To Forge a Better NAACP

To Forge a Better NAACP
by Blair L. M. Kelley

What happened to the NAACP? It’s odd to think that the venerable and historic National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been reduced to a talking point in the national media cycle this week.

They received national attention in June when the Los Angeles chapter lodged a protest against a Hallmark card with a recorded message that they thought somehow insulted black women. Then in July, the national meeting of the NAACP issued a statement calling on the conservative Tea Party movement to “repudiate racist factions” in their midst, one year after many in the media and blogosphere had already pointed out evidence of racism during the health care reform protests. Then NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said they were “snookered” by a video posted by right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart that purported to show civil rights veteran and USDA official Shirley Sherrod “revealing her past racism.” Sherrod was really telling a story about her own transformation, from a person who wanted to aid poor black farmers, to a person who wanted to assist poor farmers no matter their race. The NAACP of today should be celebrating the work of people like Sherrod, not misunderstanding who she is.

Students frequently ask me questions about today’s NAACP. They ask if I think the NAACP is still necessary in today’s “post-civil rights” world. They ask what work the NAACP should be doing now. Many students dismiss the NAACP as old and ineffectual, out of touch with their generation. These incidents seem to reinforce this notion that the NAACP is spinning its wheels, late to point out injustice, or failing to address real crises while targeting the wrong people or imagined problems.

Part of the problem is that in contemporary conversation it seems like the NAACP has been painted into a racialized corner as an all-black organization that is somehow “reverse racist,” selfish, and self-interested. Many accuse the NAACP of lacking new ideas and new energy that can address what social justice should be in the 21st century. It might be a good time for the NAACP to remember its own history.

Read the Full Essay @ UNCPressBlog

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Blair L. M. Kelley is associate professor of history at North Carolina State University and author of Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson.

The Sherrod Effect

special to NewBlackMan

The Sherrod Effect
by Stephane Dunn

Once again, “race & politics” is the sensational topic of the moment. It’s a familiar story about some politically incorrect language deemed racist and even worse it seems, reverse racism. Only the tale that Sherley Sherrod related at an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet about her encounter with a white farmer twenty-four years ago was hijacked by Andrew Breitbart. Even worse, Ms. Sherrod was forced to “resign” instantaneously. As she describes, Sherrod was asked to pull over on the side of the road and offer her resignation as requested by the ‘White House.” The longtime civil rights organization that had honored her quickly condemned Sherrod. The whole shameful affair, exploding on a voting day in Georgia, says a lot about the problematic dramas playing out around race and politics in the media.

Neither Sherrod’s USDA superiors, the White House, or the NAACP invested in the little research that would have led to the white farmer in question and the full video of Sherrod’s tale and speech. If they had, the truth could’ve spared them the backtracking and the embarrassment of looking like what they appear: terrified of the right and a reverse racism charge.

President Obama has the unique distinction of being president while being black and therefore continuously suspect. While former white presidents presumably had no trouble with making unbiased decisions regardless of their whiteness, Obama must prove that his racial identification doesn’t impact his thinking or his decision making. It’s a futile struggle as his detractors and his conservative political foes have already branded him, some suggesting he’s at turns anti-Semitic and racist.

In recent years, the NAACP has grappled with its own PR problem battling internal woes and leadership issues as it struggles for an effective twenty-first century identity. Both Obama and the organization share a side of the same dilemma; both want to convey their commitment to helping diverse oppressed people and building coalitions across racial and religious lines but at the same time, the NAACP needs to still be a relevant voice for black people while Obama is fighting to be taken as a sincere for-everybody man and not look threateningly black. This makes them easy prey for a Sherrod debacle particularly in a technological era that allows any average person the wherewithal to manipulate images, sound, and time according to their political intent and allegiances.

The key is to avoid becoming merely reactionary puppets on strings and not be held captive by every potentially controversial clip or speech that finds its way on television or the web. It is too easy to get caught up in the continuous media play that holds race hostage to the political machinations of the moment. This also takes space and attention away from having useful public dialogues about contemporary racial problems and the insidious play of racial politics that has only intensified in the battle for political power post-Obama’s election.

