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Confused Black leaders must go in 2004

What do Michael Jackson and Colin Powell have in common? If you’re wondering where I’m coming from, maybe I should explain. As you already know, African American News & Issues strives for uniformity when it comes to recognizing milestones, therefore I found myself searching the mainstream media for news and issues to analyze that would comply with a New Year’s theme and also be relevant to Black America. But the mainstream media’s ongoing feeding frenzy on poor Michael Jackson leaves little space for anything else. Fact is, I ended up watching TV news, just to see if there had been anything new to report since the story first broke almost a month ago.

Other than the fact that Michael’s whole family is making the talk show circuit to proclaim their support of the weird manchild, the only thing that got my attention was when a talking head reported that Michael had not only reached out to the New Black Panther’s Quannell X, but also joined the Nation of Islam. Quite frankly, most African Americans simply feel sorry for Michael (because he’s so thoroughly confused), and could care less about his weird lifestyle. We gave him to mainstream America a long time ago. However, just as I was about to dismiss Michael’s trails and tribulations, as an issue to analyze, I just happened to spot a media advisory from the Black America’s Political Action Committee (BAMPAC), among my research material.
The July 29, 2002 news release caught my attention because U. S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s name stood out so prominently. And it suddenly occurred to me that Michael, “The King of Pop,” and Powell, the politician, had a lot in common. Before you call me crazy, please allow me to share this BAMPAC poll with you: “In a national poll of African American registered voters commissioned by Black America’s Political Action Committee, Secretary of State Colin Powell received an 80% favorable rating. This gave him the highest favorability rating among a list of African American leaders that included: Rev. Jesse Jackson (80%), activist Al Sharpton (51%), and National Security Adviser Condolezza Rice (41%). Rice experienced the largest surge in name recognition and favorable rating in this most recent poll.”

“Her name recognition has risen from 38% in 2001 to 59% in 2002. Dr. Rice’s favorable rating has risen from 17% in 2001 to 41% in 2002. In response to the poll findings, BAMPAC President and CEO Alvin Williams said, ‘The poll results illustrate that African Americans have a profound respect for the leadership Dr. Rice and Secretary Powell continue to display in the midst of the war on terrorism. Moreover, the poll illustrates that African Americans approval of leaders transcends party lines.” Since I really can’t think of anything Powell, or Rice, has done for Black America-- other than be token, “safe Negroes,” who know how to conform and perform within America’s discriminating, racist system--I immediately started researching the BAMPAC.
It came very clear where the poll was coming from, once I learned that Alan Keyes, a Black Republican, who futility ran for president in 1996 and 2000, founded the BAMPAC in 1994. He also was on the “Niggerwatch USA” web page’s list of “Wanna Be White Niggers, ” that we dared to publish a couple of years ago. I’m sure you remember that controversial headline that got several of our colorful racks thrown out of “we aren’t a monolithic people, who all think alike” Black businesses. After reading the news release, I decided an ideal head for this analysis would be, “Confused Black leaders must go in 2004,” to coincide with our New Year’s theme: “Black America Must Demand More In 2004” (see We Must Understand), that really speaks for itself.
Now, to answer the question: what do Michael Jackson and Gen. Powell have in common? Need we even explain how confused Michael is about his African ancestry? On the other hand, Powell is in that “Just happen to be Black” category. Come to think of it, when you listen to the mixed raced folks like Tiger Woods, they’re even more confused than Michael, who is hardly a leader unless you confuse popularity with leadership. Even so, when you really look at it, Michael has demonstrated more concern for Black America’s problems than Powell, who was called a “House Negro,” by Harry Belafonte. And he has yet to apologize. But we don’t have to look at Black faces (the mainstream media have put in high profile places), to find confused Black leaders who must go in 2004.

I would talk about Houston’s Black politicians, who were elected to represent predominately Black districts, but turned out to be friends of our new mayor, Bill White, but I’ll get too mad. High blood pressure aside, I get even more upset when I hear supposedly political astute Black people praising mayor-elect White for diversity, because he has selected a Hispanic as his Pro-Tem. What diversity? I remember when Hispanics were considered White and attended school with them, so don’t even go there with me. But that’s the kind of okey doke that has kept our leaders divided and confused for so long and we intend to address that issue many times in 2004.
In essence, it’s time for Black leaders to think from an old, time Black perspective.
We must stop allowing the mainstream media to confuse Black insiders with the Black community’s true leaders. And, God knows, that includes confused Black preachers, who obviously think they were called to pimp, rather than preach. Cutting to the chase: Confused Black leaders must go in 2004.