The Rev. Bernice King has been elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Her election has been the biggest news to break out of the traditional civil rights organizations since the NAACP had a funeral for the N-word.
The reality is organizations such as the SCLC, the NAACP and others have marginalized themselves by doing little and expecting much. Moreover, corporations are complicit in this marginalization by not demanding transparency, efficiency or return on investment from these organizations that they fund to the tune of millions of dollars. The result is a patchwork of “civil rights” organizations whose mental and operational models are stuck in a time warp that is designed to do little more than continue to fund collective racial memories steeped in white guilt. In the meantime, too many Blacks that these groups ostensibly advocate for fall further into the social and economic swamp that will doom their families for generations.
According to the NAACP, “Heading into the 21st century, the NAACP is focused on disparities in economics, health care, education, voter empowerment and the criminal justice system while also continuing its role as legal advocate for civil rights issues.”
Yet the NAACP is studying the number of Blacks on television? In its report, “Out of Focus – Out of Sync Take 4: A Report on the Television Industry,” the NAACP has a stunning grasp of the obvious: there are more Whites than Blacks on television. They needed a study to tell them that?
The economic crisis means too many Blacks don’t have a home much less televisions. Perhaps NAACP researchers should consult the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which states that Blacks have a 15.4 percent unemployment rate compared with 9 percent for Whites.
Yet the NAAACP concerns itself with pontificating, perpetrating and pandering.
