It has fought and fumbled over the years to reinvent itself to fit into a modern political scenario with little success. To be sure it has done its job, but that was a very long time ago. For the past ten years the NAACP has not taken a leadership role on anything Black not counting the nice rhetoric. The organization has failed to transform itself as evidenced by the fact that its highest award the Spingarn Medal - is not named for a Black person but a Jew.
Moreover, the NAACP cannot advocate on behalf of Black America for economic freedom, or a level playing field, because it depends on the financial support of its "corporate sponsors." It continues to exist as a jaded old man who feels that he's 16 years when he's 90 and when his muscles are all flabby, sagging and worn. Barring a miracle the NAACP will never return to its old glory days and so it can't lay any claim to the leadership of the Black community at this time. Mr.Mfume, for all his talents, presides over an organization that the new generation knows little about, and quite frankly does not want to know about.
At any rate the notion of leadership as we know it has changed significantly over the last decade or so. Gone are the days of the paramount leader, the big honcho who calls all the shots. In place of this is the neo-modernist approach to leadership collective leadership that makes decisions by consensus. This kind of leadership sort of cramps the style of the TV hogs and press fanatics. So both Jesse and Al will do well to understand this because in the final analysis the principles of collective leadership that embody shared responsibilities and teamwork is a far superior form of organization that the strutting generalissimo in uniform or an Armani suit.