There is now a period in our life this new generation where we as African-Americans have to find new leadership. Times have changed and some of the old leaders have dwindled. Although the fight has remained the same, corporations and other entities have bought the leaders and influenced their decision making. The Black community is like a lost tribe and is being pulled in every direction where no one person has a direct line to the issues of the community. We have high gun violence, a high murder rate, high robbery rates and a high incarceration rate within our community, with very little highlights to show for it.
We also have a high amount of police brutality among our youth and others in our community, which often goes unaccounted for. The Black community is victimized like no other, and has been for some time now. We used to have leaders that would stand up and fight for the rights of our community. Leaders who would come together for the greater good, and put political and religious differences aside. We had leaders who would not sell their community out for a chance at being famous and talk from both side of their mouths.
What we have today are snake oil salespersons that peddle their wares to the community, which gives the community a crutch or excuse to use, that ultimately pulls the fight out of the people and in essence has them rely on the snake oil salesman’s thought process. These people only take from the very community they claim they want to empower. How can you lead when your only goal is to make money and get rich from exploiting the ills of the community without offering any solutions? It’s easy to tell the people to stand together and become united but when the community looks out and watches it’s so called leaders fight and bicker among themselves it’s just words to them and a process the people want no part of.
The days of strong black leaders such as Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther king Jr., Nat Turner, Huey Newton, Bobby Seal Fredrick Douglas and Marcus Garvey are long gone. The people that have been left to speak for the community have become the rappers and actors who will only go as far as not to compromise their money and earning prowess and men who would rather be in the lime light rather than truly lead. The leaders from the church become bound by the nonprofit stipulations that they face and essentially shuts them up and the community is left floundering.
We will continue to see things like the voting rights act rolled back because we have no voice to rail against the authorities. We will continue to have rouge police target our community and killed black young men without retribution. There will be laws such as stop and frisk that are passed because there is no leadership for the disenfranchised. In addition, our community will continue to be to cash crop of the justice system and prison system that we see today.
Dissatisfaction is the only thing that brings about change not reaction and emotion. Far too long now, we have been too emotional and have allowed ourselves to be so easily distracted. The community alone does not make a leader; a leader is born and is shaped by a community. It is time to stand up and fight against the plague of injustices in our community. In order for us to clean up our community, we should get serious about having true leadership. We need Black Leaders to step up!
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