In 1989 Spike Lee's monumental film 'Do The Right Thing' featured a video by the group Public Enemy called 'Fight the Power'. You remember the lyrics. Chuck D. said, "We've got to fight the powers that be." Today the following African American candidates are running for high office. They have the opportunity to be the powers that be, but I think the black electorate is still thinking the old way. And so the fate of the following five hangs in the balance.
- Michael Steele: US Senate - MD
- Deval Patrick: Gov. of Massachusetts
- Harold Ford Jr: US Senate - TN
- Lynn Swann: Gov. of Pennsylvania
- Ken Blackwell: Gov. of Ohio
What will the black electorate do to get them there? Not enough if this editorial from the Huffington Post by Lamell McMorris illustrates what's on their minds. (Emphasis mine)
In this midterm, black candidates have been garnering success by detaching themselves from the traditional trappings of black leadership. According to a USA Today cover story from last week, they are eschewing civil rights discussions, and valuing "pragmatism over ideology" in their campaign strategies.
I ask you, in this quest to be embraced by mainstream society, what is our community giving up?
A chance to help those who really need it.
Black men are foundering. A New York Times article printed in March of this year cited that half of all black men in inner cities do not finish high school. Seventy-two percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20s were jobless in 2004, and by their mid-30s, 60 percent of dropouts had been incarcerated. The numbers are completely disproportionate to those of other ethnic groups - and they continue to climb.
In Deval Patrick's stump speech, how much can he talk about the plight of black males? If he did, would he still be the candidate for all of Massachusetts? Can Barack Obama talk about not just hope, but also crisis in the inner city? Can Harold Ford Jr. march around Tennessee and address this topic?
None of these candidates are rookies. They have the qualities and experiences that have gained them the trust, support and money from their parties to be the leading candidates for these important offices in a mid-term election that is one of the most contested in decades. They aren't on a 'quest to be embraced by the mainstream', they're at the top of their game. They are seeking to be the top dogs of their states.
This seems to be beyond the ability of some to recognize. The expectations of these top dog politicians to guide the functioning economies of these states and to shape US policy is subordinated to the needs of those desperate few clinging to rhetorical hope?
This kind of position raises an important question about the crabs-in-a-barrel factor of black politics. Is African America at this point in our history willing to abandon support of these men for the sake of those who cannot graduate from highschool? I think that there are plenty more able candidates that will come forward in the years to come, but this year is a referendum on whether or not they should seek the support of the apparently sizeable fraction of the black electorate who see themselves in a zero-sum contest with the mainstream, whose focus in on inner-city crises and want to march and march and march.
Chances are that all those guys aren't going to realize their ambition to lead in the offices they have chosen to pursue. It won't be because they are not qualified. It won't be because they are black. But it may be because they don't have the support of an overwhelming majority of black voters. If so, it could be the death knell for black racial politics as we know it. Clearly, black folks are not united behind black candidates. The voices are clear who are saying that there should be different standards by which black candidates are judged and rewarded, and those voices are coming from the black electorate. That voice is saying, forget your America, deal with my America - the America of inner-city dysfunction. But the ghetto is not black America. That's a sad place for black political demands to be tied, especially considering that the majority of African Americans are already in the mainstream of the middle class. Apparently, there's not quite enough pride in that accomplishment, which is why folks like Lamell McMorris speak as they do - to remind black candidates, with a black voice, that the ghetto calls.
Civil Rights is done. Voting Rights are guaranteed. If anyone should know it, it is Deval Patrick who is not running for Civil Rights Commissioner, but Governor. He's already been in the Civil Rights business under Clinton. And now that Harvard lawyer has moved on. Shouldn't the rest of the black electorate?
There is a time and a place for everything under the sun. According to some blackfolks, the time for African American candidates to lead the country will not come until the ghetto is no more. Instead of being championed as leaders in the greatest nation on Earth, these candidates are rejected for not playing ghetto games. I think blackfolks will all come to regret the day in November 2006 when so many sat home pouting in antipathy to the uppity Negroes who dared to be great.
