Black Leadership Matters
The failure of the Black Equality movement was the failure of leadership to articulate a vision and plan to address racial inequality. Is the Black Lives Matter movement facing the same crisis? We have seen what was once a scrappy diffuse group take the place of legacy civil rights groups like the NAACP, Rainbow Push Coalition, UNCF, and so on after several high-profile police killings. In doing so they have taken on one of the most polarizing issues in American politics, criminal justice reform. Criminal justice is an issue that has plagued our community (I say this as a Black man) for far too long. The stats relating to the racial disparities in policing are appalling. Data on police use of force (a Minneapolis study found Blacks are 7 times more likely to have force used on them) and Sentencing (about 20% more) reform is needed.
I know there are prison abolition movements, defund movements, and other policy solutions none of that is holistic. The disperse and conflicting visions harm those we mean to help. What we need is not merely leaders willing to address the police and bring civilian control over the justice system, but we need justice brought to our communities. There is no reason that murder clearance rates are as low as they are in minority communities. (Chicago study shows about 1/2 murders involving a white victim are cleared compared to less than 1/4 for Blacks) We should not tolerate underperforming schools ( the average Black standardized test score 428 v.s average white 534), higher rates of crime, and lack of investments in our communities. Where are our leaders?
It’s unfair to say our leaders are simply giving lip service to these issues. They are making gains and securing investments. That said we need to hold their feet to the fire. Corporate America has pledged billions in grants to our community. Where is it going? Why is there a hold-up? It is often hard to track where the money is going. The difficulty in tracking allows leaders to receive a check and call it a day, this has to stop. These groups work for us. If Pepsi, Bank of America, Wallgreens, Rocket Mortgage, or The NFL are donating to our community through UNCF, BLM, and the NAACP we need to contact, call, and critique them as we would our politicians. They need to secure community investments (education, skills training, resume building, economic opportunities) We don’t need leaders panhandling Black America needs leaders to have the tough conversations and push results.
On the topic of tough conversations, the one we have to have is accountability. We have to want safe communities, higher standards for education, criminal justice reform. We can’t wait for others we have to be willing to do for ourselves. We need to vote. When you look at the local level in many Black majority cities we can dominate the elections or even areas with near parity in coalition with progressive voters. Blacks can change the school board if it isn’t performing, if the prosecutor is crooked we can vote him out if housing affordability is an issue we can vote for people more align with our views. We can use BLM, UNCF, Poor People’s Campaign, NAACP, or other organizations to help or amplify our voices but we need to keep them to account as we do ourselves. The Black equality movement 2.0 needs to express its class-conscious progressivism, merging racial justice issues and progressives issues to correct any remaining racial inequalities we face but equality as a whole. The more we bring into the fold the more we can achieve.
Racial Disparities in education.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/race-gaps-in-sat-scores-highlight-inequality-and-hinder-upward-mobility/
Racial Disparities in Use of force
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/03/us/minneapolis-police-use-of-force.html
Racial Disparities in sentencing
https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-differences-sentencing#:~:text=In%20contrast%2C%20there%20was%20a%207.9%20percent%20difference,male%20offenders%20who%20received%20a%20substantial%20assistance%20departure.
Racial Disparities in murder clearance
https://www.npr.org/local/309/2019/10/09/768552458/chicago-s-dismal-murder-solve-rate-even-worse-when-victims-are-black