black…MYstory

I have a deep respect for the opinions of Dr. Ron Walters.  More often than not, I have agreed with what I heard from him.  He is often uncompromising and unflinching in his analysis of politics as they pertain to black people.

So, when I saw that he weighed in on the discussion of an Obama presidency meaning the end of black politics (article here), I had to give it a read.

I was not disappointed.

In a nutshell, Dr. Walters, in sharp tones, expresses his views on why many eschew the struggle for social justice:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not universally loved by Black people and was hated and feared by many of the Whites who now put him on posters. The primary reason was that he and many of his generation made the White establishment and the Black who were connected to them uncomfortable with the maintenance of a system of practices built on a racist hierarchy.

The courage to challenge it by some in that generation was not universally exercised by most Blacks because they felt they had much to lose: jobs, prestige, friends and even the support of relatives. I can conceive of that being a major problem today when a larger Black middle class - which has always led the struggle for justice - now feels that so entrenched that it does not have to deploy the tactics of the past, not because they would not be successful, but because they would be personally vulnerable in the new corporate atmosphere, embarrassed, or lose the support of friends and relatives even more today.

He continues:

I understand the great yearning for Blacks who have reached the standard of American affluence not to have to mobilize to demand justice. But until justice comes, that will be their responsibility because they have access to greater resources than the poor. The myth that electing a Black president will resolve these problems, is created by some uncomfortable Blacks, the media and institutional leaders who pine for the emergence of non-confrontational Black leaders because they work within the systems they control.

We need institutional Black leaders, but they have other responsibilities. I remember that in the mid-1970s, the Congressional Black Caucus had to make a proclamation that they would hence forth not be considered civil rights leaders, but legislators, that they could not take on those kinds of issues and tactics. Their task was to pass the laws that either corrected or prevented them.

It is still true today. We need the division of labor in Black leadership to be understood and supported, especially by Blacks, even if the media does not. So, the only circumstance in which Black Politics disappears is if racism disappears, so that those who suffer from it need not take extraordinary measures to achieve justice. In this sense, we don’t live in a “post” anything era, because the challenges are still here.

Speak on it, Dr. Walters!

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