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Stephane Dunn, Ph.D, MFA, is currently an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Morehouse College. She has also taught at Ohio State University. A scholarly and creative writer, she specializes in film, popular culture, literature and African American studies. She is the author of articles and commentaries and the book, Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films (University of Illinois Press 2008). She can be reached at musesd@netzero.com.

Don't Call It a Comeback: Van Jones

On the eve of accepting top honors at the NAACP Image Awards, the former “green jobs czar” defends his record and talks comeback.

Van Jones Sets the Record Straight
by Sheryl Huggins Salomon

Tonight’s NAACP Image Awards telecast isn’t just about recognizing black Hollywood. The group is giving its President’s Award to Van Jones, the erstwhile national “green jobs czar” who was forced out of the Obama administration last year after he became a lightning rod for right-wing ire.

Jones, 41, may be “the most misunderstood man in America,” said NAACP president Benjamin Jealous in an op-ed released to media outlets earlier this week. In it, Jealous cited Jones’ instrumental role in passing the 2007 Green Jobs Act, and his help initiating the Oakland Green Jobs Corp. targeting low-income Californians.

“The real Van Jones story is about how a young leader became the father of the green jobs movement …. Far from the divisive caricature painted by some cable news outlets, Van has been one of America's most effective and inspiring bridge-builders.” Jealous also said.

For Jones, getting the award is the latest step that he has taken to kick off the next phase of his career. “I am looking forward to reintroducing myself to the American people and that’s exciting to have that opportunity,” he told The Root in an exclusive interview. Another step will be leading the Green Opportunity Initiative for the Center for American Progress. He’ll also be a distinguished visiting fellow at Princeton University's Center for African American Studies at its Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The world will find that although Van Jones is looking for a second chance at public service, he’ll vehemently defend his record to date against all comers. Here’s what he told The Root on the eve of accepting the NAACP President’s Award:

Read the Full Interview @ The Root

The Demise of the Black Middle Class?

The Destruction of the Black Middle Class
by Barbara Ehrenreich and Dedrick Muhammed

To judge from most of the commentary on the Gates-Crowley affair, you would think that a "black elite" has gotten dangerously out of hand. First Gates (Cambridge, Yale, Harvard) showed insufficient deference to Crowley, then Obama (Occidental, Harvard) piled on to accuse the police of having acted "stupidly." Was this "the end of white America" which the Atlantic had warned of in its January/February cover story? Or had the injuries of class -- working class in Crowley's case -- finally trumped the grievances of race?

Left out of the ensuing tangle of commentary on race and class has been the increasing impoverishment -- or, we should say, re-impoverishment -- of African Americans as a group. In fact, the most salient and lasting effect of the current recession may turn out to be the decimation of the black middle class. According to a study by Demos and the Institute for Assets and Social Policy, 33 percent of the black middle class was already in danger of falling out of the middle class at the start of the recession. Gates and Obama, along with Oprah and Cosby, will no doubt remain in place, but millions of the black equivalents of Officer Crowley -- from factory workers to bank tellers and white collar managers -- are sliding down toward destitution.

For African Americans -- and to a large extent, Latinos -- the recession is over. It occurred between 2000 and 2007, as black employment decreased by 2.4 percent and incomes declined by 2.9 percent. During the seven-year long black recession, one third of black children lived in poverty and black unemployment -- even among college graduates -- consistently ran at about twice the level of white unemployment. That was the black recession. What's happening now is a depression.

Read the Full Essay @ The Huffington Post

NPR: Is the NAACP Still Relevant?

from NPR's Talk of the Nation

Is The NAACP Still Relevant?

Talk of the Nation, February 16, 2009 · While the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, better known as the NAACP, helped end lynching and fought segregation and discrimination, some people are questioning its relevancy on its 100th anniversary. With Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP and Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African & African-American Studies at Duke University.

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