Leon Jenkins has officially announced his resignation as the NAACP Los Angeles president after the nuclear fallout for selecting the rabidly racist Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for a second Lifetime Achievement Award in four years.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several days, you know Sterling has been banned for life from the very NBA team he owns (the Clippers) after his mistress leaked to TMZ private conversations filled with vile and repugnant language about black people and black players and other ethnic minorities.
It was unfathomable that Sterling received the first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 when you take into account the stacks and stacks of damning racial, ethnic and sexual discrimination documents and lawsuits brought against the 80-year-old curmudgeon.
And when the media found out about it — most particularly the ultra-popular sports personalities Stephen A. Smith and Jemelle Hill of ESPN — the NAACP was completely buried under avalanche of bad press and self-inflicted humiliation.
It was obvious that neither Jenkins nor anyone under his charge took the time to properly vet Sterling, this year — nor in 2009. They simply took his blood money, same as they did in 2009, and allowed him to purchase his good will among the black community in exchange for the crumbs that fell from his table and into the mouths of the Los Angles NAACP.
There was no other choice. The NAACP LA president had to go. Heads had to roll like bowling balls down Wilshire Boulevard for this epic failure of leadership, and the failure to conduct even the most rudimentary investigation into the the man they were giving their highest award to. And in the process this tsunami of a blowback splashed the NAACP with a black mark and effectively painted it as a rapacious, money-grubbing parasite of an organization that gives out awards to anyone who makes it rain over the NAACP with a few stacks of dollar bills.
Of course, that’s not reality, but that’s how its longtime critics view it and even its most loyal allies are aghast with mortification. You can curry favor and get painted in a positive light if you deliver an envelope with dollar bills, regardless of your crimes against humanity.
In his letter of resignation, Jenkins stated, “Please be advised that the legacy, history and reputation of the NAACP is more important to me than the presidency. In order to separate the Los Angeles NAACP and the NAACP from the negative exposure I have caused the NAACP, I respectfully resign my position as president of the Los Angeles NAACP.”
NAACP interim president and CEO Lorraine C. Millern accepted Jenkins’ resignation. The national office of the NAACP is developing guidelines for its branches to help them in their award selection process.
It is the right move for an organization that has been asked repeatedly in recent years — it was founded in 1909 by the brilliant W.E.B Du Bois and others — if it remained relevant. In order for it to sustain that relevance, it must first clean up the debris caused by the implosion emanating from incompetence and laziness.
