Time has an article online about the NAACP's need to refocus its mission and efforts. And since I have issues with the way they've worked since Ben Chavis days I was ready to dump on them, just a little.
When I saw they were talking to Michael Myers, my own focus shifted a bit.
He is a past member of the ACLU's Academic Freedom Committee, Affirmative Action Committee, Equality Committee, and Free Speech/Association Committee, and of various professional, not-for-profit, and civic organizations, including the advisory board of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Equal Opportunity. His other current board memberships include the America-Israel Friendship League; the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.); and The City Club of New York.
Note: past member. Brother got credentials out the yin-yang but became, shall we say, problematic in the early 90s...Newt Gingrich days. You may recall (or not, you young punks) that was when a lot of Black Conservatives got their start, and Meyers was right up front condemning "Black Racism." At this point I believe the organization consists on Meyers alone, and maybe someone that knows how to type.
What really set me off though was a quote from our new Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Gerald Reynolds:
"Racism is not a deal killer like it was in the '60s," Reynolds told TIME. "You can work around it."
You shuffling, buck-dancing, sell-out bastard.
Racism isn't a deal killer.
But it's a body killer. A spirit killer. A direct attack on our youth. Why the HELL should I have to work around someone being objectively fucked up?
And a new study by Syracuse University found that federal enforcement of civil rights laws fell drastically from 1999 to 2003. During that period, the number of cases prosecuted dropped nearly 50%, despite a steady number of complaints.
Nope. Not a deal breaker at all. It's apparently a deal maker for some.
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The NAACP needs to do a lot o
The NAACP needs to do a lot of things and, IMHO, has needed to do them long before the Ben Chavis dust up occured (I was not sympathetic to Chavis or his critics) but there are a large number of black people who have sufficient credibility within the black community to advance these arguments and Michael Myers is not one of them. In fact, relying on him to provide a critical analysis of the NAACP virtually assures that the folks who can actually influence this organization's direction will ignore him. He is not viewed as a "race man" in the traditonal and honorable meaning of this term but as a mouthpiece for elements outside of the black community whose primary interests lie in subordinating the black community's markedly different needs and interests to their own agenda. Michael Myers' undeserved prominence on this issue tends to reinforce my long held belief that the letters N-A-A-C-P stand for the National Association for the Advancement of Certain People because Myers has made a career out of criticizing this and other civil rights organizations.
BTW, did good brother Reynolds provide any specific guidance as to how an individual can work around racism? Perhaps, the new Civil Rights Commission will issue a pamphlet or guidebook to be distributed throughout the black community listing the various steps that a sister or brother might take to avoid the effects of racism. The pamphlet could be called "How To Work Around Racism or How Black Americans Can Stop Whining and Take Full Advantage of Living In A Free Society." Perhaps Br. Armstrong Williams can write the introduction since he seems particularly adept at recognizing the opportunities afforded black folks since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. Who knows? we may be entering a whole new era of good feelings along the racial divide. Introductory college courses in buck-dancing and shuffling may not be too far off.
Why the HELL should I have to
Why the HELL should I have to work around someone being objectively fucked up?
Because they're free to be fucked up and there's NOTHING you can do to alter that fact. The one thing you CAN do is provide exacting knowledge of what racism is and why one might work to escape that particular form of unconsciousness. i.e., you can set out the water, but you can't make anybody drink.