Black radicals and the Crisis of Black leadership

Among left-of-center Black activists, in the face of this crisis there is confusion, if not disarray. Some people are pinning all of their hopes on a Barack Obama victory in November as laying the foundations for turning the tide on this situation. Others, in discounting both the Obama campaign and a possible Obama presidency, are focused on the Cynthia McKinney candidacy as being the true voice for Black progressives and leftists, or they may be considering other campaigns, such as Ralph Nader’s.

A friend of mine recently discussed what he termed “professional commentators” as being the description of many alleged activists who are not or have not been involved directly in the everyday battles of our people, whether such battles are around police brutality or for organizing a union. I thought for a while about this expression and believe that there is some truth to this. On the one hand, commentary and analysis are absolutely critical. If we have no framework in order to understand what is going on, our actions will be aimless.