If you watch mainstream media today, you know that every time a Black leader gets national media coverage for discussing issues that affect the Black community, he is often vilified as popularity increases. From Al Sharpton, Min. Louis Farrakhan and even President Obama, Blacks leaders are pigeonholed into what a “responsible” leader for the Black community should say and how he should behave. Blacks are relegated to only focus on leadership at the local level, while injustice increases on the national level.
This isn’t new and it has vexed the Black community since the days of leaders like Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and even Malcolm X. Both men during their time were subject to attacks, being called “troublemakers” and un-American by the media when they were alive. When they were killed and others tried to take up the torch for justice and equality, they were similarly attacked, such as Jesse Jackson and Rev. Benjamin Chavis.
Today, leaders such as Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are called “poverty pimps” and “race hustlers” because they expose the continued plight of poor blacks and the injustices of the White power structure. When they cry out because “Black Lives Matter,” they are met with responses that “All Lives Matter” and that Blacks are killing Blacks in the inner-city and that should be their focus. The issues the leaders wish to discuss are then belittled by conservative news shows on FOX News and by political pundits in conservative media outlets. The media then decides who the “real” and “acceptable” leaders are based upon rhetoric they find pleasing.
Black people soon unwisely tune-in and become disenchanted, looking for leaders to label “sellouts” and self-serving individuals who are out for money. But who started this dialogue that media determines who is acceptable to speak out on behalf of the Black community? The murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and others would have gone unnoticed if they weren’t brought to the national forefront by leaders such as Sharpton, Jackson and Farrakhan.
This negative labeling doesn’t stop at national leaders. Black protestors are labeled as thugs, animals and degenerates. Take for example the new crop of Black activists that are trying to arise out of the “Black Lives Matter” movement now being touted as a hate group over their peaceful protests. This movement does not patrol the streets with assault weapons like “Oath Keepers” or shout racial invectives against people like the “KKK” and yet Black Lives Matter is slowly being cast as a militant hate group.
Blacks in America are a diverse group of people with diverse issues and there is room for diverse leadership. Just as Donald Trump cannot be called a leader for all White people, the mantle of national Black leadership cannot be placed upon one person. When this occurs, the history of America killing the leader of a movement often results in the death of that movement. Like it or not, socially conscious Blacks must rally behind those few national Black leaders who are unafraid to confront injustice.
