Julian Bond, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Jesse Jackson and Marion Barry are not leaders. They do not talk about the complex problems that confront our communities. Instead they distill these complex issues into racially-charged sound bites that get their swollen faces on TV. This is not leadership. It's hype. And it encourages a sort of racial groupthink that conditions the public to think and act a certain way. Every black person in this country knows that he is not supposed to support Republicans. Does it matter that the Republicans are doing more to clean up our rotting schools and give our kids a sense of future possibilities? Apparently not. Apparently it is OK if a white person supports Republican reforms, but if a black person does, he is a racist.
Similarly, it's OK for a white person to be against affirmative action, but if a black person comes out and says programs like this are encouraging victim status and that this is inherently damaging, he is labeled and dismissed as a "racist." This is racial groupthink: we all have to think and act the same way, or we're called traitors. These cultural norms keep us in line. They ensure that the black community is the easiest voting block to control and to take for granted.
This is having a disastrous effect on the black community. Ever wonder why some black people succeed and others don't? How can you expect to do well, to thrive in society, if you are obsessed with racism? I see it all the time - black business people who refuse to even network with white people because they feel it makes them a sellout. This black groupthink has gotten to the point where we're willingly cutting off our own business opportunities. Limiting the amount of capital flowing into our community does not help us achieve progress. It just keeps us stuck on a dead-end street of self-righteous indignation.
Sellout is just a term that people use to enslave us and keep us distracted from real problems. Sure, racism exists. Look at the White House - it's the oldest white boys club in this country. But throwing your arms up and claiming racism does nothing to break down those racial barriers. You must invade these fields traditionally reserved for white men and break down stereotypes from the inside. This doesn't happen if we spend all of our time standing on the outside shouting racism.
Sadly, that's what our so-called leaders are encouraging us to do when they tout this myth of the angry black man who deserves justice. This myth is appealing because it acknowledges the horrible crimes that have been visited upon our community. But it is dangerous because it encourages us to alienate ourselves from the opportunities that exist. Even more dangerous is the fact that we have failed to produce a new mythology, a new set of images that might encourage our community to think of itself as something other than socially-alienated victims.
Until our leaders dispense with the groupthink and take a hard look at the problems facing our community, until they seek to embody a new mythology and break free from the myth of the forever victim, little will change.